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Any Answers Answered: Ways to send SMS text messages from your PC

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23rd Apr 2008
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Reach clients via SMS textIt all started with an SMS text message from Nigel Harris's dentist, reminding him of a recent appointment. If dentists can reach clients quickly and effectively with text, why couldn't accountants, he wondered. IT Zone's John Stokdyk investigates the possibilities suggested by AccountingWEB members.

"This looks like a very effective way to get urgent messages to clients, especially sole traders who are always out of the office. Does anyone use texts to communicate with their clients?" asked Nigel Harris in Any Answers last week. In particular, he wanted to know about web-based text services that would let him type the messages quickly on his PC and dispatch them to the recipients' mobiles.

Room101.co.uk offers such a service that is designed to support "push" applications that automate delivery of business information to people who are eager to get immediate updates, for example someone who has posted a query on an online software support forum who wants to be notified if anyone responds, or someone who has placed an order for an out of stock item who wants to know when it becomes available. Appointment diaries can also benefit, according to Room101, for example someone wanting an appointment at the earliest opportunity could be notified by text if there are any cancellations.

The energetic discussion in Any Answers raised two side issues. The first point raised by two members concerned the legal status of such messages. Do they count as official communications subject to the Companies Act 2006 requirement to include company details on its correspondence, wondered Padstowe. The act set out very specific requirements to put company address and registration details on websites, business letters and documents in electronic form, so text messages may not be covered. However, from 1 October 2008, amendments to the 2006 act set out in Statutory Instrument 2008 No 495 will require a company's registered name to be displayed in emails and "all other forms of its business correspondence".

The second issue to remember is security. Web-texting was a good way of contacting customers and road warriors who didn't have mobile email, said Fraser Jopp, who uses the IntelliSMS.co.uk service. But, he added, "I wouldn't necessarily use it for anything confidential, as the message passes through a number of hands."

Given that someone's mobile phone number is an important piece of personal data, services that require you to enter the recipients' numbers on to a third party website have to be questioned - what assurances can they give that the numbers entered won't be used for spam texts?

This also raises the reputational and relationship aspect of texting. On behalf of the old guard, Steven Holloway commented, "I don't do text and get really annoyed when businesses text me unsolicited."

Stephen Payne then questioned the assumptions underlying the query and the subsequent thread. "Why bother with texting?" he asked. "Just lift the phone - actually speak to the client and have a conversation. You never know you might find out something useful and provide on the spot advice - worth a few brownie points to store away."

If in you're willing to overcome the objections and want to explore the possibilities, here are some of the texting options suggested:

Online text hosts

18185.co.uk - "I've found [it] to be completely reliable and secure. Costs a flat rate of 1p to text any mobile worldwide, UK included. You can also send the same message to up to 250 numbers in one go. Only drawback is you need to type in or copy and paste the numbers every time," advised Jonathan Capehart. You can also register several numbers to one account so your partners/staff can use the same account but still identify to the recipient which person the message came from.
Essendex.com - "Works a bit like Outlook in that you have an inbox and sent items. Texts can be scheduled to be sent to multiple recipients at set times and you can change the 'from' field to anything," reported Jo.
Fax.co.uk - "Fees aren't bad - around 8p each I think," says NMP Accountant.
IntelliSMS.co.uk "It integrates very nicely with [Microsoft] Exchange, so you can use your existing contact list, and store the correspondence along with emails," says IntelliSMS user Fraser Jopp.
TextAnywhere.net - "a great service and low cost too" according to Shaun McGuinness
Tobit David-MX - recommended by Roger Neale
www.txtlocal.com - recommended by Jenni.

Mobile phone services

If you are dubious about using a third party intermediary, it makes sense to investigate the services already offered by your current mobile service provider, who will have a vested interest in encouraging you to use its system to the full. BT and 3 make allusions to premium services on their sites, but only two suppliers featured among the AccountingWEB members' recommendations:
Nokia PC suite According to user Simon Lever the software connects his phone to his computer and lets him send text messages which he enters on the keyboard. "Much easier than using the fiddly little number buttons and pressing them 3 or 4 times. An advantage is that the numbers are already on my phone and I do not have to look them up and as I get a number of texts free with my phone package there is no cost."
Orange SMS API - is a techie's dream, which lets you send texts by typing the message components into your browser's URL locator window. The service, brought to light by resident technology expert JC, is currently free as an "alpha" test offering for Orange Partner members. To become a partner, you may need to convince the supplier that you are a viable business partner and the cost structure could change if Orange decides to turn the system into a commercial package. Once you have joined, however, you get an API code and all you have to do to send a message by text is type the following syntax into your browser:
api access key&to=[mobile number]&content=[your text message]
"I am sure that some of the Excel experts on Aweb could wrap this into a spreadsheet to invoke multiple sends," added JC.

Texting from accounts & practice management software

Relate Software's Ian Lucie popped up on behalf of the commercial software suppliers, pointing out that his company's Drive suite allowed accountants to both send and record record SMS messages within the practice management system. The IRIS Exchequer accounting applications has a Sentimail module that can be programmed to alert managers by text message whenever a predefined condition has been exceeded. Creative explorations on web search engines will uncover similar options for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and financial applications and other corporate ERP systems.

Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007
Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into capturing a piece of the mobile communications market, including SMS text. Its Office Communications Server (OCS) product is billed as a unified messaging platform that ties together Microsoft Exchange and mobile Windows devices. The Office Communicator 2007 Mobile module within OCS lets users select the best way to reach a contact, whether by SMS tex, phone, Instant Messaging or email. OCS is a large, server-side product for corporate installations, but Microsoft's Outlook 2007 Mobile Service lets you send and receive text and picture messages between Office Outlook 2007 and any mobile phone. You can also set Office Outlook 2007 to send e-mail, reminders and your daily calendar appointments as text messages to your mobile phone.

Which option is Nigel going to choose?

After taking a look at the replies, Nigel told AccountingWEB, "I was surprised by the relatively small number of people who are doing it. Practice development gurus like 2020's Chris Frederiksen have been telling us that texting is a cool way to keep in touch, but it doesn't look like a lot of firms are doing it."

Harris knows just how hard it can be to get in touch with itinerant sole traders by phone and thinks that texting might get through when phone messages can't. "We're definitely going to try some of the options - particularly when tax returns and records are due from them."

He wasn't so impressed by the handset options and will probably follow the internet route, where you buy blocks of text messages and send them from an online form. "It looked to be less cumbersome than doing it as email - and in many cases you can't send from your Outlook contacts."

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Replies (13)

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By ian339
06th May 2008 11:17

Text banking
If you qualify for free banking - most do I think - FirstDirect offer free text messages for e.g. weekly mini-statements and balances below a limit.

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By AnonymousUser
30th Apr 2008 14:23

Do you have a Vodafone contract
If you do and have Outlook (but not Outlook 2007) you can use their "text centre"

You send texts from your desktop using Outlook, the cost is billed via your current call plan under one of your existing mobile numbers.

And you choose whether they reply to your inbox or the mobile number you have used to setup the service.

Great for sending individual texts, contact numbers etc.

Unfortunately it does not work with Outlook 2007.

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By User deleted
28th Apr 2008 14:21

My Basic Instinct
Would be to do a google search for Free SMS text messaging? Some even let you buy an account for a premuim service.

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By dclark
28th Apr 2008 09:44

Business Applications
For me, the most logical place for a business to put SMS capabilities is in the CRM or Accounts arena, where it assists the end customer communication

We already offer this with one of our solutions. Imagine a Jeweller getting a repair ready for a customer. Normally the jeweller attempts to ring the customer. This often takes more than one call. By linking a repair status to the ability to send a text message, as soon as a repair is 'ready for collection' the customer is sent a text. How convenient, if that person happens to be shopping at the time, to receive the text!

Our CRM solution (circa £100 per user) offers this based on almost anything in the system. For example, I could set a Public email folder used to receive particular email traffic to raise an SMS whenever an email arrives in that folder or I could set an Appointment to generate an SMS, or or I could base it on an activity that was generated by another system (for example we do link it to a payroll system that allows the user to send a text message when a payroll event happens - P35 submission done)

Kind Regards

Daniel Clark
Ryba Macaulay Ltd
[email protected]

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By mikewhit
24th Apr 2008 16:47

Not only but also
There are also several websites that offer sending of SMS messages from application software via a programming-type interface (search for 'SMS gateway api') - think Visual Basic or scripting programs.

One example of this kind of use might be a 'mail merge' type of application that could SMS clients when the accounts submission receipt email from HMRC came in, "[Click here to inform Mr. X by text]" taking out the donkey-work.

Also, I guess, a daily run at 8:00 or 12:00 (or the day before) through the appointments diary to remind people of imminent/upcoming meetings !

I often hope that one day the online banking services will offer text messages to the customer when a given Event occurs, such as account balance dropping below a defined limit, or a particular credit made to the account.

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By AnonymousUser
24th Apr 2008 15:22

:)
John

Always pleased to help

Simon

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Kevin Salter
By Kevin Salter
24th Apr 2008 12:46

Text from PC
Skype can also be used to send an SMS message. Needs credit on the account to do it though.

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By User deleted
24th Apr 2008 11:54

Blackberry
Any ideas for those on BES with fully synchronised contacts how best to offer this service?

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
23rd Apr 2008 09:48

Nokia PC works well
After completing the article, I took the opportunity to download the Nokia PC application. It's a bit hefty at 30MB, but worth the effort - the texting interface is quick and easy and lets you pull numbers from your Outlook database. Synching with Outlook is also a great aid to ensure you keep good back-ups of numbers stored in your mobile - and vice versa. It's early days yet, but already the software has probably improved my mobile phone efficiency. Thanks Simon Lever for alerting me to it.

Thanks also to Nigel for posting such an interesting query - although he tells me that he's a Motorola user, so Nokia PC isn't much use for him.

John Stokdyk
Technology editor
AccountingWEB.co.uk

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