Unified Communications

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  • 1.  SMS with Workplace

    Posted 03-09-2021 10:14 AM
    Anyone doing SMS through their IX Workplace, with a different vendor than their PSTN Carrier?    Our PSTN is Lumen, and looking at possible using Twilio for SMS only, If I  can get the SMS to work through the Avaya client. 


    Thoughts?  things to  look out for?  

    >mike

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    Michael Goodwin
    Sr Comm Engineer
    Toll Brothers, Inc.
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  • 2.  RE: SMS with Workplace

    Posted 03-09-2021 10:46 AM
    We do.

    What you need to do is called a "split port" where NueStar (or whomever your country's database of phone numbers is) has a separate carrier for Voice, SMS and MMS.  You can request a carrier only take over the SMS or MMS portion.

    Twilio does not do those requests -- they only do full ports from carriers for existing numbers.

    We have had success with Avaya CPaaS (Zang.io) for doing split ports.  Some other carriers know how to do them as well, but you need to ask first.

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    Nick Kwiatkowski
    Director of Design and Engineering
    Michigan State University
    East Lansing MI
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  • 3.  RE: SMS with Workplace

    Posted 03-09-2021 11:04 AM
    I'm outside Philly, I  know some people think we are bad, but we are still in the US, so NueStar still applies here :) 

    How have you  found the Zang for the SMS portion?   I'd much rather keep  it with Avaya, and how is the interfacing to  the Workplace client?   With zang can you  set a retention period of the SMS messages?

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    Michael Goodwin
    Sr Comm Engineer
    Toll Brothers, Inc.
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  • 4.  RE: SMS with Workplace

    Posted 03-09-2021 11:21 AM
    I've found Zang to be acceptable for SMS hosting.  If you are used to Twilio, it has 95% of the features if you are doing just the API integration.  I've uncovered a few bugs when working on the MMS side, but not enough to switch platforms.

    If you want to interface with the Workplace client, you need to build your own integration.  One does not exist.  There are connectors on the Breeze level, but you still have to do something with the client then.  

    There are retention periods setup by default in their logs for debugging.  You can email them to change that value for your account (I think it may be a year by default).  But for production delivery of messages, it's 100% up to you.  They pretty much provide an API and that's about it... Once a message is delivered, it's gone.  (No different than Twilio in that case)

    -Nick

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    Nick Kwiatkowski
    Director of Design and Engineering
    Michigan State University
    East Lansing MI
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