SMS Gateway and SMS-Based Applications

SMS is a very easy and convenient technology that can be used for a wide range of applications. Although it has the widest reach of all the mobile technologies today, it is still very much underutilised.

Better Software have created an SMS gateway and an SMS application server that can be used to deliver a wide range of one or two-way intelligent applications.

Some of the applications we have developed around our SMS gateway:

• email-to-SMS and SMS-to-email
• SMS Timesheets
• SMS Timetables for bus and tram lines
• SMS Ordering
• SMS generic voting
• SMS Job Despatch
• SMS Notifications and Paging
• SMS Web Interface
• SMS Remote Device Control

The SMS Gateway exposes a number of interfaces:

• TCP/IP Socket
• Web Service endpoint
• SMTP endpoint (email input)
• COM Component on the server
• .NET native component interface

These interfaces are used by our applications to access the service and send and receive SMS messages from other applications. Some examples of scenarios used in our applications are:

• Emails sent to specific addresses are routed by the gateway to SMS messages. Received messages are routed back to emails and sent to the originating email address.
• TCP/IP Packets are interpreted by the gateway and routed to SMS. Replies are rejected or catalogued on the server
• Input SMS messages are catalogues based on certain characteristics and specific applications are invoked based on the message type. The applications can send SMS back to the message originator
• Input SMS are parsed by specific applications and catalogued in a database for the client to see, report on, create statistics, etc.
• Web sites send SMS to one or multiple numbers, employees, consultants, customers, etc.
• Various Windows Applications send SMS straight from the user's desktop. Received SMS messages are routed to a catch-all email address for the client to see, or can be stored in a database with web access.
• Web sites receive orders from customers and despatch the orders via SMS to several consultants who are suitable for the job (service that area and have the required skills). Consultants reply back and get job details via SMS.
• Web Service monitors electricity market prices and sends notifications when prices satisfy given rules (eg. go outside a certain range). Notifications are sent via SMS and specially crafted replies can turn on or off electrical devices via specialised hardware.

Many other scenarios are possible. Please talk to us if you need SMS-Based applications. Even if you think you don't need, we can point out areas where SMS can save you money.

We don't write our software, we craft it!