Supply Chain is Supported by Multiple Communications Channels

Supply Chain is Supported by Multiple Communications Channels

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 stated in The Stream by River Logic

Organize a Communication Chain

A chain of communication is as straightforward as it sounds, but it is important to establish the expected flow of information within a business. The chain can be as simple as the chain of command, but all members must understand what is expected of them when they receive a message — including what messages should be forwarded, who they should be forwarded to, and how they should be delivered.

As part of a Supply Chain communication plan, multiple channels and methods should be taken into consideration,. As an example, Social Networks should be explored as a ubiquitous alternative in the exceptional case of normal communication channels being interrupted during the time of a crisis. The resilience and variety of Social Networks is an excellent complement to ensuring the resilience of a Global Supply Chain. During recent global catastrophes, we have seen Social Media technologies effectively used in grassroots disaster response. These successful grassroots efforts have brought the value of global social networks to the attention of governments and global enterprises.

Effective Voice Phone Call

An additional 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. SMS text messaging can also be an effective method of alerts or regular dissemination of timely information.

The challenge to incorporating a voice phone call as part of the regular Supply Chain processes is the cost and effort to have business applications integrate with PSTN phone communications.

In the past, implementation could be a major effort. Sending a message from an application to a phone required specialized hardware and software to be installed. Connections to CRM, PCS or ERP systems were through complex APIs or software gateways.

Providing a voice phone call as integrated communications channels is now easy. With our cloud messaging service called EmailtoVoice.net, all that is needed to send a voice message from an application is the ability to send an email. Email communication is common in enterprise applications; and also can be found in many IoT devices.

EmailToVoice.Net can make a phone call as easy as sending an email. Mission-critical processes that exist in all stages of the Supply Chain already have an email capability.

How EmailtoVoice.Net works

We transform an email message into a phone call.

You 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 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.

Multiple Communication Channels is Critical

Supply Chain Communications is critical to the resilience of critical processes. Using multiple channels during the process is imperative to success. The communication channels of the voice phone call and SMS messaging should be incorporated for mission-critical real-time alerts and informational messaging to the stakeholders.

 

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.

Phone calls get people’s attention  – Email does not

Phone calls get people’s attention – Email does not

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.

Critical messages are becoming more common as we move into the Industrial IoT era. As TARRIS states

The Internet of Things (IoT) has exploded in recent years, and it’s not slowing down any time soon. Gartner forecasts that 20.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide by 2020, and a new Business Insider Intelligence study predicts that the IoT market will grow to over $3 trillion annually by 2026.

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.

Cloud Communications Solution Makes it Easy

Implementation of industrial strength solution for communication-enabling business processes such as critical alerts is a major effort. Sending a message from monitoring software or directly from an IoT device to a phone requires a specialized hardware and software solution 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.

Let us know if you would like to learn more. Contact us. We love to share our experience in mission-critical business communications and industrial alerts.

Using Microsoft Flow with EmailToVoice.Net to Forward an Alert to a Phone

Using Microsoft Flow with EmailToVoice.Net to Forward an Alert to a Phone

Using Microsoft Flow with EmailToVoice.Net answers the challenge of sending phone alerts from a general-purpose email address. EmailToVoice.Net can send voice phone calls as alerts from any Monitoring Service or application. A phone call is necessary when the alert is urgent. Or, when it is not appropriate to send a text or email to the person needing the information. This is the case if the person is in a vehicle or traveling, for instance.

EmailToVoice.Net converts the content of an Email to a nice sounding voice and calls a phone number. This is possible with no need to install special APIs, hardware or software. So, EmailToVoice.Net works well with Monitoring Services when a phone call is needed, rather than just an email.

Most of the time, a Monitoring Service will send the email from a customer assigned unique email address. If this is the case, a customer can merely set the Monitoring System’s email address as a Send-Only email address in their EmailToVoice.Net account.

The Challenge of a General Purpose Email Address

Sometimes, however, the Monitoring Service sends the email from a general purpose email address, which is the same for all of the Monitoring Service customers. For strict security purposes, EmailToVoice.Net restricts messages to come from only an authorized customer-owned email address. The customer of EmailToVoice.Net must have the exclusive rights to sign-in to this authorized email address. You can learn more from this short How-To video.

So, what is the solution to the dilemma of needing to make a phone call from a general purpose email monitoring service.

One solution is to use Microsoft Flow with EmailToVoice.Net. Following is an example of steps to set up a Microsoft Flow that will accept the alert from the Monitoring Service from a general purpose email address into the customer-owned email address that is authorized to send messages to EmailToVoice.Net. When Microsoft Flow detects an arriving alert message into the customer’s email, Microsoft Flow will trigger an email to be sent from the customer’s email (forwarded) to the EmailToVoice.Net with the same alert message generated by the Monitoring Service.

The setup is straight forward, as is shown below. The steps used in this example are using the Microsoft Flow features of the free Web-based product. Here are the different pricing plans for Microsoft Flow.

Acquire Microsoft Flow

If your company does not have a license for Microsoft Flow, then sign up for a free Microsoft Flow account. When signing up for the service use the email address that will receive the alert and is authorized by EmailToVoice.Net to be able to send messages through EmailToVoice.Net. Or, when you setup your connectors use the email address authorized by EmailToVoice.Net. For the USA, the URL is https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/

NOTE: This is merely an example that uses Gmail connectors and fictitious destinations. The purpose of these steps is merely to give you an idea of how to setup your Microsoft Flow. Contact Microsoft to learn how to meet your specific requirements using Microsoft Flow or Contact Us at EmailToVoice.Net. We will help to the best of our ability.

Microsoft Flow sign up

Go to Connectors and connect to Gmail

Select Trigger

When a new email comes into your email mailbox from the Monitoring Service, Microsoft Flow will be triggered. Choose the “Forward Gmails that meet a certain criteria” action for this example. But there are many templates and you can also just choose to create your own without using a template.

Assure Microsoft Flow You Own the Email Account

Sign-in to the Gmail account that will receive the alerts that need to be forwarded to EmailToVoice.Net, as Flow requests.

Set the Flow

This is where you specify which emails are entering your email mailbox that are to be forwarded to the EmailToVoice.Net.

Set Flow Part 1

The From criteria specifies the email address from the Monitoring Service.

Create the Flow part one

Set Flow Part 2

Set the SEND criteria. The TO field should be like: nnnnnnnnnn@TTS.MESSAGE-SERVICE.ORG For more information, refer to How Email to Voice Works

Create the Flow part two

Conclusion

That is it. When a message comes in from the monitoring Service into your email address, a Microsoft Trigger will occur forwarding that message to EmailToVoice.Net from your email address. This handles the issue of a general purpose email address being used by a Monitoring Service needing to send messages through EmailToVoice.Net. EmailToVoice.Net will convert the content of the email to a nice sounding voice, dial the phone number, etc. Learn more at EmailToVoice.Net

Featured image : Patrick Amoy   – Screen captures of Microsoft Flow