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Sending Texts From Within Fusion

October 1, 2013 by Cannon Smith

Most of you probably use the Message Center in Fusion to send reminders or other information to people in your feedlot. When you send such a message you know that they will be notified by Fusion the next time they log in. Occasionally you may need to send a message where you want them to get it right away. Again, you can use the Message Center and send the message as an "Urgent Message". If they are logged in to Fusion they will immediately see a notice to check their messages.

This works well except for two cases. First, if the person you are trying to send a message to is in a truck, they will not get the message, even if it is "urgent," until the next time they do a full sync. Second, the person may be logged in, but have walked away from the computer in which case they still won't see the message until they come back.

Most people now carry cell phones with them wherever they go. So, starting with Fusion 2.6, Fusion can be set up to also send a text message whenever you send an "urgent" message from the Message Center. (Critical messages from Fusion itself, to admins, get the same behavior.)

Follow these steps to set up text messaging for a user:

1. Open the User list window and double-click the user you want to be able to receive text messages.
2. Enter the address information in the Text Message Address field. This is a special email address that the user's cell phone provider uses to convert from an email to a text message. The easiest way to figure this out is to click the ellipsis button to the right and use the assistant that shows up. Enter the person's cell number and choose their cell phone company. Fusion will then automatically figure out the correct address to use. (If your cell phone company is not listed, a Google search will usually give you the address format to enter directly. Let us know and we'll add it to the list.)
3. Click the Save button and repeat these steps for other users.

Now anytime you send an urgent message to that person, Fusion will automatically send an email to the special address and the cell phone company will turn it into a text and send that to the person as well. No more wondering when everyone will get your important messages!