Increasing Productivity through Text Messaging by Philip Weiss
You hear about all the derogatory aspects of text messaging. Working with Frost Online, Mainstream Software has implemented a service whereby you can actually manage your work orders to a limited extent by using text messaging. It provides another tool to help keep your work order statuses up-to-date.
Here is how it works. The target assignment (technician or vendor) must be configured to use AlphaPaging and one of the email paging services, such as “EPage” or “Paging via Email.” A text dispatch message is sent to the assignment of a work order. Using a set of predetermined response codes, the assignment can reply to the text message to update the status of the work order for which the dispatch was sent. The assignment can indicate the declining of the work order, the acknowledgement of the work order, the arrival at the work site, the departure from the work site, or the placing of the work order on hold. The assignment can also include comments with the response code which are added to the log history of the work order.
The TextReply service will retrieve the response text message from a preset Inbox, store the message, and interpret the response. If the response was successfully received and the work order was updated, a reply is returned to the sender indicating success of the transaction. If the work order is indeterminable, the service will reply with an unsuccessful message to the sender. If a response code is omitted from the reply, the message is treated as a comment to the work order, the status of the work order remains the same, and a success message is sent to the assignment.
This service will work with all mobile devices that have the capability to return the original message within the reply message. Some mobile devices will only send the reply to the text message without the original message. Unless the work order number is somewhere in the reply message, the TextReply service will not be able to determine the work order number and therefore not be able to update the work order as needed.
In summary, many people are already using text messaging to communicate to each other. If you are already using text messaging for dispatching or other communications to your work order assignments, this service will further enhance your communication process as well as keep your work orders as up-to-date as possible.
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