SMS reminders in Canada

[Mifa]

Callfire still does not support SMS messages in Canada. I'm looking for an alternative that would nicely work with OD, any suggestions from fellow Canadian dentists?

Thanks in advance.

Mifa

[jsalmon]

We have been actively researching alternative solutions for sending text message to and from patients. Our requirements that we are using are:

• two way text from the main office phone number
• reasonable rates
• good reputation
• US and International, not just International
• no hardware

[Mifa]

Thanks Jason for your reply. Please let me know if you find something suitable. So far, I've found providers in Australia or the UK that would work in Canada as well but nothing local (with a good reputation).

[Mifa]

Jason,

I have found a solution that can work for US and non-US practices. It's called Ozeki NG Gateway (http://www.ozekisms.com). Do you know it?

It seems very flexible and complete. It allows direct read from/write to MySQL tables using MySQL ODBC. They support several types of SMS Gateways, including using an Android cellphone over WIFI or wired into the computer. I've run some tests this afternoon using my daughter's Android phone (they don't have an iphone app) and was able to send and receive messages directly into Open Dental on my PC, after adding the 2 required tables (one for incoming messages, the other for outgoing messages). You can control how often messages are pulled/sent and the batch size as well. The Gateway is relatively easy to use, so is the android app. I just need to figure out how I can "redirect" the text/sms buttons in OD to work with this, it's gonna be my first plug-in...

PROS: it works out of the box with OD (2 way SMS); the status of outgoing SMS is clearly stated in the database (send/sending/sent/notsent/delivered, all with time stamps); you get replies from patients directly into OD's database; you can use a regular cellphone as a gateway.

CONS: the up-front cost is high (around 700$ for the gateway and 100$ for the the Android app licenses), plus the monthly fee for the SMS-only package from the phone company. Compared to a globalsms solution (using Mopensoft's plugin) this one would start to pay after 9 to 10 months in our case.

[pgor]

I am very interested in the ozeki solution. The one off up front cost seems high but if it sends 20-30 messages reasonably quickly, it will save money in the long run, particularly if your phone package includes 'unlimited' sms messages. Please post when your plugin is complete.

[Mifa]

I found another application that work the same as Ozeki (2 way SMS directly in the database) for a fraction of the cost. It's called Diafaan SMS Server (http://www.diafaan.com/), the company seems to be located in the Netherlands.

As for the plugin, it might take some time, my coding years are way way back...

[Mifa]

We are in production for about a week now and everything is working fine. We are sending and receiving SMS messages directly in OD. Here is the setup we use:

[1] We have a dedicated android cellphone that we use for SMS messaging only (and possibly for emergency during a blackout). Just in case, any phone call received on this cell gets forwarded to our main line.
[2] This cellphone is connected to one of our computers via a dedicated WIFI network.
[3] The basic diafaan SMS gateway solution is installed on both the PC and the cellphone. It runs as a service as soon as the computer is on.
[4] We have added 3 custom tables to the database, as per diafaan specification to record outgoing messages, sent log and receive log.
[5] We have created custom RDL reports to query these tables (check the status of sent and received messages, retrieve the history of messages with a single patient, find all patients sharing the same cell number, identify received text messages from unknown cellphones). In order to keep them opened while working with OD at the same time, we've made these reports non modal.
[6] We have activated the callfire plugin, even though we are not using it, so that the text buttons throughout the interface are active when they need to be.
[7] We have slightly modified the code of the send text method to force it to write outgoing messages, cell phone number and patient number in one of the new tables we have created (see our post in the developers forum).

Problem solved!

[mopensoft]

I will have a plugin using this gateway soon

[vishal]

We are in production for about a week now and everything is working fine. We are sending and receiving SMS messages directly in OD. Here is the setup we use:

[1] We have a dedicated android cellphone that we use for SMS messaging only (and possibly for emergency during a blackout). Just in case, any phone call received on this cell gets forwarded to our main line.
[2] This cellphone is connected to one of our computers via a dedicated WIFI network.
[3] The basic diafaan SMS gateway solution is installed on both the PC and the cellphone. It runs as a service as soon as the computer is on.
[4] We have added 3 custom tables to the database, as per diafaan specification to record outgoing messages, sent log and receive log.
[5] We have created custom RDL reports to query these tables (check the status of sent and received messages, retrieve the history of messages with a single patient, find all patients sharing the same cell number, identify received text messages from unknown cellphones). In order to keep them opened while working with OD at the same time, we've made these reports non modal.
[6] We have activated the callfire plugin, even though we are not using it, so that the text buttons throughout the interface are active when they need to be.
[7] We have slightly modified the code of the send text method to force it to write outgoing messages, cell phone number and patient number in one of the new tables we have created (see our post in the developers forum).

Problem solved!

Could you email me this plug in please?
Thank you
Vishal

[draluu]

We have been sending out SMS in Canada ever since OD could send out email. What we did was to have a front desk staff add the phone number along with the mobile service provider email gateway to their email address. No service bureau or other software to deal with.
http://www.theblog.ca/free-sms-canada

[vishal]

Mifa's solution is better in someways as it integrates with open dental callfire sms system. Also allows 2way testing. I was using DeskSMS android app which I would put patient number@desksms.appspotmail.com and it would send from my phone but the system was shut down on Thursday without warning for good.

Just to keep other people updated Mia told me by pm that he changed some code in open dental before compiling it so there is no plug in get.

I've installed Diafaan today in the hopes of having a similar way to what I was using before with patient number@sms.com but I can't figure out how to configure it. If anybody could be of some help that would be great.

[Mifa]

Draluu - I considered this approach as well, but I thought keeping track of our customer's mobile service provider was too much of a burden. Does this allow you to get SMS replies in OD? After about a month working with this, our patients seem to enjoy texting back to us instead of calling, so we appreciate to get this feedback right in OD, and we also have a way to see (in OD) if our messages are delivered or not.

Vishal - Follow the instructions on Diafaan's website about using it with a MySQL database, the query to create each of the tables is written there http://www.diafaan.com/how-to/mysql-database/. For my part, I removed the utf8 portion at the end of the query (it works better that way for us with accented letters in french that were not showing up properly otherwise). Follow this link to setup your cellphone http://www.diafaan.com/reviews/use-diaf ... id-phones/. As for the code, Mopensoft is working on a plugin. If you compile your own OD, I've put the code we use in the developer's section.

Hope this helps!

[draluu]

Mifa, in response to your question dated Sun Mar 29, our initial contact sheets ask who is the mobile provider and the front desk adds the correct entry in their email address. Granted it is an additional burden, and sometimes doesn't work because the provider has changed but the phone number remains the same. As we use gmail, the mail sent out and text received is recorded in gmail, if the mobile providers allows text to email. So we have a record of what is sent out in OpenDental but not what is received, which is only in gmail.
What if you include the email to SMS gateway sent out a standard message saying reply to the office's mobile phone number to confirm? You can also install an app in the office's mobile phone to forward all received SMS to the office's email address https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... sfer&hl=en, https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rder&hl=en

[mopensoft]

Our plugin supports Diafaan SMS and can be downloaded from www.mopensoft.com. Feel free to try out and give us your feedback.