| What can I use txt4shools for?
txt4schools can both send and receive texts so its use is almost limitless.
- It's ideal to alert individual parents of unexplained absences.
- It can be used to text groups of pupils to promote school activities, or text groups of teachers or governors to remind them of a meeting.
- An easy channel of communication to recieve information back from students.
- It can be used for school campaigns - for example a reporting system for anti-bullying initiatives.
- It is an ideal way to send messages in emergencies such as an unexpected school closure.
How secure is the system? How do you prevent other people accessing the informaion?
We take security very seriously and include a number of measures as standard - the information stored and the messages sent or received are fully secure. These measures include password protection, data encryption, Secure Socket Layers (SSL), challenge response and IP-based authorisation.
Along side the built-in system we provide recommended good practices for schools to maintain a high level of security.
We can provide a technical specification on request. Do I need to install any software on my computer?
No. txt4schools is a web-based console. You can manage messages and contact lists with any internet browser such as Internet Explorer. It also means that users can access the system via any internet connected PC. Click here for more information on using the txt4schools system. Who can use it?
When the console is installed a unique administrator username and password is allocated. This super administrator can then add further users (up to 9 more) and provide them with access to their unique contact lists via their own username and password. What's to stop users sending unlimited texts?
Only the system's super administrator has the facility to buy text message credits. These can then be allocated in blocks to specific users. What happens to texts sent to the system? Where can I see them?
Mobile phone users can send texts into to the system by starting a message with a specific keyword. You decide what that keyword will be - for example the school's name. The allocated user for that keyword will receive the message by email. They can also view and reply to the messages received in the txt4schools console. How do we keep up with people who change their mobile phone numbers?
The system itself won't know when someone has changed their number - it will be up to the phone user to keep the school informed. However, the system will notify you if a messages has not been received or if it has failed because the number is no longer in use. Do we need to regulate kind of messages that we send?
The system stores all sent and received messages which the System Administrator can view.
We also recommend that any school or authority using the system has their own Acceptable Use Policy. This will detail the kind of messages that system users can send and the type of information that mobile users will receive.
txt4schools can provide an example policy. We already have a database with school information. Can txt4schools integrate with this?
txt4schools can work in conjuction with any database. The integration will depend on how and where the information is stored in the database. | 
