by Denis ONeil | Jan 17, 2023 | Emergency Alerts, Enterprise SMS, Voice communications
We are an Application to Person (A2P) Solution for Critical Alerts and Business Communications
With EmailToVoice.Net, you can use any common email interface to send a phone or text message. We convert the content of an email to a voice phone call or a rich content SMS message.
In addition to using email to send the message through our service, you can also use a cURL command from within any program or Blockchain application.
The EmailToVoice.Net Suite of Products
Convert an Email into a Voice Phone Call
We dial the number in the TO field of the Email, which looks 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 to a list of recipients. The recipients on the list can either be called all at once or called sequentially stopping when one acknowledges receipt of the call. This is called an Escalation List.
Convert an Email into a Text SMS Message
We convert the content of an email to a text message and deliver the message as an SMS.
Convert an Email into a Rich Communications SMS Message
We create a custom HTML Web page from the content of the email and deliver it through a simple SMS message, allowing viewing of the page on a cell phone from a simple tap. The message can also require a password to be entered before the rich content SMS message can be read by the recipient.
Convert an Email with a recorded voice attachment into a Voice Phone Call
We deliver a prerecorded voice to a phone.
Convert an Email into a FAX
We deliver the attachment of an email to a FAX number and use the content of the email as the cover letter.
Other Useful Features
Parse the important part of the message converted to Voice or SMS
You can parse the email message by specifying where the important part of the text starts and ends. This eliminates the irrelevant parts of your email, such as images, the top Header part, and the bottom of the email, such as the Signature, leaving only the important part of the message. Set these parameters in the Customer Portal / My Details / Change Details. It is great to keep the message short and more succinct.
Set a window of time for delivering the messages
If you want to send alerts out to your staff as phone calls or SMS text messages only during a specific time of day, you can specify the times in Customer Portal / My Details / Email To Broadcast: Active Window.
In Summary
There are many advanced features of EmailToVoice.Net. These are merely a few of them. We love to share our many years of experience in this industry and provide easy no-code solutions for your workflow communications needs. Do not hesitate to Contact Us.
Author
Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications.
LinkedIn
by Denis ONeil | Apr 30, 2021 | Emergency Alerts, Voice communications
SIEM critical alerts need to get immediate attention when triggered. Phone calls get people’s attention. A phone call is rare and loud.
SIEM is a class of products that combines security event management and security information management. SIEM technologies provide the analysis of log and event data together with security information management. Machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities within SIEM products are on the rise. Cloud services are also being developed for SIEM offerings.
People responsible for the issues are notified of the results of the threat monitoring, event correlation, and incident response. The critical alerts cannot be ignored. A multi-channel response must be used because of the importance of these issues. Voice phone calls must be part of that multi-channel alert. These SIEM services can send emails. But, an email to voice and SMS service needs to be implemented to achieve the multi-channel communications network. EmailToVoice.Net is a cloud-based multi-channel communications service that can be implemented with minimal effort and reasonable cost.
As stated by Mary Pratt in What is SIEM software? How it works and how to choose the right tool
The SIEM market has several dominant vendors based on worldwide sales, specifically IBM, Splunk and HPE. There are at least several more major players, namely Alert Logic, Intel, LogRhythm, ManageEngine, Micro Focus, Solar Winds, and Trustwave.
Implementing critical alerts delivered from SIEM products is a major effort. Sending a message from SIEM products to a phone requires specialized hardware and software solutions to be installed in the client’s central data center. However, a cloud-based communications solution such as EmailToVoice.Net makes this all as easy as sending an email. The EmailToVoice.Net service does the hard stuff. It converts the text of the email message into a genuine-sounding voice (Text to Speech), then dials the phone, handles voice mail, and much more. All of this is done without the need to install hardware or use APIs. There are not even any monthly fees.
People pay more attention to voice calls these days than email. A phone ringing gets the attention of the person that needs to be alerted in an emergency. The reason is that email has swamped us to the point we do not pay attention to them, anymore. A phone ringing still makes people pay attention. They are loud and rare.
How to send an Alert to a Phone
EmailToVoice.Net provides the ability to make a phone call using any email interface. This can be tested using a personal email mailbox. However, the production use of this capability is by utilizing the email capability within Alert Software, CRM, ERP or any enterprise application.
First, a user should subscribe to EmailToVoice.net. A free trial is available with a value of $4.95 USD allowing about 55 message units to be sent within a 28 day trial period. The user will be able to immediately make a phone call using their email by following the simple instructions below:
The email must be sent from the same email address as was specified during the free trial subscription process.
The TO field will specify the phone number to be dialed. The TO field would look something like 2145551783@tts.message-service.org. (if the number is not a USA or Canadian number, then the TO field would look something like +6155551243@tts.message-service.org) The number can be any phone number in the world, with some exceptions due to international regulations, and does not have to be preregistered.
The SUBJECT field can be anything brief. It is used for reporting.
The content of the email is converted to a pleasant-sounding voice.
That’s it. The EmalToVoice.net service will dial the number, play the voice rendition of the email content, handle voicemail, etc.
Extensive Features
There are many advanced features of EmailToVoice.Net. EmailToVoice.net can make a phone call, send an SMS, send 16MB of HTML data via SMS and even send a FAX. We love to share our many years of experience in this industry and provide easy no-code solutions for your workflow communications needs. Do not hesitate to Contact Us.
Author
Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications.
LinkedIn
by Denis ONeil | Nov 19, 2020 | Emergency Alerts
People pay more attention to voice calls these days than email. A phone ringing gets the attention of the person that needs to be alerted in an emergency. The reason is that email and other forms of text messaging have swamped us to the point we do not pay attention to them, anymore. A phone ringing still makes people pay attention. They are loud and rare.
In the John Brandon article Why Millennials Don’t Like to Make Phone Calls, he states as one of the many reasons phone calls are rare is;
In a phone call, there’s a chance the person on the other end of the line might have an opinion.
An alert phone call is not a conversation. It is the delivery of critically important information. A phone call with a voice message is the perfect delivery method for time-sensitive critical information.
Critical Alerts from Applications
Implementing critical alerts delivered from business applications is a major effort. Sending a message from monitoring software or directly from an IoT device to a phone requires specialized hardware and software solutions to be installed in the client’s central data center. Connections to smart devices, CRM, PCS or ERP systems need to go through complex API’s or propriety software gateways
However, a cloud-based communications solution such as EmailToVoice.Net makes this all as easy as sending an email. The EmailToVoice.Net service does the hard stuff. It converts the text of the email message into a genuine-sounding voice (Text to Speech), then dials the phone, handles voice mail, and much more. All of this is done without the need to install hardware or use APIs. There are not even any monthly fees.
How EmailToVoice.Net Works
All you have to do is subscribe to the EmailToVoice.Net service and then make the TO field in the Email look something like 5551234567@tts.message-service.org
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! There are many mission-critical features in the service.
Industrial IoT Needs To Send Alerts
An IoT device is any device connected to the Internet. In an enterprise environment, monitoring these devices is commonly done through Monitoring Software, like viewLINC, or SolarWinds to name just a couple – there are many.
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 number may be repair truck or used to wake people in the middle of the night or cut through all the mundane communications received during the regular business day.
Since people are not making phone calls as much as they used to, the voice phone call now becomes the perfect way to deliver a critical alert to an individual.
Supply Chains Require Communications
Supply Chain communication is critical to the success of the Supply chain and its stakeholders. The importance of effective communications for internal stakeholders and external suppliers cannot be overstated. An enterprise must have a well-planned communication strategy to ensure the resilience of the Supply Chain.
As part of a Supply Chain communication plan, multiple channels and methods should be taken into consideration,. An alternative communication channel is a voice phone call. This is an effective communication channel in regular Supply Chain processes because phone calls get the participant’s attention. Supply Chain Communications is critical to the resilience of critical processes. Using multiple channels during the process is imperative to success.
The fact that Phone calls are rare has made them an excellent communication channel to convey important information and emergency alerts. We are inundated with text communications coming from SMS, Email, and a multitude of chat Instant Messaging platforms. To cut through all of that noise with an important alert, a loud and reliable channel needs to be used. That channel is the common voice phone call.
How to send an Alert to a Phone
EmailToVoice.Net provides the ability to make a phone call using any email interface. This can be tested using a personal email mailbox. However, the production use of this capability is by utilizing the email messaging capability within the monitoring software or business application.
How to Use EmailToVoice.Net
First, a user should subscribe to EmailToVoice.net. A free trial is available.
FROM Field
The Email must be sent from the same Email address as was specified during the free trial subscription process. A Send-Only Email address can be added later for the production implementation.
TO Field
The TO field should specify the phone number to be dialed.
The TO field would look something like 2145551783@tts.message-service.org. (if the number is not a USA or Canadian number, then the TO field would look something like +6155551243@tts.message-service.org)
The number can be any phone number in the world, with some exceptions due to international regulations, and does not have to be preregistered.
SUBJECT Field
The SUBJECT field can be anything brief. It is used for reporting. Optionally, the Subject field can also be made part of the voice message.
Content of Email
The content of the Email is converted to a pleasant sounding American English voice. (Leave at least 4 lines after the content of the email and before the email signature, so the Email signature is not converted to voice.) There are additional dialects to accommodate other languages or accents.
Send the Email
That’s it. The EmalToVoice.net service will dial the number, play the voice rendition of the email content, handle voicemail, etc.
Advanced Features
There are many advanced features of EmailToVoice.Net. Those features will be covered in future posts. So, subscribe to our blog and stay updated. We also provide some very useful information in our Blog regarding Industrial Internet of Things, Monitoring Software, and much more.
