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
- Enter phonenumber@linkinsms.message-service.org in the “to” field.
- The FROM email address must be the same as specified in the subscription process or a special email address you provided us.
- Type in anything you want in the subject field using less than 120 characters.
- 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.
- 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.
