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Sending rosters via SMS - PowerForce Workshop™

Introduction to PowerForce

We've developed an initial version to enable the sending of a weeks rosters to staff via SMS.

This is the 1st version of this functionality. We will enhance the capabilities based on user feedback.

Getting There:

[ Scheduling ] –> SMS Rosters

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Prerequisites

To enable the sending of rosters via SMS, you must have the SMS module enabled.
Your employees mobile number contact details must be in PowerForce.
Only company employees are handled at this stage.
The process sends one week at a time, based on the week ending date for the coming week.

Introduction

We have developed the following purpose specific form to enable you to select the week ending date.
SMS rosters

Running a review of what will be sent

Enter the Week Ending date, (16/08/09) in this example, and press the "Week Ending" button.

This will select all the rosters for the week ending (16/08/09) and 7 days back from that date, as per the image below:

sms roster report

The image is showing you a couple of things to help confirm what details will be sent out. (You may if you wish print this report for reference). The report indicates that 16 SMS messages (16 employee rosters) will be sent. The report indicates that you have two of these messages, which will be more than a single SMS (160 character) message. Where you exceed the SMS message size of 160 characters, you will be charged for 2 messages.

At this stage, nothing has been sent, this report serves to show you what will be sent when you action the send (next step)

Sending the SMS rosters

When you complete your check of the report, cancel the report, which will bring you to the screen (below).

sms rosters

At this stage, the Send SMS button will be enabled for you. If you wish to send the messages as you've previously reviewed, press the Send SMS button.

This will then connect you to the SMS service(via the Internet), and send each message out in turn. The details of the messages sent will be noted on the RHS of your screen for confirmation.

All messages will also be automatically audited as is the case with the generic SMS functionaility.

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Error Messages

sms errors

And, to coincide with this you will receive an email alerting you to your problem (as per below).