Send Multi-Modal Business Communications Through the Customer Portal

Send Multi-Modal Business Communications Through the Customer Portal

EmailToVoice.Net provides a seamless way to make alert voice phone calls and to send rich content SMS messages. This is done by merely sending an email. However, it is important to not disregard how easy it is to send TTS, recorded Voice, and SMS messages using the Customer Portal in EmailToVoice.Net.

Customer Portal

QUICK SMS

You can send Quick SMS messages to a list of phone numbers by using the Customer Portal.

  • Step One: Enter the cell phone numbers that are to receive the message. The only field that must be filled in is the Mobile Number field.
  • Step Two: You can optionally enter an SMS reply number. This is for International (not USA or Canada) numbers. If you need an SMS reply number for the USA or Canada, Contact Us
  • Step Three: Enter your messages. Your SMS message can be a maximum of 1071 text characters. Messages between 160 and 306 characters will be charged as two messages; each extra 153 characters after that will be charged as an extra SMS message.

On the next screen, you can merely hit SUBMIT if you want the message to be sent out immediately. However, there are other options available for you to schedule the job to be released on a specific day and time.

 

 

 

Create Escalation or Sequential Lists – SMS, TTS, Recorded Voice, Email, and FAX

You are able to use the Customer Portal to set up lists. These lists can be simultaneous or sequential escalation lists. You can have the messages sent to all recipients in the list at effectively the same time. Or you click the ‘escalation list’ box and have the messages sent one at a time until a person answers and listens to the message for 10 seconds. The Escalation lists are for TTS and prerecorded voice messages.

 

 

 

 

Send to Lists SMS, TTS, Recorded Voice, Email, and FAX

You can send a new message broadcast to a predefined list in the Customer Portal. You will be guided through the setup step by step. The message can be SMS, TTS, Recorded Voice, Email, and FAX.

 

Features of the Customer Portal

The Customer Portal has many useful features for an enterprise to manage a no-code solution for business messaging. For instance, you can see the real-time status of jobs submitted through EmailToVoice.Net, change details in Customer Profile settings, create distribution lists, and much more.

Here is a quick summary of the capabilities of the EmailToVoice.Net Customer Portal

  • View All Jobs: The customer can view summary and detailed information on messages that have been sent through EmailToVoice.Net. Specific date ranges or a specific job number can be specified.
  • Manage Personal Lists: The customer can setup distribution lists, which are then referenced by the LISTS tag in the content of the email for sending TTS or SMS messages to a group of recipients.
  • New Broadcast: The customer can send a TTS, SMS or Email messages to one or more recipients directly from the Portal
  • Quick SMS: A customer can send a Quick SMS message, one-way or two way, to one or more recipients directly from the Portal
  • Manage Opt-Outs: The customer can specify a phone number that is never to be sent through the customer’s account. This is useful for phone numbers that have changed and should no longer be used. This is useful when an employee leaves the company and their personal cell phone number remains in lists.
  • My Details: The customer can change profile settings, such as company address, email address or main account phone number. This includes the customer’s account password. To learn more about the very useful fields in the profile, refer below.

More than Email To Voice

EmailToVoice.Net does more than send Voice and SMS messages via an email interface. You can use the Customer Portal to quickly send SMS messages or you can create Lists and use the Customer Portal to send email, Fax, SMS, TTS, and prerecorded Voice messages. Explore the Customer Portal and learn about the advanced capabilities of EmailToVoice.Net. Or just Contact US and let us know what you want to do. Our Solutions Architects will get on the phone with your project coordinator and work out all the details. We want you to be successful and we can help you achieve that.

Author

Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications. LinkedIn

 

2020 Recap of EmailToVoice.Net New Features and Added Value

2020 Recap of EmailToVoice.Net New Features and Added Value

Let’s take a look back at the customer value we added in 2020 to EmailToVoice.Net. We continue to grow because of our global customer base. They know exactly what they need to provide mission-critical business communications for their alert services, value chains, and supply chains. We listened, and are still listening.

Customer Portal

Our customers requested the ability to look at their job activity in real-time. We provided them a customer portal. The customer can now login at any time and view jobs, add recipient lists and so much more.

Here is a quick overview of some of the capabilities of the EmailToVoice.Net Customer Portal

  • View All Jobs: The customer can view summary and detailed information on messages that have been sent through EmailToVoice.Net. Specific date ranges or a specific job number can be specified.
  • Manage Personal Lists: The customer can setup distribution lists, which are then referenced by the LISTS tag in the content of the email for sending TTS or SMS messages to a group of recipients.
    • Multiple Recipients
      Multiple Destinations in the TO Field

      Multiple destinations can be specified in the TO field by separating them with a “#”. IE;:
      2145551234#2145551235#2145551236@tts.message-service.org
      OR, multiple destinations can be entered as multiple full email addresses:
      “2145551234@tts.message-service.org, 2145551235@tts.message-service.org

      NOTE: When stringing destinations in the TO field of the Email, there is a standard general length restriction of about 64 characters for the TO field.
      NOTE: The type of messages, such as TTS or SMS, cannot be mixed in a single message.

      Multiple Destinations in the Email Content

      Multiple Destinations can be In the body of the message in the following format:
      <Numbers>
      2145551234
      2145551235
      2145551236
      </Numbers>

      NOTE: The destination phone numbers are included in the body of the message. So, the TO field should be: msg@tts.message-service.org

      Multiple Destinations Using a Pre-Loaded List (Manage in Customer Portal)

      Multiple Destinations can be through pre-setup lists by using the format:
      <Lists>
      First ListName
      Second ListName
      </Lists>

      NOTE: These lists are created and loaded through the Customer Portal
      NOTE: The TO field should be: msg@tts.message-service.org

  • New Broadcast: The customer can send a TTS, SMS or Email messages to one or more recipients directly from the Portal
  • Quick SMS: A customer can send a Quick SMS message, one-way or two way, to one or more recipients directly from the Portal
  • Manage Opt-Outs: The customer can specify a phone number that is never to be sent through the customer’s account. This is useful for phone numbers that have changed and should no longer be used. This is useful when an employee leaves the company and their personal cell phone number remains in lists.
  • My Details: The customer can change profile settings, such as company address, email address or main account phone number. This includes the customer’s account password. To learn more about the very useful fields in the profile, refer below.
    • My Details

      Choosing the My Details section will provide the customer with the ability to change the password and other fields within the customer’s account profile.

      Some more commonly used fields for TTS (Text To Speech) are:

      Timezone: You can select the most appropriate timezone. This is used for reports.

      Additional Report Emails: You can specify an additional email address to receive the detailed email reports. These are the emails you receive in your main email address on your account every time a message is sent through your account.

      Default TTS Voice: You can select a different voice from the list to be used for your messages. American English is the default.

      TTS Message Prefix: You can raise or lower the speed of the voice. However, we recommend the default speed, as set here.

      Additionally, you can also add a Header message to identify yourself as the organization that is calling. This Header Message is not repeated. For instance, this field looks like this during the Free Trial. When a Trial Customer becomes a customer by providing their credit card on file, we remove the Header Message. This message also demonstrates the creative ways you can use punctuation to make your message sound good.

      \speed=26 The following message, is being delivered to you! through, Email To Voice, messaging cloud service!

      Email To Broadcast -Subject Field Behaviour: The Subject Name of the email is used as the EmailToVoice.Net Job name. However, you can choose to either concatenate the Subject Field to the message or have the Subject Field the entire message.

Enterprise SMS for Mission-Critical Applications

Businesses have been asking for the ability to send large amounts of formatted information to mobile phones. We have accomplished this by utilizing LinkInSMS.  RCS and MMS have long been attempting to provide a solution while never actually achieving widespread adoption. Enterprise SMS from EmailToVoice.Net uses ubiquitous Email, SMS, and HTTPS to seamlessly meet the needs of the enterprise’s mission-critical requirements.

EmailToVoice.Net provides the ability to send formatted data to a cell phone using SMS from monitoring software or business applications. Messages with the formatting requirements of an HTML Web Page can be automatically sent to just about any cell phone in the world as easily as sending an email.

Enterprise SMS is a feature of EmailToVoice.Net, which creates a custom HTML Web page from your business email alert and then delivers it as a simple SMS message. For each SMS recipient, a custom web page is created and inserted in their SMS text message, allowing viewing of the page of HTML with a simple tap. This allows a single text message to communicate large amounts of formatted data.

To send an Enterprise SMS message,

  1. the TO field merely needs to have the recipient’s phone number and specific email domain provided by EmailToVoice.Net.
  2. Our cloud-based messaging service will convert the email content into a custom web page and insert the link of the automatically created Web page into the text message.
  3. The recipient can then tap the link in the text message and see the entire email content formatted as a Web Page on their smartphone.

The Email Fields would look like this:

TO: 5551231234@linkinsms.message-service.org       (The recipient’s cell phone – no preregistration required)
FROM: emailaddress@yourcompanydomain.com    (Subscribed to EmailToVoice.Net)
SUBJECT: Anything (Used as a job name for reporting purposes)

The content of the email is converted to an HTML Web page. The Web page of data is hosted by our service and a link to the Web page is substituted into the outgoing SMS text message so that the recipient can easily view the data with a tap.

Integrating Enterprise SMS with Business Applications

The implementation of industrial communications is critical for premier customer support, business continuity, and process efficiency. However, integration projects can become a major effort. Sending large amounts of data with special formatting from monitoring software or directly from an IoT device to a phone could require program development with specialized hardware and software. Connections to smart devices, CRM, PCS or ERP systems need to go through complex API’s or propriety software gateways.

Parsing Message Content

The Customer Portal has provided us a means to deliver many new features and capabilities to the customer. One is the ability to convert only the middle part of the message of a Text to Speech (TTS) voice or SMS message when using EmailToVoice.Net. This is done with no coding.

The customer can designate the beginning and end of all messages by logging into the Customer Portal and then going to My Details / Change My Details. The fields in the account details are

Email to Broadcast-Start of Message Text:

Email to Broadcast-End of Message Text:

There is an additional capability that is extremely useful. The customer can specify if the text designated as the Start of the Message is to be included in the text of the outgoing message. This is a checkbox. See the Customer’s “My Details” section below:

Email to Voice start and end of message

You can also enter the “Begin Message” and “End Message” tags directly into the email message to control what is converted to voice or text.

Start message indicators
Instead of starting the outgoing message content at the beginning of the email, there are  methods of skipping the start of the email and starting the relevant message further
down.
1. A line containing just the tag “<Begin Message>” can be included in the email, and the
outgoing content will start on the line AFTER this.
2. If the user has the option “Start of message text” set, then the outgoing content will
start where this text is found (including the text itself)
End message indicators
The end of a text message to be sent can be indicated in a number of ways:
1. A line containing just the tag “<End Message>” can be included in the message.
2. A blank line followed by “– ” (two plain ascii dashes and a space) which must then be on
a line by itself
3. Four empty lines
4. The text entered in the users “End of Message Text” configuration field

Setting Message Delivery Times

EmailToVoice.Net provides the user with the ability to set a window of time for the delivery of voice phone calls and SMS messages using any email interface.

This feature is extremely useful for departments that need their staff to be alerted by voice or SMS when they are off their primary working hours. When staff are at their desks, they may not need voice and SMS alerts. However, when the staff is not on their primary shifts, the messages must get the attention of the staff members. To get that attention, the messages should be delivered as a telephone call and/or SMS text message. Email is not an effective way to get the attention of essential support staff.

We created a user option so an active window of time can be designated for voice phone calls or SMS text messages to be delivered by EmailToVoice.Net.

Although setting a window of time for voice or SMS messages to be delivered can be accomplished by using no-code alternatives like Microsoft Power Automate, we provide this ability without the need for any third-party capability. The customer merely needs to sign-in to the Customer Portal and modify these parameters in the ‘My Details’ section.

Email to Voice Active Window

The parameters in Customer Portal / My Details provide the ability to block or allow the messages to go through. The parameters allow the user to set different rules for the Weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and the Weekdays (Monday through Friday). The time can either be blocked or allowed. The time is according to the timezone set in the account under My Details.

Let Us Know What You Need

We look back and see a value-added year in 2020. What is exciting is that we are already working on more great features coming in 2021.

EmailToVoice.Net is rich in features while being simple and effective to use for business communications and alerts. You can send a Voice Phone Call, simple SMS message, an Enterprise SMS, FAX or prerecorded Voice Message from any email program interface, application, Internet of Things device (IoT / M2M), or from your CRM and Dispatch Systems.

Contact Us if we can provide further assistance in helping you meet your business communications requirements.

 

Author

Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications. LinkedIn

 

Setting Message Delivery Times In EmailToVoice.Net

Setting Message Delivery Times In EmailToVoice.Net

EmailToVoice.Net provides the user with the ability to set a window of time for the delivery of voice phone calls and SMS messages using any email interface.

This feature is extremely useful for departments that need their staff to be alerted by voice or SMS when they are off their primary working hours. When staff are at their desks, they may not need voice and SMS alerts. However, when the staff is not on their primary shifts, the messages must get the attention of the staff members. To get that attention, the messages should be delivered as a telephone call and/or SMS text message. Email is not an effective way to get the attention of essential support staff.

We created a user option so an active window of time can be designated for voice phone calls or SMS text messages to be delivered by EmailToVoice.Net.

Although setting a window of time for voice or SMS messages to be delivered can be accomplished by using no-code alternatives like Microsoft Power Automate, we provide this ability without the need for any third-party capability. The customer merely needs to sign-in to the Customer Portal and modify these parameters in the ‘My Details’ section.

Easily configure your delivery start time and end time

Email to Voice Active Window

The parameters in Customer Portal / My Details provide the ability to block or allow the messages to go through. The parameters allow the user to set different rules for the Weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and the Weekdays (Monday through Friday). The time can either be blocked or allowed. The time is according to the timezone set in the account under My Details.

If you have any questions about this feature of EmailToVoice.Net, please contact us so we can help you meet your mission-critical business communications requirements.

We have recently added other features that assist our customers in adding workflow processes to their business communications needs. An example is designate the beginning and the end of a voice or text message sent using email. This is valuable when you want to send only the pertinent information in your alerts and mission-critical messages.

The customer can designate the beginning and end of all messages by logging into the Customer Portal and then going to My Details / Change My Details. The fields in the account details are

Email to Broadcast-Start of Message Text:

Email to Broadcast-End of Message Text:

How EmailtoVoice.Net works

EmailToVoice.Net is rich in features while being simple and effective to use for business communications and alerts. We transform an email message into a phone call or an SMS message with no need to program APIs or install any hardware or software.

For making a voice phone call, you merely make the TO field in the Email you are sending to look something like 5551234567@tts.message-service.org (international calls require a +CountryCode in front of the local number). The recipient will receive a call on their phone. The text in the email is converted to a nice-sounding voice. If the recipient answers, they will hear the message right away. If they do not answer, the message will be left on their voice mail system. You can even leave a different message if the call goes to voice mail.

You can also send an Enterprise SMS, FAX or prerecorded Voice Message from an email program interface, like from an application, Internet of Things device (IoT / M2M), or through your CRM and Dispatch System.

Contact Us if we can provide further assistance in helping you meet your business communications requirements.

Launch of New Customer Portal by EmailToVoice.Net

Launch of New Customer Portal by EmailToVoice.Net

We are excited to announce the launch of the new EmailToVoice.Net Customer Portal. The Portal will be available to the customers of EmailToVoice.Net on Monday, March 16th at 7:00 AM EST. This capability has been requested by the customers of EmailToVoice.Net and we are pleased to deliver.

The customers of EmailToVoice.Net will be able to securely login to the Customer Portal at any time and see detailed information about the jobs submitted through their customer account. Here is a summary of the Portal’s advanced features:

    • View All Jobs: The customer can view summary and detailed information on messages that have been sent through EmailToVoice.Net. Date ranges can be specified to review monthly, weekly or daily activity and even a specific job number.
    • Manage Personal Lists: The customer can setup lists, which are then referenced by the LISTS tag in the content of the email for sending TTS or SMS messages to groups of recipients.
    • New Broadcast: The customer will be able to send a TTS, SMS and even email messages to one or more recipients directly from the Portal
    • Quick SMS: A customer will be able to send a Quick SMS message, one-way or two way, to one or more recipients directly from the Portal
    • Manage Opt-Outs: The customer can specify a phone number that is never to be sent through the customer’s account. This is useful for phone numbers that have changed and should no longer be used.
    • My Details: The customer will be able to change certain fields within their account, such as company address, email address or phone number. This includes the customer’s account password.

Customer Considerations to Access the Portal

    • Access to the login of the Portal will be available as a Menu tab on EmailToVoice.Net or can be accessed directly by using Portal.EmailToVoice.Net.
    • The username will now be prefixed with etv/. The old username prefix of us/ will be retired on March 16th at 7:00 AM EST.
    • If the customer does not know their password, the customer will click on ‘Forgot Password’ on the Login page of the Portal the first time they use the Portal.
    • This portal is for all customers on the USA EmailToVoice.Net site. This includes our International customers that had a username prefixed with us/. However, the username prefix of us/ will be retired on March 16, 2020 at 7:00 AM EST and will become etv/username.

EmailToVoice.Net User Portal Login

Background: How EmailToVoice.Net Works

For those that are not familiar with EmailToVoice.Net, this is an example of the value our cloud messaging service brings to enterprise customers.

After subscribing to EmailToVoice.Net, you can make a phone call or send an SMS by sending just an email. Just make the TO field look something like 5551234567@TTS.message-service.org or 5551234567@SMS.message-service.org. (International calls made outside of the USA and Canada should have a + country code in front, like +61555123456@tts.message-service.org)

For a voice call, the text in the email is converted to a nice sounding voice (TTS – Text-to-Speech). If the recipient answers, they will hear the message right away. If they do not answer, the message will be left on their voice mail system. You can even leave a different message if the call goes to voice mail. There are many mission-critical features in our service.

We deliver Text To Speech message or SMS text message to phones with no need to install special APIs, hardware or software.

Why Send a Voice Phone Call Alert

Phone calls get people’s attention when you need them to act on a critical event. When you send an email, it just does not get the necessary level of attention for important information.

Email is the typical mode of communication for alerts from the monitoring software, CRM or other business applications. But, few of us immediately respond to email, especially after-hours. A phone call, however, will get our attention at all hours of the day or night.

Alerts for IoT Devices

An IoT device is any device connected to the Internet. In an enterprise environment. Monitoring these devices is commonly done through Monitoring Software.

These IoT devices need to communicate with people through alerts and integration with mission-critical applications. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) needs to be given a voice. An IIoT device that has only the ability to send an email must now be enabled to dial a phone. The voice phone call may be sent to a repair truck, or an emergency call in the middle of the night, or used as a means to cut through all the mundane communications received during the regular business day.

In any case, a phone call is an effective means to communicate very important information that needs to be acted upon in a timely fashion.

Stay Updated on EmailToVoice.Net

Subscribe to our mailing list in the right column of our Blog to stay updated on further advancements of EmailToVoice.Net. We also provide some very useful information in our Blog regarding Industrial Internet of Things, Workflow, Monitoring Software, and much more. Also, do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or we can assist you further in meeting your business communications requirements.

You can Subscribe for a free trial of EmailToVoice.Net. No credit is required for the free trial period.