SMS from Office 2003
A good friend of mine from the UK (Matt Nunn) told me a few years ago after he moved to the states that the U.S. phone system was so far behind Europe. I remember him talking about this technology called SMS that every one used there for brief messaging and how much he missed it hear in the U.S.
HOG WASH.... I thought. Why would I need that? It sounds silly?
When ever you respond to something like that, it should be a cue to you that you are missing something (a.k.a. you are stupid). Well this year I finally added SMS support to my phone service and I love it. SMS stands for Short Messaging Service and you might consider it an instant messaging service for your cell phone. SMS is a great time saver. It is a convenient way to send people brief messages without all the protocol of a phone call. My wife and I use it all the time to communicate little tidbits through out the week (Yes, the romance continues).
I came across a product from RedOxygen that allows Office 2003 users to send and receive SMS messages from Office. What a great idea! From their site, the product called OfficeSMS is described as:
OfficeSMS 2003 users can:
- Send Instant SMS messages from Microsoft Outlook within Office 2003 to any mobile phone using their personal address book, Global Address List (GAL) or direct number entry.
- Receive SMS replies from recipients directly into their e-mail Inbox.
- Receive SMS reminders on their mobile phone for any event scheduled in their Calendar.
- Take advantage of Smart Tags. If the user has a mobile number in a Word, Excel or Outlook document, the user can select the smart tag to send an SMS.
- New! Scheduled SMS. Pre-set a time and date for an SMS message to be delivered, allowing you to send SMS messages to any of your contacts even when you are disconnected from the Internet or away from your PC.
Check it out at http://www.redoxygen.com/us/us_officesms.asp