Bulk SMS options for an educational institute

logistopath

logistopath

Molar Police
Staff member
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The educational institute I work in is looking for bulk SMS options, to send updates regarding holidays/ exams/ fee dues/ results etc. and the occasional greetings to the parents/ guardians of students. We are not expecting to send more than 1000 SMSes per month. What are the options we have?

Our requirements:
1. Reliable service
2. Ability to select numbers from excel sheet and send
3. Deliver SMS even to DND numbers
4. Preferable to have institute name abbreviation as sender id
5. Not too costly.

Please let me know which would be the best service to avail of? Do telcos like BSNL or Airtel directly provide such service?
 
logistopath said:
2. Ability to select numbers from excel sheet and send
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So you need a software based platform right?

You can have talks with vodafone, airtel etc.
You can request for institution sms name like MD-name, DM, VK, DZ, AD etc.

Some months back I received such offer for mass bulk smsing for very cheap rates. If I receive any such again will let you know.
 
nRiTeCh said:
So you need a software based platform right?
Click to expand...
Yeah. Need to send from a laptop / PC only.

nRiTeCh said:
Some months back I received such offer for mass bulk smsing for very cheap rates. If I receive any such again will let you know.
Click to expand...
Sure.

BTW, any idea about the numerous sites that turn up on a Google search, claiming to provide such services? Some of them claim to be used by reputed companies and institutes. Are they reliable?
 
This was something I was exploring for our ERP backend, with an SMS with some data. We too were looking at about 10-15 SMS per day.

We abandoned the project due to limitations of the SMS characters. It was done with a Android phone and POST request.
 
@vivek.krishnan ERP backend and POST request --> Over my head.. :p I don't understand them. But I get the gist of your message.
For our use, we would be sending around 100 messages in one go, probably 4 or 5 times in a month. And I would be training the office staff to handle this, so I need a simple Windows compatible software based solution.
BTW, do such bulk messages also have character limitations?
 
@logistopath

Try Spring Edge. Very friendly people and economical as well. Unlike most of the others out there looking to make a quick buck, their packages are not time bound, meaning if you still have SMS's left due to low usage, it won't expire after a few months. They have packages starting as low as 10k SMS for about Rs. 2000 to 3000.

They'll give you all the documentation you need and help you set it up if need be. We found them after a lot of searching and are very happy with their service.

Ask for Prathiba.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
I was talking about this : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.apksoft.android.smsgateway&hl=en
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Hmm. Looks interesting. Of course, cannot be used in my case.
vivek.krishnan said:
You should be able to do this with the following : MailMerge + SMTP Gateway + SMS Gateway.
Let me see what I can pull this weekend. Will try to setup a simple solution for the same. Have PMed you my number.
Click to expand...
Sure. Let me know. TIL about Mailmerge in Office.. :p So thanks for that.

@Satan Will check out Spring Edge.

BTW, any reviews or experiences with SMS Achariya? The higher ups are suggesting this, coz this was suggested to them by the guys who design and maintain our institute website.
 
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