Portfolio of Keith ElderMessenger
by Keith Elder
About Messenger
Messenger provides a standardized way for applications to send a variety of messages including, email, text messages, and in the future can support additional needs like instant messaging. Messenger was built first to send text messages to any cell phone. It provides the infrastructure to handle large volumes of SMS Text messages using Sonic to queue messages delivered to cell phones via a third party. All messages sent are saved for auditing purposes which can be then consumed or shown in other applications like Mobius.
Architecture
There are several pieces that makeup Messenger.
First there is the .NET API that is included in Rock Framework. The framework provides .NET developers with a simple and reusable API to send all types of messages in their applications.
Second, there is a windows service that handles all messages sent from the .Net API. It routes the messages to their respective provider (Twilio, Twitter, Responsys, Facebook...).
Third, there is a user interface on the application dashboard within the CORE website that allows business analyst and engineers to be able to search and view messages that were sent or received from Core Messenger.
Messenger Integrations
The primary integration for Messenger was Responsys, our third party vendor that handled Marketing Campaigns for email and text.
Business Impact
- Allowed our team members to get notifications when things happened in our business (flooding, technology alerts, etc).
- Allowed our clients to receive marketing communications via text.
- When sending mass texts, there are limits at each carrier as to how many texts an standard US phone number can send. Having a Short Code (a five or six digit number), allowed us to send mass texts to our clients.
- Was used to develop a proof of concept called QText whereby bankers could text clients and clients could text bankers.