Erin Salmon - Unleash wrote:
We actually use a Nokia cellphone and a data cable. I'm not aware of a method which guarantees delivery. We are in the CBD and I note sometimes when all those nightclubbers are frantically messaging each other messages occasionally don't make it to the recipient. Best solution to my mind is just to send a message periodically until a reply is sent to the system to dismiss the notification.
That is a reasonably practical solution. It has the nice side effect of ensuring that even if the message does get delivered, whoever is on call isn't ignoring it. I looked at this a while ago, and used an external mail-to-SMS provider (Bulletin Wireless) which worked fine. Obviously having an out-of-band path to them is also handy. As someone else mentioned, Telecom's analog paging service is also reliable and easy to automate. Pagers tend to work when out of cell coverage or in deep dark basements.