Boomerang Review

A Notification Solution Built Based On MS-SQL Server

The capability of Boomerang to help users communicate with stakeholders in a timely and effective manner lies in its powerful architecture. Boomerang is a bolt-on solution for MS-SQL Server, and that can be observed from how its application interface is designed. The solution is comprised of a database which is integrated with a set notification services. These notification services are represented by table objects or database objects.

The database objects or table objects are classified into two:  outbound notifications and inbound notifications. It is important to understand how these objects work because they define how users can communicate with stakeholders, whether they are sending emails, faxing, or twittering.

Events

Events, jobs, event contents, event statuses, event logs, and event handlers are the database objects that comprise the outbound notifications. Events are like application tasks and they are represented by event records. Although these event records do not contain the data need to be delivered, they carry important data that connect the events to the sources that generated them. These data can include help desk id, customer order number, or a client lead unique identifier

Jobs

Jobs are used to define the data that users need to deliver. Such data depend on the type of job being used. For instance, an e-mail job contains data like e-mail subject and body, while a print job can specify data about a printer path.

Event Contents

Meanwhile, event contents are the attachments and contents that can be included in the jobs. Event contents are organized in a common table storage. As an example, a fax job can have a report attach to it.

Event Statuses

Events statuses define the schedules for the jobs and how often the jobs should be repeated. For instance, event statuses can specify when jobs need to be done immediately or if they have to be delayed for a specific time period. In addition, they define the number of times and time intervals when jobs need to be repeated in case of a failure.

Event Logs

While Boomerang processes jobs, it keeps event logs regardless of the results. Through the aid of a feedback mechanism, some jobs will generate event logs based on the notifications or reports they receive from targeted devices.

Event Handlers

To continue processing notification events once they are completed, Boomerang utilizes event handlers. Event handlers can also be called to generate new outbound notifications.

Tracking Feature For Inbound Email And SMS Notifications

For incoming notifications, Bommerang offers a tracking feature. This is applied to incoming email and SMS notifications. Thus, when a particular incoming e-mail or text message is originally delivered by the solution as an outbound notification, such inbound e-mail or text message is tagged together with its outbound identifier.

Automate Meeting Requests

Boomerang comes with built-in features that users can take advantage of as they build notifications solutions using its framework. One of these features is the ability to send meeting requests, track responses to meeting requests, and cancel appointments automatically. What’s great abound this is that this feature can work on popular calendar applications such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and IBM Lotus Notes.

Collect Business Intelligence From Twitter

Another feature of Boomerang is that it allows users to gather business intelligence from Twitter Feed. Using simple SQL commands, the solution helps them process and evaluate data collected from Twitter. They will be able to track information from Twitter stream by filtering certain keywords or phrases. Also, they can follow Twitter accounts and receive updates from such accounts automatically.

Send Order Confirmations

Boomerang also is very useful in sending out order confirmations to customers. Without the need of navigating through complex applications, users can deliver order confirmations based on customers’  preferences.

Integrate With Fax Services

The notification framework supports integration with three fax services which are MS-FAX, RightFax, and the web-based service from FaxLogic. With its fax messaging integration capabilities, users will be able to automate their document workflow processes and increase productivity.

Automated SMS Notifications

Sending alerts, notifications, and information through text messaging is considered as one of the most efficient ways of communicating with customers and stakeholders. Because of this, Boomerang provides users with the capability to send and receive SMS messages and notifications automatically. Boomerang works with the SMS infrastructure of Twilio, a cloud-based communications platform used for creating SMS, video, and voice applications. If users have multiple numbers linked to their Twilio account, they have the option to select which number they want to send SMS notifications from.

Boomerang permits users to set up SMS messages based on what they want their customers to be reminded and alerted about. They can easily assemble these messages and insert all the records they need. The SMS notification services in Boomerang are built with triggers. Thus, text messages are delivered depending on the events that trigger them. Users can also query threaded conversations compiled from SMS messages.