Totext.net developers API has been customised to facilitate M2M monitoring

Posted by & filed under Bulk SMS, SMS Advice, SMS API, SMS Services.

The number of machines in the modern world is forecast to be eight times the human population by 2050 according to Detecon, an integrated management and technology company.

We have become so dependent on them in our modern world any failures, caused by power cuts, component failure or system overload can have serious consequences.

As our dependence on machines and IT in general continues to expand and businesses increasingly automate many system processes, monitoring these systems and machines is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly as workforces become more dispersed. The right person, at the right time, in the right place must be alerted if there is a problem or system failure.

SMS is being increasingly used for machine-to-machine monitoring for a number of different reasons:

  • SMS provides “always on functionality”
  • SMS is reliable – messages are delivered almost instantaneously
  • SMS is not dependent on a 3G connection – vital for mobile workforces located in rural areas
  • SMS is cheap

The totext.net online SMS service is being used for M2M monitoring by a number of different organisations in the UK and in response to a recent customer enquiry, we have taken M2M monitoring to the next level by adding customisable attributes to our developers API.

Our customers can now, for example, allocate their own reference number (generated by their overall management systems) to alert messages rather than have to use a generic reference generated by the database.

This facility is beneficial for safety-critical or time-sensitive applications where delays to SMS alerts being received could have disastrous effects. By implementing meaningful reference numbers to each alert, system managers can quickly compile a detailed audit trail of events by tracking what time a alert message was sent and, more importantly, what time it was delivered, in the event of a problem occurring.

Such detailed monitoring facilities also enable companies to analyse their processes and procedures to become more efficient in the way they operate.

SMS messages can be delivered to email inboxes, directly to a mobile phone, to online accounts, or to all three, depending on your preferences.

Our developers’ API is easy to install and integrates with most job management and tracking systems because it is open source. Further information can be found here.

If you want your M2M monitoring system to do something specific, then contact us because we specialise in customising our standard applications

Use email to SMS to generate sales leads and benefit from higher sales conversion rates

Posted by & filed under Bulk SMS, Email to Text, SMS Advice, SMS Services.

Use email to SMS for lead generation

Email has always been a popular choice for direct marketing campaigns and lead generation. In recent years, however, it has had to compete against a number of different communications methods, with social media being the most prevalent.

 

As Facebook and Twitter grows in popularity, thousands of companies are jumping on the social media bandwagon without really understanding its true potential in order to try and drive more traffic to their websites and generate leads.

 

An obvious communications channel that has, to a large extent, remained relatively untapped in the sphere of lead generation is SMS. Here at toText.net we find this really surprising considering the sheer number of mobile phones there are in circulation.

 

However, while email-based campaigns are no longer that effective, email provides a great mechanism for sending out and managing SMS-based campaigns. SMS messages can be sent out in bulk to individuals or predefined groups quickly and cost-effectively using existing email systems.

 

No plug-ins are needed and no training is required – all you have to do is integrate our SMS gateway with your email system, which can be done easily via our developers API.

 

The majority of people read their text messages as soon as they receive them. Consumers are also comfortable with replying to text messages because it is quick and they do not have to enter into a conversation. What’s more all replies can be monitored in real-time. If you take all these factors into consideration, SMS driven campaigns have the potential to generate good quality leads that can be followed up and converted into orders by your sales teams.

 

Below are more reasons why we believe SMS should play an important role in your direct marketing activities.

  • Concise -SMS messages are to the point. Any message that includes clearly visible information of what is on offer will encourage potential customers to respond if they are interested

  • Direct – SMS pushes itself directly in front of your customers. There are no buttons to click or apps to download.

  • Wide marketing reach – There are more mobile phones in circulation than any other technology device so the potential reach of your marketing messages are enormous

  • Personalised – Unlike other devices – mobile phones are very personal. By asking some intricate questions, it is possible to build up detailed profiles of potential customers.

  • Targeted – Accurate data allows you to carry out targeted marketing campaigns

  • Easy to manage – Because SMS messages are generated via email, your sales staff can manage all correspondence from a single user interface. Furthermore all SMS replies are delivered directly to the original sender and not to a centralised holding box, allowing them to develop a rapport with your customers.

Sending SMS messages via email is simple Type your message as normal, but instead of typing an email address in the “To” field, you type in the recipient’s mobile number followed by @totext.net.

 

Your message is then delivered to our servers where it is converted into an SMS format and forwarded to your customers.

 

Our customised software will also allow you to deliver email attachments (PDF messages for example) as SMS messages by extracting key information from the data source.

 

Why not see for yourself how email to SMS can help you increase sales by taking out a free no-obligation trial today.

 

Click here to find out more

League Republic use the toText.net inbound SMS service

Posted by & filed under Direct Response, Email to Text, New features, SMS News, toText.net News.

LeagueRepublic, a leading provider of online administration systems for managing sports websites, fixture scheduling and results systems, has integrated Slepe Communications’ inbound SMS application (online SMS technology) into its overall system management software.


Their software has been used to manage over 2000 professional and amateur leagues, since 2002. Up until last year, all match information and results could only be updated via the web, so if team secretaries had no access to the Internet or could not get a 3G signal (as is often the case), this information was often not available to the public until much later.


In order to enable clubs to update their results more quickly, LeagueRepublic decided to upgrade its administration software by incorporating SMS functionality into its overall system at no extra cost to its customers. Even the most basic handsets support SMS and this enhancement meant that results could be published within minutes of a game finishing.


The service has been available for just over 12 months and so far more than 15% of all UK leagues are using SMS to update their team’s results.


The service works as follows: fifteen minutes after the start of a game, team secretaries receive an SMS from Slepe Communications’ administration software reminding them to text in their result at the end of the match.


As soon as the match is over, team secretaries simply text a reply to the original message with the final score e.g. 3 2. The virtual numbers used to deliver the service are provided by Slepe Communications as part of the application. Its bespoke management software determines which results belong to which team using the virtual numbers, converts the SMS messages into HTML and delivers them directly to LeagueRepublic’s servers, where they can then be published and posted immediately.


Not only are results made available to the public almost instantaneously, there is also no charge to the end user for the reminder and the reply is the same cost as any standard UK text message and often falls within their contract package. LeagueRepublic has just signed a deal with Timpson.co.uk Trophies who will fund the SMS system and a 10% website discount code will be included within the reminder message.


Comments Dave Hathaway, Managing Director from LeagueRepublic: “when we decided to investigate the possibility of adding SMS to our system we looked at many different providers. We finally chose Slepe because they were competitively priced and took time to listen and understand our exact requirements.


We are pleased to be able to offer the SMS results system with our free service with funding from our SMS sponsor – Timpson.co.uk Trophies.”


Ranjit Singh, a landlord from Willenhall, who has been using LeagueRepublic’s software to manage his pool league for the last three years, decided to add SMS to his website at the end of last season. Now all 18 teams in the league update their results via SMS.


“It’s absolutely brilliant”, he explained. “When running a league like this you have to be able to provide results quickly so you don’t lose the interest of the teams. The administrators text their results as soon as the game is over and once I’ve had a chance to check them, I make them live, usually within 24 hours.


There were a few minor issues in the beginning, with results being posted the wrong way around, but now that everyone is familiar with it, it works really well and saves me a lot of time because I only have to verify the information.”


Comments Rob Jagger from Slepe Communications: “we are really pleased to know that our software is working well and is helping LeagueRepublic better engage with its customers. This type of market is very competitive and our software ensures that teams do not lose interest because results are updated automatically and made available to the public almost immediately.”


The service is proving to be very popular with pub darts and pool leagues and so far this year more than 111 leagues have decided add SMS as an option for updating their results.

Ends

About Slepe Communications

Slepe Communications is a dynamic, growing company based in Cambridge UK. Its staff has many years’ experience in the Internet and telecommunications industries, and are experts in designing, building and operating mobile Internet applications based on text messaging, web and Wi-Fi technologies.

About LeagueRepublic

LeagueRepublic are based in Wolverhampton and provide online sports administration systems to 2000 sports leagues worldwide, their clients include The Football Association Ltd.

Send PDF attachments as SMS messages using toText.net online SMS service

Posted by & filed under Email to Text, New features, Online SMS, SMS Advice, SMS News, toText.net News.

It can be challenging for vehicle hire or maintenance companies to operate efficiently and provide high quality after-sales service to their customers. Both factors, however, are vital to their success and in order to achieve this they are willing to invest in sophisticated job management and allocation software systems.

The majority of these systems use email as the primary communications method. All information relating to a particular job or order is uploaded onto the system and this is used to generate a unique job sheet. These are then sent to appropriate personnel (drivers or maintenance engineers, for example), often located in different geographical areas, as emails with PDF attachments.

Everything runs smoothly so long as the recipient has a Smartphone or a Wi-Fi connection. If they don’t, however, they may not receive important job information or updates until much later, and by then it may be too late to take further action.

Slepe Communications Ltd, operators of toText.net and providers of bespoke online SMS applications, has recognised the limitations of these systems and, as a result, has made a number of enhancements to its popular email to SMS service in order to overcome them.

The company’s SMS management software can now detect if a PDF document is attached to an email and if so extract relevant information such as the location and nature of the job from the data file and forward it to the recipient as an SMS.

If job information is included in the email itself, the software simply converts the message into a text format, giving companies the option to send information via SMS as well as email to ensure delivery.

The system has already been integrated with “CoachManager”, an online job management system supplied by Distinctive Systems and will integrate seamlessly with most other system interfaces via a developers API.
 
Coach and private vehicle hire companies have found the enhancement particularly useful because not all drivers have access to a 3G or wireless connection. In addition, they simply do not have the time to look through their emails and download job sheets when they are working.

The ability to send relevant job information via SMS and incorporating a “read receipt” facility means these companies can now be confident that their drivers receive the correct information immediately and are able to respond accordingly, making them more efficient as a result.

Comments Rob Jagger, Managing Director of Slepe Communications. “While Smartphones are growing in popularity, not everybody has one, and if 3G coverage is patchy, drivers might not even receive their job sheets. All drivers do, however carry a mobile phone and all phones support SMS. Furthermore, messages are delivered almost instantaneously even if the signal is poor.”

This enhanced email to SMS service could benefit many other industries, drainage or gas companies, for example, where it is vital that engineers receive their job sheets immediately to avoid problems that could affect public health and safety.

Ends

Slepe Communications Ltd is a dynamic, growing company based in Cambridge UK. Its staff have many years’ experience in the Internet and telecommunications industries, and are experts in designing, building and operating mobile Internet applications based on text messaging, web and Wi-Fi technologies.
 
The company is a member of the Mobile Data Association.

SMS notifications can benefit estate agents

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

Searching for a new home, either to buy or rent, is a time-consuming task and desirable properties are not on the market for long. When people are at work they have limited time to search for their dream home and property sites like Globrix or Rightmove are not always up to date.

 

It is hardly surprising then, that estate agents are increasingly using SMS as a means of alerting prospective buyers about available properties. SMS alerts are focussed and to the point because they are based on the buyer’s criteria, such as price range, location, number of bedrooms and so forth.

 

Unlike email, people do tend to read their text messages as soon as they receive them. Rather than be disappointed by missed opportunities, potential buyers can request further information or arrange a viewing as soon as a property goes on the market.

 

Keywords and shortcodes

Estate agents are also increasingly adding text short codes to their promotional material because SMS is an easy way of building up marketing databases. Mobile phones are very personal, so by asking the right questions it is possible to build up a detailed profile for each contact, and marketing campaigns can be extremely targeted as a result.

 

Appointment reminders

Not only are SMS alerts beneficial to perspective buyers, they can be invaluable to agents responsible for accompanied viewings. There is nothing more frustrating than turning up for a viewing only to find that the potential buyers have failed to turn up.

Many people simply forget they have arranged a viewing, especially if they have had a busy day, so scheduling an SMS reminder can benefit all parties. Potential buyers can rearrange or indeed cancel if they are no longer interested and estate agents can manage their time more efficiently.

 

Progress updates

Even when a property is under offer or has been sold there are still important deadlines to meet – deposit transfers, valuations, finance approval and so forth. SMS provides estate agents with an efficient and cost-effective way of keeping all parties updated as the sale progresses.

 

Rent reminders

SMS alerts are also useful to letting agencies. Not only is SMS an easy way of alerting tenants of available properties, it is also a great way of reminding them that their rent is due or that they are in arrears.

People are often embarrassed when they are late with payments. By incorporating a web-link, keyword or a phone number into the body of the message, tenants can make a call, visit the website or request to receive a call in order settle their debt anonymously.

 

Email to SMS

All of the above services can be carried out quickly and easily using our email to SMS service. Our clients use it because:

  • SMS messages can be sent and received via normal email packages
  • No special formatting is needed
  • Replies and delivery reports included FOC
  • Signatures and disclaimers are removed automatically
  • Long and short messages can be sent

In addition there are no setup costs and no monthly maintenance fees. You are only billed for the messages sent, which is a flat rate to any network worldwide.

 

Email to SMS also allows busy estate agents or housing officers to manage all their communications from a centralised point and they only receive replies intended for them.

Click here to find out more about how email to SMS could benefit your organisation.

Use email to SMS to improve customer service

Posted by & filed under Direct Response, Email to Text, Online SMS, SMS Advice, Web to text.

All businesses strive to provide their clients with good after sales-service, but providing consistently good customer service on a regular basis can be both expensive and time-consuming. During economic downturns existing customers often experience less than adequate customer service; sales personnel are so busy trying to secure new business they often forget about existing customers, believing they are too busy or lethargic to find alternative suppliers.

Not only that, there are so many different communications methods available to us – phone, post, email, social media – selecting the most appropriate method for different client groups is becoming increasingly challenging.

  1. The phone is time consuming – especially if you are constantly connected to voicemail
  2. Regular mail is too slow, very expensive and not very eco-friendly
  3. Social media can be damaging to your brand if sensitive issues such as complaints are not managed appropriately

In our digital age, however, it is fairly safe to assume that our customers own at least one mobile phone and that most offices use email for the majority of written correspondence. So why not combine the two and use email to SMS applications to give your customer service team an efficient and cost-effective way of keeping in contact with your customers using technology they are already familiar with?

Messages are written as normal emails and then converted into an SMS format so they can be delivered. Not only is it practical to use email to SMS to communicate with your clients from a time-management point of view, it is also extremely cost-effective.

All replies are delivered to the sender’s email inbox, so your staff can manage all their correspondence from a single centralised point.

Below is our top 10 list of email to SMS applications:

  1. Financial information – SMS is a great way to keep clients updated about stocks and shares, giving them time to sell or reinvest

  2. Sports results – Loyal fans instantly know the results of important matches. What’s more, they are often willing to pay a premium to receive this information

  3. Invoice reminders – Credit control departments can quickly send SMS alerts to all overdue accounts. What’s more, these types of messages can be personalised to include your client’s name and the exact amount owed

  4. Insurance reminders – Postal reminders are often overlooked due to the amount of junk mail we receive. SMS reminders will also help your organisation reduce its overall carbon footprint

  5. Delivery notices – Advising your clients in advance of expected delivery times mean they are more likely to be in to receive them and your drivers do not need to make multiple delivery attempts

  6. Traffic updates – People can make alternative arrangements if they are aware in advance of traffic problems

  7. Birthday reminders – Automated text alerts will prevent you from missing important birthdays -nephews nieces, in-laws etc

  8. Email forwarding – By forwarding emails to mobile phones remote staff will always receive important messages, even if there is no 3G signal

  9. Appointment reminders – No-show appointments are expensive and can be reduced by as much as 70% using SMS alerts

  10. Voicemail notification – A simple text alert means you will never miss out on a business opportunity

All of the above services can be carried out using email to SMS. No plug-ins are needed, there is no need to download any special software.

In addition if you send in excess of 25,000 SMS messages on a monthly basis you’ll also benefit from wholesale SMS prices.

Organisations across the UK are using our email to SMS application to provide their clients with better customer service. Why not sign up to a FREE trial and find out how email to SMS can benefit your organisation?

Our Top Ten Bulk SMS applications

Posted by & filed under Bulk SMS, Direct Response, SMS Advice, SMS Services.

SMS continues to be one of the most popular and cost-effective ways of keeping customers updated.  All mobile phones support SMS functionality and, unlike many Smartphone apps, it is not reliant on a 3G signal and, unlike other forms of e-communication, people do read their text messages.

With more than 50 million mobile phones in circulation in the UK alone and with mobile penetration exceeding 130% in Western Europe, the marketing reach for SMS based promotional campaigns is enormous.

While most business mobile contracts include “unlimited texts” as standard, in reality this means a fair-use policy of around 300 messages per month. If you frequently send more than 100 SMS messages per day, it is more economical and reliable to send your messages in bulk using an SMS aggregator.

Not only that, it is more cost-effective and efficient to keep in contact with customers and colleagues by SMS than by phone. By taking advantage of bulk SMS applications you can significantly cut back on the number of routine phone calls you make on a daily basis, reduce the number of queries you receive and free up staff time so they so they can undertake more fulfilling tasks.

Because it is so easy to setup and manage bulk SMS services using readily available online applications, we thought we’d share with you our top ten bulk SMS applications.

1. Promotional campaigns – Mobile phones are very personal, allowing you to build an accurate profile of your customers. Using this information, you can then carry out targeted campaigns to particular demographic groups – e.g. a special promotion on wedding dresses for unmarried females or information about holiday clubs for parents with young children.  Targeted campaigns result in higher conversion rates.

2. Payment reminders –Free up resource by reducing the number of phone calls you make to customers reminding them an invoice is overdue or that their rent is in arrears by setting up an online SMS reminder service.

3. Delivery information – SMS is a great way of informing customers of an expected delivery time. By including a “reply” facility (allowing customers to requesting an alternative delivery time, for example) you will cut back on the number of wasted journeys.

4. Appointment reminders – the NHS loses millions as a result of people failing to turn up to appointments. SMS is an effective way to remind people of routine appointments. By embedding reply facilities, you can give customers the option to cancel if they no longer need the appointment.

5. Time-sensitive alerts – SMS is the quickest and easiest way to inform a large group of people – parents, for example, that school will be closed due to bad weather.

6. SMS broadcast – This is the quickest way to communicate general information to a particular group of people – sports teams, for example, telling them a match has been cancelled or rescheduled.

7. Calendar reminders – Not everyone has a Smartphone with a synchronised calendar.  Sending employees SMS reminders of their daily meetings or appointments will improve your organisation’s efficiency.

8. Machine to machine alerts – SMS is a highly efficient way of alerting support engineers of a server or storage problem.

9. Business continuity – In the event of an incident occurring, how long would it take you to implement business continuity facilities? Using SMS to facilitate your business continuity
procedures will help minimise downtime and loss of revenue.

10. Voicemail notifications – Integrating SMS functionality into your overall communications infrastructure means you will never miss out on a business opportunity.

We provide bulk SMS facilities to a wide range of different industries and unlike our competitors we also provide personalised a replies facility with all our services at no extra cost. This means you can add a personal touch to campaigns because replies to received messages are delivered directly to the original sender and not a central mailbox or holding account, allowing you develop a rapport with your clients.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

The importance of personalising SMS replies

Posted by & filed under Email to Text, Online SMS, SMS Advice, SMS Services, toText.net News, Web to text.

Our digital era is having a huge impact on the way young people communicate. They have a whole variety of different technologies (Smartphones, games consoles, computers) at their disposal that allow them to interact with each other in many different ways. With more than 80% of 11 – 25 year olds actively using at least one social network site on a daily basis, anyone involved in youth work must embrace these changes if they want to engage with this generation.

The majority of teenagers prefer “hanging out” virtually from their bedrooms rather than going to a physical location. As this becomes increasingly the norm, unless those people who engage with young people are accessible via Facebook, they stand little chance of being able to reach their targeted audiences to promote local events, provide information about sporting events or simply keep in contact with their squad.

Promoting events and activities via social networks is one thing but getting people to turn up is another. Many sports clubs and other organisations, however, have found that SMS reminders about forthcoming activities can complement such online campaigns because it SMS is an easy, yet unobtrusive way to engage with young people.

SMS alerts are also an effective way of providing advice and guidance on wide range of youth-related issues such as health, crime, and drugs.

These types of services work very well because SMS is an easy way to reach a large audience, it is cost effective, messages are delivered straight away and are generally read as soon as they are received. But what happens if a young person sends a reply to one of these received messages?

In the majority of cases, replies to bulk SMS notifications are forwarded to a centralised mailbox or holding number, so the young person may not receive a reply until much later on, once the messages have been sorted.

Our SMS notification service allows organisations to send out bulk messages, but unlike many of our competitors, we also offer a personalised replies facility at no extra cost. This means that all replies are delivered directly to the original sender, allowing them to immediately begin private conversations with these young people, thus developing a rapport and obtaining their trust.  Not only that, message senders only receive replies intended for them.

The service works using a pool of shared sequential numbers that are accurately mapped to a sender ID (youth worker or football coach, for example) and a receiver ID (a young person’s mobile phone) by our SMS data management software.

If our SMS software is unable to deliver a reply (due to poor network coverage or incorrect number details, for example), it automatically sends a message to the sender, advising them to use an alternative means of communication.

Our personalised replies service is also beneficial to other industry sectors – temping agencies or estate agents, for example. In both these cases office staff are in regular contact with the same groups of people on a regular basis and two-way dialogue is commonplace.

As with all SMS applications, our personalised replies service can be integrated with existing communications infrastructures via a developers API.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

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SMS based appointment reminders

Posted by & filed under Direct Response, Email to Text, New features, Online SMS, SMS Advice, Web to text.

Missed NHS appointments cost the Government and ultimately the taxpayer in excess of £6million per annum, according to industry statistics. Patients believe the blame lies with the NHS – letters not being sent out in time, not being able to cancel or change the appointment because phone lines are busy or never answered, or stuck in an automated loop. The NHS on the other hand believes the blame lies with the general public because they never bother to cancel or reschedule their appointments.

Significant cost savings could be made and time wasting could be avoided if doctors’ surgeries, outpatient departments, dentists and specialist clinics made more use of SMS, as recent trials have demonstrated.

Barts and the London NHS Trust have recently deployed an automated online SMS service in their outpatients department, to remind patients about their forthcoming appointments because reports showed that over 94, 000 appointments were missed in 2009. The first reminder message is sent two weeks in advance and the second reminder is sent three days before the scheduled appointment.

If the appointment is no longer needed or convenient, patients can cancel or reschedule simply by sending a reply to the text.

Aberdeen City Council has also recently adopted a text messaging alert service to remind its social housing tenants about maintenance or repairs due to be carried out on their properties. The Council sends its tenants an SMS the day before so they do not forget and if there is a problem they are requested to get in touch by replying to the message.

Considering that more than 98% of 20 – 29 year olds and 89% of all men in the UK own at least one mobile phone, you would think that more public sector organisations would be making use of automated SMS services.

Health visitors could remind mums about their childrens’ vaccinations, community nurses could remind the over 60s about their flu jabs, housing officers could remind tenants that their rent is due, maintenance staff could remind tenants that their meters need to be read – the possibilities are endless.

The cost of sending an SMS message is significantly cheaper than the cost of a first class stamp or a phone call made during the day, particularly to a mobile number.
Text messages are delivered almost immediately and, unlike other forms of communications, the majority of people do respond to their texts straight away. Not only that, sending a reply essentially costs nothing because most phone contracts include a certain number of free texts as standard.

Automated SMS reminders can also benefit other industries – informing drivers their car is due for a service or MOT, for example. It’s good customer service as far as the owner is concerned and it’s  cost effective for the garage because  they can keep their contact list up to date with minimum effort or resource.

Our online SMS facilities are really easy to set up and, by deploying one of our services, you would benefit from significant cost savings almost immediately. There is no software to download because you manage your account online and no training is required.

You can upload your appointment spreadsheet onto our servers quickly and easily and schedule single or multiple reminder messages to be sent on specific days and times.

Unlike other providers we also offer a “personalised replies” facility as part of our standard package. This service ensures all your replies are delivered directly to the original sender, allowing them to immediately begin private conversations and start building relationships.

Many organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors are saving themselves money by deploying out online texting services.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

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Using SMS in emergencies

Posted by & filed under Direct Response, Email to Text, SMS News, SMS Services.

Using SMS in emergency situations has always carried a certain element of risk, primarily because mobile operators always give priority to voice, but changes to EU regulations with regards to telecommunications in May this year will mean that access to the emergency services must be made as flexible and as inclusive as possible. This means making 999 accessible to the hearing and speech impaired who have struggled until now.
A UK-wide emergency SMS pilot, championed by the RNID, was launched in 2009 and ran until the summer of last year. The service allows pre-registered users to send an SMS to a 999 number. Once delivered it is converted into a voice message and forwarded to the fire service, ambulance or police, depending on its nature.
At the end of the pilot there were more than 4000 registered users and the service has already handled over 300 emergency calls.
While Ofcom has announced it wants to make the service mandatory, there are still limitations associated with it in emergency situations, primarily because it lack spontaneity and you have to register in advance to use the service. Emergencies don’t often give you that luxury.

In the autumn of last year we were involved in developing a niche emergency SMS application for a participant of the infamous Mongol rally. Our brief was to develop an application that was cost effective and would guarantee the delivery of all messages sent. This was important because, unlike conventional rallies, the Mongol rally does not have backup or support teams so if you get stuck or find yourself in trouble, you’re really on your own.

In order to overcome the uncertainties associated with delivery (due to phones being switched off, poor signal etc), we made modifications our popular email to SMS application, turning it on its head so it became an SMS to email application.

Our bespoke software converts SMS messages into email formats and delivers them accordingly. Our servers are connected directly to the mobile networks so delivery failure, due to poor coverage or phones being turned off, is eliminated.

If a recipient’s PC, iPhone or other mobile device is switched off then messages may not be seen until much later, but they are delivered immediately – recipients need to make sure they read them.
The opportunities for such an application are enormous, particularly for people who are working in countries where freedom of speech is limited.

Take Libya or Bahrain as examples – our solution would  allow aid workers or news reporters to discretely yet quickly send a message to the outside world saying they were in need of urgent assistance, or simply to keep us updated about what’s is going on.

Our application is not only reliable, it is also extremely cost effective because it works with  “Go-Sim“ SIM cards – where prices are fixed.
Hugh Gibaud, who initially trialled the pilot service said: “To be honest, I was very sceptical at first because I did not think it would be possible to get a signal in the middle of the Gobi desert, but you can and I was extremely glad.”

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

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