Here is an example spreadsheet built by one of our talented technical support personnel that uses a macro to send the same SMS text message to a list of mobile telephone numbers. This does require downloading StrikeIron's LiveData for Excel add-in (it's free for use with all Web services that come through StrikeIron's Web Services Delivery System, including both public and private APIs - but there is a $495 license fee for use with all non-StrikeIron Web services APIs.)
The macro uses the authentication information cells, the "from" cell and the "message text" cell to compose the SOAP message, and then gets the target mobile number from the list starting with cell A8 in this case. The macro then iterates through A9, A10, etc. until it gets to the first blank cell in the list. In other words, this list could be 5 numbers, or 500 numbers. With each target number, StrikeIron's SMS Web service API is called (supports over 400 carriers worldwide) utilizing the parameter data from the spreadsheet, at which point the message is delivered.
Note there is also a tracking tag returned from the Web service after completion of the send call which can be used to ensure delivery to the recipient's carrier (the Web service itself is able to determine the carrier). There is another method in the API which enables the status of the tag to retrieved, and it may take a few seconds for a status of "delivered" to be reported.
This is a great example of pulling together server and client technologies to help complete a vision of what Cloud-based Web services components can deliver, especially when they are being delivered to applications that people are already using on a daily basis, like Microsoft Excel or Salesforce.com's CRM applications (which we also have created add-ins for.)
This particular StrikeIron-enabled spreadsheet could be used as a dispatching application, an interactive notification dashboard, the basis for opt-in marketing campaigns, or even combined with other Web services calls from StrikeIron or elsewhere.
If you would like me to email you the workbook, drop me a note at bob.brauer "AT" strikeiron.com:
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