SMS case data submission

Users
1

Hi all,
Currently, commcare app submits data through either GPRS or wifi (Internet related platforms) I hope I am right?

Is there any immediate or remote plans to make submissions through SMS even if it takes up-to 3 or even 4 SMS PER case.

thank you
-Emeka Chukwu-

··· Sent from my iPhone
2

Hi Emeka -

We had discussed this in detail several months ago, but have not had enough
people needing this feature to justify it. Currently, CommCare can submit
data either via GPRS or Wifi. What is the use case that you are asking the
question for? We've only had one country (Philippines) where there was
significant areas of coverage without GPRS (edge or 3g) but did have SMS
coverage.

Cheers,
Jonathan

··· On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 3:33 PM, Emeka2015 wrote:

Hi all,
Currently, commcare app submits data through either GPRS or wifi (Internet
related platforms) I hope I am right?

Is there any immediate or remote plans to make submissions through SMS
even if it takes up-to 3 or even 4 SMS PER case.

thank you
-Emeka Chukwu-
Sent from my iPhone

3

Thank you do much Jonathan for the speedy response. We are currently piloting a decision support app for facility ANC. And jus last week, while discussing with some government representatives and demoing the app for them here in Nigeria. Their main concern was that the monthly data plan (for case submission) can easily grow to unsustainable proportions especially if scale up was approved nationwide.
The second issue was that in many remote communities, there could be mobile service and no Internet.

-Emeka Chukwu-

··· Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2012, at 9:47 PM, Jonathan Jackson jjackson@dimagi.com wrote:

Hi Emeka -

We had discussed this in detail several months ago, but have not had enough people needing this feature to justify it. Currently, CommCare can submit data either via GPRS or Wifi. What is the use case that you are asking the question for? We've only had one country (Philippines) where there was significant areas of coverage without GPRS (edge or 3g) but did have SMS coverage.

Cheers,
Jonathan

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 3:33 PM, Emeka2015 emeka2015@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
Currently, commcare app submits data through either GPRS or wifi (Internet related platforms) I hope I am right?

Is there any immediate or remote plans to make submissions through SMS even if it takes up-to 3 or even 4 SMS PER case.

thank you
-Emeka Chukwu-
Sent from my iPhone

4

Hi Emeka -

For Nigeria - how much is data and what are the available plans?
Typically, in Africa, when we've modeling costs its much cheaper to do
data than SMS (even if SMS were theoretically possible, which its not for
your case). Back of the envelop calcs: if SMS is around 4 cents USD, and
each form takes 4 SMS messages, and one return message to very receipt,
then each form will cost around .20 USD. at 10 visits per day, that's 2.00
per day in transmission costs; assuming 20 working days, that's $80/mo in
transmission costs just for the forms. That also doesn't account for any
other data needs like auto-updating forms, submitting logging information,
or synchronizing case data.

I'm sending you a spreadsheet you can play with off thread to determine
cost of SMS vs. GPRS.

cheers,
Jonathan

··· On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Emeka2015 wrote:

Thank you do much Jonathan for the speedy response. We are currently
piloting a decision support app for facility ANC. And jus last week, while
discussing with some government representatives and demoing the app for
them here in Nigeria. Their main concern was that the monthly data plan
(for case submission) can easily grow to unsustainable proportions
especially if scale up was approved nationwide.
The second issue was that in many remote communities, there could be
mobile service and no Internet.

-Emeka Chukwu-
Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2012, at 9:47 PM, Jonathan Jackson jjackson@dimagi.com wrote:

Hi Emeka -

We had discussed this in detail several months ago, but have not had
enough people needing this feature to justify it. Currently, CommCare can
submit data either via GPRS or Wifi. What is the use case that you are
asking the question for? We've only had one country (Philippines) where
there was significant areas of coverage without GPRS (edge or 3g) but did
have SMS coverage.

Cheers,
Jonathan

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 3:33 PM, Emeka2015 emeka2015@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,
Currently, commcare app submits data through either GPRS or wifi
(Internet related platforms) I hope I am right?

Is there any immediate or remote plans to make submissions through SMS
even if it takes up-to 3 or even 4 SMS PER case.

thank you
-Emeka Chukwu-
Sent from my iPhone

5

Thank you So much Jonathan,
I was not actually thinking of paying per-SMS. Some organisations already
has SMS servers with short codes that they pay in bulk.
Thanx
-Emeka-

··· On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 12:54 AM, Jonathan Jackson wrote:

Hi Emeka -

For Nigeria - how much is data and what are the available plans?
Typically, in Africa, when we've modeling costs its much cheaper to do
data than SMS (even if SMS were theoretically possible, which its not for
your case). Back of the envelop calcs: if SMS is around 4 cents USD, and
each form takes 4 SMS messages, and one return message to very receipt,
then each form will cost around .20 USD. at 10 visits per day, that's 2.00
per day in transmission costs; assuming 20 working days, that's $80/mo in
transmission costs just for the forms. That also doesn't account for any
other data needs like auto-updating forms, submitting logging information,
or synchronizing case data.

I'm sending you a spreadsheet you can play with off thread to determine
cost of SMS vs. GPRS.

cheers,
Jonathan

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Emeka2015 emeka2015@gmail.com wrote:

Thank you do much Jonathan for the speedy response. We are currently
piloting a decision support app for facility ANC. And jus last week, while
discussing with some government representatives and demoing the app for
them here in Nigeria. Their main concern was that the monthly data plan
(for case submission) can easily grow to unsustainable proportions
especially if scale up was approved nationwide.
The second issue was that in many remote communities, there could be
mobile service and no Internet.

-Emeka Chukwu-
Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2012, at 9:47 PM, Jonathan Jackson jjackson@dimagi.com wrote:

Hi Emeka -

We had discussed this in detail several months ago, but have not had
enough people needing this feature to justify it. Currently, CommCare can
submit data either via GPRS or Wifi. What is the use case that you are
asking the question for? We've only had one country (Philippines) where
there was significant areas of coverage without GPRS (edge or 3g) but did
have SMS coverage.

Cheers,
Jonathan

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 3:33 PM, Emeka2015 emeka2015@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,
Currently, commcare app submits data through either GPRS or wifi
(Internet related platforms) I hope I am right?

Is there any immediate or remote plans to make submissions through SMS
even if it takes up-to 3 or even 4 SMS PER case.

thank you
-Emeka Chukwu-
Sent from my iPhone

--
-Emeka-