I have been working to replace our internal SMS notification system with one that was not dependent on our servers, power and applications being up.
I found Twilio a while ago, but never had time to play with the service. Long story short, we finally got things up and running this week, and it really is awesome.
I put our our code on a Dreamhost account we have for our WordPress blogs. Basically we wanted anyone on the IT Staff to be able to send a text message and have that message rebroadcast to the whole IT Staff, so we could all be aware of developing situations and problems. So, even if network or power is out on the whole campus, we can send a message.
The Twilio tutorials gave us exactly what we needed, and pricing is a very affordable 1ยข per message, you pay $1 a month for a phone number.
We also, added a password protected page that had a web form that our students assistants could use to notify staff.
I am looking at where else we can utilize Twilio for other services campus, and replacing some of our other higher cost SMS services. (We currently let users sign up for text messages reminders of calendar events and students get SMS reminders for course evaluations.)
Drop me any questions in the comments sections. Also, I would love to hear if you have used Twilio or another service and what your experience has been.
