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TXT Messaging with Web+Center.

Welcome to Internet Software Sciences Newsletter – #107  – January 2014

New Integrated TXT messaging and notifications  with Web+Center Version 8.0

Web+Center version 8.0 release will include options to directly Text customers or technicians right from the Web+Center web interface. It will also provide configurable options to send TXT notification messages to customers or techs in addition to the current email notifications.  You can test these features on our on-line demo and downloadable versions of Web+Center 8.0 BETA will be available soon.

We are busy finalizing this release and plan to release a downloadable BETA Version 8.0 soon for installation on your own servers.  Feel free to  test and provide feedback on our Version 8.0 (BETA) on our test servers.

Sincerely,

Scott Vanderlip
President, Internet Software Sciences

Web+Center’s – New integrated TXT and SMS options

 

What is SMS?

SMS is defined by wikipedia as:

Short Message Service (SMS) is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems. It uses standardized communications protocols to allow fixed line or mobile phone devices to exchange short text messages.

SMS is the most widely used data application, with an estimated 3.5 billion active users, or about 80% of all mobile phone subscribers at the end of 2010.

Sending SMS messages from our Web+Center application
The ability to send direct TXT and SMS messages to cell phone users is carefully controlled through various phone company network gateways.  Without these monitored and pay for service gateways, you can easily imagine our cell TXT messaging options overwhelmed with junk TXT spam like Email spam.

To bridge the gap between the Internet and the phone cell messaging network, we have partnered with  Twilio, a company that provides an API and platform to building phone and Internet integration products and services that enables us to add functionality to Web+Center Help desk for SMS messaging.  It also opens the door for other, future phone/Internet services to be built into our Help Desk products using their rich API of messaging and telephony products.

If you wish to use the SMS / TXT messages with the Web+Center application, you must separately purchase  a Twilio account.   The approximate cost per TXT message is about 1 cent per TXT msg, depending upon various pricing options.  It only takes a few minutes to get an account started.  To open an account requires a $20 minimum of which $1.00 per month is used to reserve the TXT message phone number from which you are sending the Text message from.

To configure your Twilio account into Web+Center, a new administration configuration page allows one to enter the Twilio account SID and authorization information provided by them.

Once this configured,  there are two basic ways to use the TXT messaging feature.

  • Option 1 – Direct Sending of TXT messages to Customers or Technicians

In the Tech+Center case form, two new buttons (Send TXT to customer) and  (Send TXT to Tech) allow you to pop open a separate window and send a TXT message to either the customer or a tech directly, assuming they have configured a valid cell TXT phone number in their contact information.

  • Option 2 – Sending short TXT case notification messages, in addition to the email notifications,  when tickets are created or updated by Techs or Customers in all of the Web+Center applications (Tech+Center, Customer+Center, Customer+Mobile and  Tech+Mobile).   TXT messages are sent to both customers and the technicians.  These messages are also customizable and can be individually enabled or disabled for techs and customers.

To aid users who are customizing Web+Center for their specific help desk and customer support operations, we have built a set of globally accessible SMS functions send TXT messages as part of your support solution.

Summary

Web+Center offers much more than a simple Help Desk ticketing system.  It provides the set of tools to offer high quality support and services for your clients with minimal costs and configuration.  This SMS feature opens up new support communication options to build a more robust support operation.  Feel free to contact us if you have any questions on how Web+Center can be configure to help automate your businesses and organizations.  Check our Website for current information about new products and services that we now offer!