txttools limited

On Monday 26th March, the tech team released a new version of the site, bringing QR code support for Inbox Rules and Contacts. For more info on how to use these, please contact the support team.

The txttools team in Leeds are proud to announce a significant transition. Since we joined Blackboard over a year ago, we’ve made significant progress to bring our organisations and our product lines closer, and we believe it’s time that our name reflects that progress. Therefore, starting today, our business will be known as Blackboard Connect™ and our two-way messaging service will be called Blackboard ConnectTxt™.

Whilst our name is changing, nothing changes about the service you’ve come to expect. Blackboard ConnectTxt has the same powerful two-way, feature rich messaging technology. The same support team is here to assist you. The same development team is working to deliver more power, features and functionality. We will continue to invest in ConnectTxt’s two-way messaging technology to keep you ahead of the latest communications trends.

Nothing changes about the way we serve you, but our deeper integration within the Blackboard family means that you’ll benefit from being part of the worldwide community of Blackboard users. It gives us an even greater ability to invest in new messaging technologies for you. It also brings with it a companion solution that can help turbo-charge your communications programmes: Blackboard Connect 5, the leading enterprise-level, multi-modal, multi-lingual mass notification service that is used around the world by education, government and private sector institutions.

This week, you’ll begin to see some changes to our website that reflect our new identity. Whilst our new home page has an updated look and feel, it retains all of the same functionality of the previous site. You still log in the same way; you can still download the same plugins and extensions; and you can still access best practices and information allowing you to make the most of your notification investment.

The new website will have a new location: www.bbconnecttxt.com, and whilst the existing address will remain active for a long time, we encourage you to update your browser’s bookmarks.

Blackboard Connect 5 and Blackboard ConnectTxt share one goal: to help you communicate with your audience quickly and easily, on the devices that they use and value most. It’s all about helping you Connect with confidence™.

If you have any questions about what this change means for you, please reach out to your support team at +44 (0) 113 234 2111 or txttoolssupport@blackboard.com today.

The weekend’s upgrade and maintenance of txttools resulted in a change of IP address. If you use any of our APIs, you may need to update your URLs/whitelists etc. Please get in touch with us for more info.

The weekend’s upgrade and maintenance of txttools has been completed.
All services are fully functional.

IMPORTANT:
This does NOT apply to the US site.
This weekend, txttools will undergo essential maintenance on Sunday, 29 January between the hours of midnight and 4 am GMT/UTC.
During that period, users will be unable to log into txttools accounts to send messages, check inboxes, manage settings, or other functions. All messages scheduled to be sent within this timeframe will be sent after the service restarts. All inbound messages will be queued and processed by the service when it restarts.
As part of this maintenance, we will also be moving our Application Programming Interface (APIs) to a new server altogether. Clients that use txttools APIs may need to adjust their firewall settings, so that the new txttools servers continue to be whitelisted by your institution, and messages are delivered without interruption. Otherwise, your txttools integration may cease to work on Sunday morning – and no one wants that!
If you think this change will affect you, please contact txttoolstechies@blackboard.com to be advised of the new IP address.

Due to temporary technical difficulties emails sent to support@txttools.co.uk cannot currently reach us. Whilst the service is being restored, please make use of our live chat facility or call us directly on 0113 234 2111 or 07817 577 380.

Email2txt messages are also not being processed. Please check this space as we will keep you updated when you can attempt to resend them again.

With kind regards,
the Client Care team

Our 9th event will be held on Tuesday 8th November at The University of Edinburgh.

This one day event is designed to give you an insight into how organisations are utilising sms technology to dramatically improve the way they communicate with their staff, customers, patients and clients.

You will have the opportunity to see presentations from Local Councils, Police, Local government and the Education
Community.

For more information see our website home page or register here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHpGLVk5ckMxdUUtRU1oUTFMUncyY1E6MQ

The txttools tech team are proud to announce the launch of txttools mobile for iPhone/iPad. The app allows txttools customers to send messages to groups in their txttools account. There is also an emergency feature which speeds up sending messages to multiple groups.

This great new tool enables you to send messages to your whole organisation from your phone when you can’t access a computer, for example if you realised your workplace was inaccessible due to bad weather, floods, fire etc…

The application is free to all txttools account holders and follows the release of the txttools mobile for Android which became available in Spring 2011, which has been well received.

Check out our youtube video demo!

To arrange a live demonstration of the txttools application (including mobile apps) call 0113 234 2111, email info@txttools.co.uk or visit www.txttools.co.uk.

Innovative service wins prestigious 2011 Mobile Messaging Award

Bedfordshire Police has successfully embraced real time text messaging to reassure the public during recent protests in Luton, the largest policing operation in the force’s history. It deployed a web-based SMS package from Blackboard Connect (www.txttools.co.uk ) during a major demonstration by the English Defence League (EDL) and counter protest by Unite Against Fascism in February 2011. Overwhelmingly positive public feedback on the service was one of the key reasons Bedfordshire Police has just won the public sector category at the influential international 2011 Mobile Messaging Awards. The innovative solution opened up a new, live communication channel to residents, shoppers and businesses affected by the protests that was simple to use and provided a trusted source of information. By helping the police to respond in real time to the developing protest and quash rumours, it enabled the police to reassure the public and keep control of a potentially inflammatory situation.

Over 1,600 people registered to receive text updates, using a unique short code and the memorable keyword Police. This was publicised heavily in all public communications, including the force’s Facebook page and through Bluetooth units ahead of the demonstration on 5th February 2011. Thirty four messages were sent in the lead up to and on the day itself, accounting for over 41,000 individual texts. Messages ranged from information about road closures and bus diversions, through to news updates as the day unfolded and quelling inaccurate rumours about shops and a mosque being attacked. Bedfordshire Police Marketing Manager Andy Jones said, “In terms of numbers, what we achieved with the text message service was impressive. Its true value though, can be seen in the reaction we had from the users of the service. I was staggered by the range of people who wrote in after the protest to thank us for our updates and to tell us what a difference it made to them.”

An added benefit for the force was how the messages were used in social media. The Force was posting updates to its website and Facebook page, but does not have a Twitter account. Nevertheless, the Corporate Communications team were monitoring Twitter and were able to see that within just a few seconds, the text messages were being tweeted and re-tweeted by news organisations, journalists and private individuals.

Stephen McCann, VP & Managing Director UK, Blackboard Connect comments, “In a quickly changing and difficult situation such as the Luton demonstrations reassuring the public by providing fast, trusted information was imperative for Bedfordshire Police. The ease of use and immediacy of text messaging coupled with the reliability, simplicity and flexibility of our solution provided the perfect channel for communication, supporting police operations and ensuring the situation remained under control. This success has been recognised by the project winning the prestigious 2011 Mobile Messaging Award in the public sector category – and the incredible positive public feedback received by Bedfordshire Police.”

Held in association with 160 Characters, the Mobile Messaging Awards celebrate the very best in messaging innovation and development. With the award ceremony held as part of the Global Messaging and VAS Congress, 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of the awards. Through its Blackboard Connect solutions, Blackboard has helped thousands of schools, universities and local governments send billions of critical messages. Reasons why clients rely on the solution include:

• Experience – more than 2 billion messages sent to date; averaging 41 million messages delivered per month
• Capacity – ability to send more than 6.8 million messages per hour
• Satisfaction – 96 percent of clients are satisfied overall with our mass notification system

moodletxt 2.4 has now been released! This is a major upgrade, with many bugfixes, compatibility upgrades and a new authentication system.