What are the Business Communications Products Offered by EmailToVoice.Net?

What are the Business Communications Products Offered by EmailToVoice.Net?

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

A No-Code Solution to Send Two-Way SMS from Business Applications

A No-Code Solution to Send Two-Way SMS from Business Applications

EmailToVoice.Net can send Two-Way SMS messages in either simple text or rich content by just using Email.

Business applications and monitoring software need to send critical alerts and rich communications through SMS. Often, a response is required to ensure the recipient received the message or trigger another workflow action. EmailToVoice.Net provides the ability to send an SMS by using the email capability within Monitoring Software, CRM, ERP, or any enterprise business application.

Additionally, the recipient can reply to the SMS and the replied message is sent back to the Customer Portal and a designated email address. The authorized individual can review the replies on the Customer Portal or review the responses in the designated email address, which is collecting the replies.

SMS Reply Handling

Because the replies are collected in a designated email mailbox, no code solutions such as Microsoft Power Automate (Flow) can be used to evaluate the replies and act upon them accordingly.

Microsoft Power Automate and EmailToVoice.Net work well together. Microsoft Automate has email connectors that enhance business flows. These email connectors can easily act upon emails being sent from EmailToVoice.Net, such as the replies from two-way SMS messages. EmailToVoice.Net and products such as Automate integrate SMS communications with enterprise business flows. When Microsoft Power Automate detects an email message arriving in the designated email address, it will trigger an action such as a database update and/or an email to be sent back through to EmailToVoice.Net that will then generate a phone call or SMS to other recipients.

Two-Way SMS

The SMS can be set to 2-Way by adding the tag “<TwoWay>” anywhere in the email. If this is set, then the user can reply to the SMS, and an email with the reply contents will be sent to the email address set in the customer’s account profile. The email address to receive the replies can be set in the Customer Portal / My Details.

Set email address for SMS Two Wayreplies

Alternatively, the tag “<TwoWayReplyAddress>” can be put in the email message when the SMS is sent through EmailToVoice.Net to set a designated email address to receive the replies for this specific event.

Sender ID

For One-way SMS, you will see the same Sender ID each time an SMS is received through EmailToVoice.Net. In the case of a Two-Way SMS, the Sender ID number will be chosen from a pool of long-code numbers so that we can track the replies. However, you have the option to purchase a LongCode for a nominal monthly fee that is added to your monthly charges. Then the Sender ID number will be unique to your organization.

Text or Rich Communications

EmailToVoice.Net can send either a simple SMS text message from any email interface or a Rich Communications SMS message as a link to a hosted web page automatically inserted into the SMS.

Sending formatted text messages for industrial communications can be done easily with just a simple email interface using EmailToVoice.Net. SMS Messaging is a reliable means to get important information to employees or business partners immediately. However, the limitations of SMS text messaging often keep it from being used in mission-critical business processes. Text messaging is limited by the lack of formatting and low text character limit, which is necessary to convey detailed information. MMS and RCS attempt to address this issue. However, they too have limitations that cause barriers to wide adoption for mission-critical applications.

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. EmailToVoice.Net uses the LinkInSMS service to provide Enterprise SMS to its customers.

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 Text 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.

Features of Enterprise SMS

Enterprise SMS provided by EmailToVoice.Net is rich in features to meet any business requirement. Below are some examples of these features that can be set up in the Customer Details in the Customer Portal.

  • You can add a Header and a Footer that will be used in all text messages from your account. For example, you can add a logo, an introductory message, disclaimers, and links using HTML
  • You can specify a specific SMS Sender ID so the recipient can recognize the sender of the text message.
  • You can enter a default email address for SMS replies. So, if the recipient replies to the text message, the reply will go to this email address. You can then alternatively use Microsoft Power Automate to continue a complex business workflow process without any coding. (Contact us for assistance in developing workflow processes)

There are many more features of the Enterprise SMS Messaging feature in EmailToVoice.Net. Let us know if you would like to learn more. Contact us. We love to share our experience in industrial communications, workflow, and alerts.

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

 

Secure Transmission for Enterprise SMS Alert Messages in EmailToVoice.Net

Secure Transmission for Enterprise SMS Alert Messages in EmailToVoice.Net

Enterprise SMS messages require secure transmission. Enterprise SMS from EmailToVoice.Net provides TLS to protect a ‘Man in the Middle’ view of the content of the message as it travels from the customer’s server to our cloud base messaging platform. The message is then delivered to the recipient as an HTML web page using an HTTPS active link in the SMS message. (LinkInSMS)

EmailToVoice.Net Provides Enterprise Text

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 Text 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. A custom web page is created and inserted in the recipient’s 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. (16MB)

To send an Enterprise Text 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 secure 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.

TLS encryption email

With EmailToVoice.Net, the business application uses Email to deliver the message to our cloud service to be converted to an Enterprise Text message. The Email can be sent using TLS (Transport Layer Security). TLS provides that the Email message is securely traveling from the application’s server to our cloud-based messaging platform protected from “man-in-the-middle” attacks. The message cannot be read while the text is in transit.

HTTPS Active Link

As Cloudfare states in “What is HTTPS

HTTPS prevents websites from having their information broadcast in a way that’s easily viewed by anyone snooping on the network. When information is sent over regular HTTP, the information is broken into packets of data that can be easily “sniffed” using free software. This makes communication over the an unsecure medium, such as public Wi-Fi, highly vulnerable to interception. In fact, all communications that occur over HTTP occur in plain text, making them highly accessible to anyone with the correct tools, and vulnerable to on-path attacks.

With HTTPS, traffic is encrypted such that even if the packets are sniffed or otherwise intercepted, they will come across as nonsensical characters.

Enterprise SMS uses TLS and HTTPS

Enterprise SMS is a feature of EmailToVoice.Net, which creates a custom HTML Web page from the content of your business email alert and then delivers it in 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.

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 using HTTPS.

The Uses of Enterprise SMS

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 APIs or propriety software gateways.

To deliver rich content to smartphones, Enterprise SMS from EmailToVoice.net uses the combination of commonly available platforms of Email and SMS to deliver large amounts of formatted data from mission-critical business applications.

Features of Enterprise Text from EmailToVoice.Net

Enterprise Text provided by EmailToVoice.Net is rich in features to meet any business requirement. Below are some examples of these features that can be set up in the Customer Details in the Customer Portal.

  • You can add a Header and a Footer that will be used in all Text messages from your account. For example, you can add a logo, an introductory message, disclaimers, and links using HTML
  • You can specify a specific SMS Sender ID so the recipient can recognize the sender of the text message.
  • You can enter a default email address for SMS replies. So, if the recipient replies to the text message, the reply will go to this email address. You can then alternatively use Microsoft Flow to continue a complex business workflow process without any coding. (Contact us for assistance in developing workflow processes)

There are many more features of the Enterprise Text Messaging feature in EmailToVoice.Net. Let us know if you would like to learn more. Contact us. We love to share our experience in industrial communications, workflow, and alerts.

Author

Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications. LinkedIn
How to Use SMS Communications in Business Workflow Processes

How to Use SMS Communications in Business Workflow Processes

Business applications and monitoring software need to be able to deliver detailed information to mobile devices, such as detailed orders, repair instructions, and more. Although EmailToVoice.Net can send voice phone calls using an email interface from a monitoring software or any business application, we can also send an Enterprise SMS Text Message using any email interface.

EmailToVoice.Net Provides Enterprise SMS

EmailToVoice.Net provides the ability to send a large amount of formatted data (16MB) using LinkInSMS to a cell phone as an 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 using simple SMS, which is available everywhere in the world.

SMS was proposed in 1982 as part of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), a second-generation cellular standard devised by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Little has changed in SMS since the beginning. SMS messages are still limited to 160 text characters per message. If a message exceeds this limit, most carriers will chain the messages together so they present as a single continuous message to the recipient. SMS is still universally used throughout the world despite its lack of growth in capability.

Enterprise Alternative

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.

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.

Integration 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.

Enterprise SMS is excellent for automating labor-intensive, time-sensitive tasks generated from monitoring software, ERP, or CRM applications. The messages can be two-way and integrated with complex workflow processes. EmailToVoice.Net allows a single text message to communicate large amounts of data. For example, a text message could deliver detailed technical information for device repair or financial data accessed by a simple click in their SMS text message.

The Challenge to SMS by Business Processes

Businesses often need to send large amounts of formatted data as part of enterprise workflow processes to a cell phone. This can be done easily with just a simple email interface using EmailToVoice.Net. SMS Messaging is a reliable means to get important information to employees or business partners immediately. However, the limitations of SMS text messaging often keep it from being used in mission-critical business processes.

Text messaging is limited by the lack of formatting and low text character limit, which is necessary to convey detailed information. MMS and RCS attempt to address this issue. However, they too have limitations that cause barriers to wide adoption for mission-critical applications. And, the ability to send informational and alert messages from business applications is complex without the ability to use standard email capabilities.

Enterprise SMS Using LinkInSMS from EmailToVoice.Net

Enterprise SMS is a text messaging feature from EmailToVoice.Net that enables the delivery of large amounts of formatted data, up to 16MB, to a cell phone by just sending an email to the SMS phone.

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 APIs or propriety software gateways.

Comparing Enterprise SMS using LinkInSMS to RCS and MMS

Comparing Enterprise SMS using LinkInSMS to RCS and MMS

Enterprise SMS is a feature of EmailToVoice.Net, which uses LinkInSMS to deliver rich content to smartphones from mission-critical business applications using the combination of commonly available platforms of Email and SMS.

Your company can send large amounts of formatted data to a cell phone with SMS by merely sending an email, like from your Monitoring Software, CRM, or ERP application. When you send an email through our service as an Enterprise SMS, we create a custom HTML Web page from the content of the email. We then deliver the link for that custom web page in an SMS message. The recipient can then view the formatted HTML web page with a simple tap.

This allows a single SMS text message to deliver large amounts of formatted data to any smartphone in the world initiated by any simple Email interface. There are many more features of Enterprise SMS to meet your mission-critical communications requirements.

SMS Beginning and Present

SMS was proposed in 1982 as part of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), a second-generation cellular standard devised by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Little has changed in SMS since the beginning. SMS messages are still limited to 160 text characters per message. If a message exceeds this limit, most carriers will chain the messages together so they present as a single continuous message to the recipient. SMS is still universally used throughout the world despite its lack of growth in capability.

In response, there have been rich communication alternatives introduced, such as RCS (Rich Communication Services) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). Let’s take a look at these communication protocols.

A Look at RCS

Rich Communication Services (RCS) was brought into the GSM Association around the late 2000s. The protocol lay quietly until around 2018 when Google announced it was interested in developing some communications services using RCS.

As Digital Trends says in their Posts “What is RCS messaging? Everything you need to know about the SMS successor”

Considering Google and the carriers are still scattered on how RCS will come together — or even if it will coalesce into some kind of cohesive whole — the new, improved RCS universe as an interconnected unified messaging system is still waiting to emerge. As of mid-2020, things seem to have gone quiet. RCS may be officially available from the network operators, but it is not available on all devices. According to the GSMA, there are 430 million active users with 13 million of them in Germany. Even though RCS has already been launched in many parts of the world, a connection between all these networks is not guaranteed. It looks customers will have more waiting to do before RCS comes to the forefront of consolidating messaging technologies.

RCS has some advanced features over SMS. For instance, RCS can support higher quality picture messaging of up to approximately 10MB in size. The issue that seems to restrict the growth of RCS is that both parties must be using a messaging app and network that supports RCS. If both parties are not on a messaging app supporting RCS, then SMS or MMS will be the fall-back protocol.

A Look at MMS

MMS is built using the same technology as SMS. This allows SMS users to send multimedia content. Whenever you send a message with more than text, such as a picture, you are using MMS.

While their maximum size depends on the carrier and the device receiving the message, 300 KB is often mentioned as the largest size most carriers will reliably handle.

The Challenge to SMS by Business Processes

Businesses often need to send large amounts of formatted data as part of enterprise workflow processes to a cell phone. This can be done easily with just a simple email interface using EmailToVoice.Net. SMS Messaging is a reliable means to get important information to employees or business partners immediately. However, the limitations of SMS text messaging often keep it from being used in mission-critical business processes. Text messaging is limited by the lack of formatting and low text character limit, which is necessary to convey detailed information. MMS and RCS attempt to address this issue. However, they too have limitations that cause barriers to wide adoption for mission-critical applications. And, the ability to send informational and alert messages from business applications is complex without the ability to use standard email capabilities.

Enterprise SMS Using LinkInSMS from EmailToVoice.Net

Enterprise SMS is a text messaging feature from EmailToVoice.Net that enables the delivery of large amounts of formatted data, up to 16MB, to a cell phone by just sending an email to the SMS phone.

Enterprise SMS is a feature of EmailToVoice.Net that creates a custom HTML Web page delivered through a simple SMS message using LinkInSMS. For each SMS recipient, a custom web page is created and inserted in the SMS 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 a receiving smartphone anywhere in the world.

Business applications and monitoring software can deliver detailed information to mobile devices, such as detailed orders, repair instructions, etc. using Enterprise SMS.

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 APIs or propriety software gateways.

Detailed reports are provided to the enterprise customer for business reporting through the Customer Portal and through optional detailed reports that are sent to operational email addresses. These reports show dates, times, success or failure of the messages, and more. The detailed reports can be exported for import into the customer’s BI applications.

The communications channel used to send the message initially is email, so business applications such as Monitoring Software, CRM, or ERP applications can be used seamlessly. The EmailToVoice.Net Customer Portal provides fields for universal header and footer information as well as the ability to manage delivery windows of time.

How Enterprise SMS works

  1. Enter phonenumber@linkinsms.message-service.org in the “to” field.
  2. The FROM email address must be the same as specified in the subscription process or a special email address you provided us.
  3. Type in anything you want in the subject field using less than 120 characters.
  4. The message in the email will be converted to an HTML Web page, up to 16MB, and a link to the page will be inserted in the SMS message.
  5. And then just send the email. The recipient will receive a link to the custom web page.

Features of Enterprise SMS from EmailToVoice.Net

Enterprise SMS provided by EmailToVoice.Net is rich in features to meet any business requirement. Below are some examples of these features.

  • You can add a Header and a Footer that will be used in all Text messages from your account. For example, you can add a logo, an introductory message, disclaimers, and links using HTML
  • You can specify a specific SMS Sender ID so the recipient can recognize the sender of the text message.
  • You can enter a default email address for SMS replies. So, if the recipient replies to the text message, the reply will go to this email address.

There are many more features of the Enterprise SMS Messaging feature in EmailToVoice.Net. Let us know if you would like to learn more. Contact us. We love to share our experience in workflow processes, industrial communications, and alerts.

Communication Enable your Business Processes

Enterprise SMS is excellent for automating labor-intensive, time-sensitive tasks generated from monitoring software, ERP, or CRM applications. The messages can be two-way and integrated with complex workflow processes. EmailToVoice.Net allows a single text message to communicate large amounts of data. For example, a text message could deliver detailed technical information for device repair or financial data accessed by a simple tap in their SMS text message.

To deliver rich content to smartphones, Enterprise SMS from EmailToVoice.net uses the combination of commonly available platforms of Email and SMS to deliver large amounts of formatted data from mission-critical business applications.