The company blog

C# SMS SDK is launched today

We have just released a new C# SMS SDK to help customers integrate with the new Esendex SMS API. The new C# SMS SDK is open source and is published on CodePlex under a LGPL license. By making the source code available free of charge we believe that developers can benefit greatly and that by consuming our services we can continue to evolve and enhance our C# SMS SDK.

The C# SMS SDK includes examples of integration with some of the key Esendex features, including; Messaging, Inbox, Contacts and Sent Items. These examples have associated unit tests, in line with the TDD (Test driven development) an approach used by the Esendex development team.

For those of you who wish to start sending messages straight away, there’s comprehensive documentation for the C# SMS  SDK and a quick start guide within the developer area of our website which will explain all of the resources you can interact with in detail.

If you are an existing customer and would like to try the new C# SMS SDK simply log in to your account as usual and visit  http://esendex.codeplex.com/releases. If you don’t have an account then please sign-up for a free trial now – we’d love to hear what you think.

Leanne wins Employee of the Month

Well done to Leanne, Customer Support Assistant who is our Esendex Employee of the Month.  Paul Spencer, Commercial Manager Northern Europe Region, presented Leanne with the award at the end of last week.

Leanne’s put herself forward for extra work and completes her tasks and daily responsibilities effectively.  She’s also shown dedication and commitment outside of work by studying for a HNC in computing.  She will be learning how to programme in VB / ASP.net and also how to use SQL.

Congratulations once again to Leanne!

What everyone ought to know about SMS

Yesterday, I saw an interesting tweet from the Mobile Marketing Association Forum, quoting;

“97% of SMS opened, 83% in one hour but typically within 4 minutes”

This is a pretty fascinating statistic, especially when compared to email where only 25% are opened (according to the IAB) and probably even fewer of these are actually read.

There are more mobile phones than people, with more individuals using one mobile phone for business and one for personal use.  People also have a tendency to carry their mobile phone around with them all the time, everywhere that they go.  It is therefore not surprising that many businesses and organisations are using SMS software to communicate with their audience, especially considering that most text messages are read.

Here’s some examples of when using an SMS gateway can capture your target audience instantly;

• Increasing purchasing power – send Bulk SMS with last minute deals and promotions

• Ensure appointments are not forgotten – for example sending doctors and beauty salon SMS appointment reminders

• Emergencies – for example hospitals use the service to inform high risk patients of dosing reminders

• Time sensitive situations – for example a recruitment agency will be able to contact a candidate with job details

If you would like to try our SMS gateway, why not sign up for a free trial? – it would be great to hear what you think!