Hi John,

Our company went for a solution with a paid service (e.g. www.clickatell.com) and using messaging server and gateway software (www.activexperts.com). We are paying the monthly fees for the message bundes and clients can use a gateway to send text messages irregardless of their provider.

It aint cheap to setup, and we went through some painfull setup (with clickatell) but it seems to be working right now. But once everything is setup, you pay a few cents per text message.

The activeXperts software is cool. They've got serveral ways to send text messages. One is as simple as inserting records in a table through ODBC. It can be setup for bidirectional trafic. It also allows you to use it as an email server where you can send and receive emails through the same method.

Again, there might be cheaper solutions, but we haven't found one that can send to every cellphone without knowing the provider and having a change that the otherine receives the text message in time... if at all...






>>>That day has come that I always knew was coming. Customer now wants to send updates to customers via Text Message to their cell phones from within my VFP 9 management system. Anyone got any suggestions on how to and what with?
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>>Perhaps you know you can send a text message using Outlook. Most cell phone provider make up an e-mail address for their clients in the format 5555551212@fido.com (the first part being the cell phone number). Using Outlook with this recipient will send a text message to the cell phone. All you need is to automate Outlook within VFP.
>
>The problem with that method is requiring every customer to know that address. There is also the fact that in most of my customer's shops only one or two PCs belonging to the office staff have Outlook. The rest are service reps and are the ones that actually contact the customers.
>I do welcome all ideas and I thank you for it.