•As a user’s email account is normally ‘always open’ there’s a reduced risk of missing SMS replies or forgetting to send an SMS, unlike with a separate application. There’s no need to remember to check a separate inbox.

•One of the main advantages of Email SMS is that is allows for rapid rollout of SMS to an organisation which can be particularly important if your organisation is large such as a Call Centre for example.

•Email SMS is ideal if you don’t want your staff to have access to the internet as it works within your existing email application.

•Email SMS is perfectly suited for server alerting. Many companies use email server alerts for monitoring systems, servers and websites for example. However many companies are realising that email alerts may not always be the ideal method of communication, especially for out of hours system monitoring. This is where Email SMS comes in. Email SMS will easily integrate with your server alert software. So each time an email alert is sent to you, you will also receive an SMS. This means all bases are covered!

How to integrate Email SMS in your organisation

When choosing an SMS provider for your Email SMS solution, you should be presented with two choices: to integrate Email SMS by your Email client or Email server.

Integrating Email SMS by client is useful for when you haven’t got a server or when you’re giving Email SMS access to a small number of people in your organisation, or the organisation is small.

Configuring Email SMS can be done easily by setting up a new email account. Just add some user info and server information and once configured you can send SMS directly from your email application.

To configure Email SMS at server level, requires a bit more technical know-how but allows for rapid rollout in your organisation. It also allows you to tie in SMS alerts to email alert server software quickly and easily. You should normally be able to set up Email SMS using reverse path authentication or SMTP authentication.

When choosing an SMS provider, ease of integration and service reliability are key. You should only need to do a one off configuration to start sending and receiving SMS via email.  Ann Wilkinson