User Guidefile 2 Smsissue 1

User GuideFile 2 SMSIssue 1

FILE 2 SMS

USER GUIDE

Document Issue: 1
Date: February 2013

CONFIDENTIALPage 1 of 23

User GuideFile 2 SMSIssue 1

COPYRIGHT

The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to continued progress in methodology and design. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of MTNSI

TRADEMARKS

Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademark and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners MTNSI makes no claim to these trademarks and refers to these names in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

CONTENTS

TRADEMARKS

1Getting Started

1.1User Requirements

1.2What is File2SMS?

1.3What can File2SMS do?

2Menu Features

2.1Message Box

2.1.1New Message

2.1.2Batch Upload

2.1.3Smart Wizard

2.1.4Inbox

2.1.5Sent Messages

2.1.6Templates

2.2Phone Book

2.2.1My Contacts

2.2.2My Groups

2.3Calender

1Getting Started

1.1User Requirements

The following browsers are supported:

Internet Explorer

Firefox

Chrome

Any other browsers might not render the application correctly and will result in a sub-optimal user experience. You also need to have a File2SMS username and password issued to you.

Note: Current File2SMS users

If you are able to access and make use of the current File2SMS system:

your login and password will be the same on this new system.

1.2What is File2SMS?

File2SMS is one of themany MTN Internal Wasp Services products used for bulk messaging. Its original purpose was to allow the user to upload a comma separated file, or .sms file to the application and parse the file, extracting recipient information and sending each one their required message but has since evolved into a complete messaging solution that allows the user to:

Send bulk messages

Store Contacts and arrange them into groups

Create templates and insert contact information quickly, without manually typing them all out.

Scheduling messages to go out periodically at a specified date and time, so that user doesn’t have to remember to send them.

View a calendar of scheduled messages

Do all this using the intuitive wizard driven application

1.3What can File2SMS do?

This application is aimed at anyone that wants to communicate with a group of people quickly and easily. Below are examples of how the system could be used:

Retail Business
informing customers of sales, new products, services
Keeping in contact with clients
Service based operations
Reminding clients of upcoming appointments
Conveying information that might have changed, e.g. system downtime
Managing replies from numerous clients
General
Birthday wishes
Meeting information

2Menu Features

This section will detail the different menu options, and how they contribute to the application. They will be referenced in later sections of this document.

Refreshing menus

Any menu can be refreshed by clicking on its tile again. For example, if the user navigates to New Message and wants to refresh and start again, he/she can click on New Message again.

Timed Login Sessions

The system will automatically log the user out after three minutes of inactivity. The login screen will then be presented upon any data requests.

2.1Message Box

This is the message sending menu of File2SMS. The user is able to use the standard .smsuploading mechanism or apply the newly designed wizard driven features. Supporting options like viewing message replies and delivery receipts, viewing sent messages and managing templates(explained later) can be found here.

2.1.1New Message

Navigate to the menu as shown below:

Choose either the Batch Upload option to directly upload the.smsfile or Smart Wizard to be guided by the application (recommended).

2.1.2Batch Upload

The user is then directed to the following:

2.1.2.1Format

The format for the file should be as shown below:

[d/M/yyyy HH:mm]

msisdn1[sender ID 1,custom override message]
msisdn2[sender ID 2,custom override message]
msisdnN[sender ID N,custom override message]
default message

Where:

d/M/yyyy HH:mm – Date and time to send the message.

msisdn – The recipient’s cell phone number.

sender ID – The characters that will appear on the recipient’s device which must be less than 11 characters.

custom override message – The message to be sent to the corresponding cell number only.

default message – The message to be sent to all recipients without a custom override message.

2.1.2.2Uploading a file

Uploading a file is done as follows:

Select a service account, if required to, and then click on the folder icon. Then select the file that was created.

If any syntax errors were found while parsing the file the message will not be sent. If the server did not receive the file, if network connection drops for example, then the following will be shown:

2.1.3Smart Wizard

This option will guide the user through a series of steps that will gather information and generate the .sms file needed by the server. It allows for quick creation of scheduled messages and is able to process user created templates to insert custom override messages with recipient-specific information.

2.1.3.1Step one: Select Service Account

Upon selecting of the smart wizard the user is presented with the following screen. Clients with multiple service accounts are able to select the desired option here. Users with one account need not worry, it will be automatically selected. Select next to continue.

2.1.3.2Step two: Send now/Scheduled Message/Appointment

The next screen will either send the message immediately or generate and schedule messages for a later time.Select next to continue and previous to go back.

2.1.3.2.1Send Now

If the default option of Send Now is selected then a single bulk message .sms file is generated which will be sent as soon as the server is able to process the file.

2.1.3.2.2Scheduled Message

A scheduled message is a .sms file with a date/time header attached. The system will parse the file and send the message at the time specified. A message cannot be scheduled less than 30 minutes ahead.

2.1.3.2.3Appointments

An appointment is a handy feature that will generate one or more files, depending on the options selected. The user is able to send messages periodically, specifying the repeat cycle and time to send. For example, a message can be scheduled for every Friday for a month at 13:00 with the reminder set for thirty minutes before. Setup appointments as follows:

Close all the check boxes and review the choices made, it should read logically.

2.1.3.3Step Three: Select Recipients

Now the user is required to input the recipient cell numbers in one of three ways:

Select contacts from Phone Book

Select groups from Phone Book

Manually enter the cell numbers

Using the Phone Book allows the user to add templates (discussed later) to the message.

2.1.3.4Step Four: Message

Create the message as shown below:

Clicking on Templates will open the following dialog:

2.1.4Inbox

The Inbox contains all received replies and delivery receipts. Navigate to the Inbox in the following manner:

Use this menu is shown below:

The user is able to switch between replies and delivery receipts by clicking on the tabs:

Switch between service accounts if needed.

2.1.5Sent Messages

Sent Messages contain all the .sms files processed by the server. Navigate to Sent Messages in the following manner:

The details of sent messages are shown in the table that will appear. Messages are stored by date and time of server processing. The Status column indicates whether the message was processed successfully or not. A failure would occur if the file format was incorrect.

2.1.6Templates

Templates in context of File2SMS are messages created with special tags that the system will replace dynamically on message creation with user specific data. Navigate to templates in the following manner:

The Templates table is then presented. No entries exist by default and the user must create one or more templates first before the table is populated.

2.1.6.1Adding a template

The available options are:

{title}* - Contact’s title

{firstname}* - Contact’s first name

{surname}* - Contact’s surname

{msisdn}* - Contact’s cell phone number

{date}* - Current date at message creation

{time}* - Current time at message creatio

The Add Template dialog box is then presented. Note that fields cannot be empty and must be alphanumeric.

Add a template as follows:

[Click on “add template]

[Add data and save]

The template will now appear in the templates table:

[template in table]

2.1.6.2Editing and Deleting a template

[Click on “edit template]

[Edit data and save]

The template will now appear edited in the templates table:

[template in table]

2.2Phone Book

The Phone Book menu allows the user to store, manage and apply recipient details to messages.

2.2.1My Contacts

My Contacts contain recipient details that are used with message creation. Recipients are made up of contacts and groups of contacts.

2.2.1.1Adding a Contact

Click on the “Add Contact” button and enter the contact details in the dialog box as shown below.

Clicking on the link above will bring up the following dialog box:

2.2.1.2Batch Upload Contacts

This option allows for direct uploading to the Phone Book from a .csv file. Entries must be in the stipulated format and no other information must exist in the file, else entries will be incorrectly added. The system will not duplicate entries and will validate as if they were entered manually.

Clicking on the link above will bring up the following dialog box:

2.2.1.3Delete Multiple Contacts

Deleting multiple contacts is made easy with this option. Clicking on any contact will highlight it. Use the search box to filter contacts to select.

2.2.1.4Delete a Single Contact

Click on a contact’s “delete” button to delete it permanently.

After confirming, deleted contacts cannot be recovered.

2.2.1.5Edit Contacts

Clicking on a contact’s “edit” button will bring up the edit dialog box. Change required fields as required and reselect groups to be linked to (optional). Leave the groups option blank to leave the linked groups as-is.

2.2.2My Groups

Groups are useful when the user has many contacts and wants to aggregate them appropriately – for example, grouping all Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s clients into separate groups.

2.2.2.1Add Group

A group needs to be created before any other related operations. Click on the “Add Group” button as shown below:

This will bring up the following dialog box:

2.2.2.2Manage Group (Link/Unlink Contacts)

After a group is created, contacts need to be added to make it useful. This menu allows for inserting and removing of contacts to and from groups.

The same process applies when removing contacts except that “Remove from Group” is used.

2.3Calender

The Calender menu is useful when different graphical views are required by the user.

2.3.1.1Date View

Dates when scheduled messages are to be sent are annotated. Previously scheduled messages are also shown for convenience. Clicking on a date will bring up a dialog box showing the user service account and scheduled time of send.

2.3.1.2Scheduled Messages Table

A table view also exists, in which all future scheduled messages are displayed..

CONFIDENTIALPage 1 of 23