FireText Communications Limited

FireText UK Secure SMS (Official) SMS Text Messaging

SMS Text Messaging: FireText provide a secure, trusted and easy to use SMS platform. UK cloud based SMS platform allowing 2 way SMS text messaging. Accredited to ISO27001, Cyber Essentials and NHS DSP Toolkit standards. The platform is penetration tested by a CESG CHECK accredited company on an annual basis.

Features

  • Integrate with 1000+ other software platforms including MJog and AccuRx
  • SMS Marketing
  • SMS Tracking
  • URL Tracking
  • SMS Delivery Reporting
  • International SMS and International HLR
  • Keywords & Auto-Replies
  • Integrated Developer SMS API
  • Personalised Bulk SMS
  • Scheduled text messages

Benefits

  • Reduce costs compared to other communication protocols
  • Reduce missed appointments or meetings
  • Improve speed of communication with end users
  • Notify end users of last minute disruption to journeys
  • Quickly notify stakeholders of time critical information
  • Align with Digital by Default ethos
  • UK located private cloud servers
  • Easily Integrated SMS
  • Use SMS via existing software platforms
  • Hand-Holding Support provided in the UK

Pricing

£0.02 to £0.04 a instance

Service documents

Framework

G-Cloud 12

Service ID

8 4 7 7 3 7 2 1 4 4 9 5 5 8 8

Contact

FireText Communications Limited

James Huff

0800 038 5522

gcloud@firetext.co.uk

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
What software services is the service an extension to
Zapier, Freshdesk, Zendesk, Mjog, Frontdesk, accuRx
Cloud deployment model
Community cloud
Service constraints
International SMS and HLR availability can vary on a country by country basis, and even on a network by network basis within each country. There may be specific requirements in order for international SMS to be successful, and FireText will endeavour to provide the most accurate guidance available. Examples would be some countries require pre-registration of service, and others require all messages to be sent from a local reply number.
System requirements
  • Requires internet connection
  • Access to a browser that supports TLS 1.2 or above
  • API requests must be made using TLS 1.2 or above

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
1 hour during normal office hours, 4 hours outside normal office hours. Normal office hours are Monday to Friday, 0900 to 1730 (excluding bank holidays).
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
No
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support
Web chat
Web chat support availability
9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
Web chat support accessibility standard
None or don’t know
How the web chat support is accessible
N/A
Web chat accessibility testing
None
Onsite support
No
Support levels
FireText provide web chat, free phone and email support during normal office hours. Outside of normal office hours, email support is available for technical issues. All support requests are escalated to the appropriate department internally, at no additional cost.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
On-boarding is really simple and straightforward. The FireText® platform is available through your web browser, and setting up an account is completely free of charge. To get started just visit www.firetext.co.uk/pricing/trial/gcloud and type in your details to create an account. You can upload your contacts immediately using a .csv file or by pasting them into the easy-to-use contact uploader. Once you have SMS credits on your account messages can be sent straight away, or scheduled for a later date. Payment can be made instantly using a credit card, or by speaking with the support team, where credits can be added on receipt of a valid purchase order number. On-boarding support is available through online chat, email and over the telephone during normal office hours.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Data can be downloaded as a csv file, including sent messages, received messages and contacts. Account data can be obfuscated on account closure, upon request to the support team.
End-of-contract process
Off-boarding is very simple and straightforward, customers can use the platform for as many (or as few) SMS campaigns as required. There are no long term contracts when using the FireText® SMS platform. Off-boarding support is available through online chat, email and over the telephone during normal office hours. Off-boarding is provided at no additional cost.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 10
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari 9+
  • Opera
Application to install
No
Designed for use on mobile devices
Yes
Differences between the mobile and desktop service
Users can send/schedule messages to individuals and existing groups, review messages and campaigns that have been sent as well as delivery and click reports. Users can download data, but cannot upload csv files.
Service interface
Yes
Description of service interface
The FireText service can be accessed via web platform or API. Users need to have access to the internet to be able to connect, and web pages are also mobile optimised.
Accessibility standards
None or don’t know
Description of accessibility
The FireText system has been built to run without the requirement of JavaScript in a lesser capacity. All images have clear alt tags. Text is used for all buttons and functions, and as such can be manipulated for a variety of cases using popular in-built and add-on browser functionality.
Accessibility testing
No formal testing
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Customers must already have either a full or trial account with FireText to utilise the API. Customers can send and receive messages via the API, as well as check credit, manage contacts, schedule messages, access message reports, create sub accounts, transfer credit to sub accounts, add message templates, and manage keywords including adding forwarding rules. Authentication is via either username and password or via apiKey. API requests are only supported using TLS 1.2 or above.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Other
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
FireText account managers can enable features on the web platform upon request. Sub accounts can be enabled, message templates, fixed SMS sender ID, international sending, country specific contact validation, branded URL shortener, restriction of data uploads and downloads, sharing of pooled credits between sub accounts, sharing of suppression list with sub accounts.

Scaling

Independence of resources
HA Load balancers are present at each data centre. From here, it is possible to spread load across multiple servers to deliver services. We operate Ansible playbooks to allow for quick provisioning of additional servers, should our monitoring indicate failures or the need for additional resources.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
Delivery reports, click reports and credit usage.
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
Government security clearance
Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
United Kingdom
User control over data storage and processing locations
No
Datacentre security standards
Managed by a third party
Penetration testing frequency
At least once a year
Penetration testing approach
‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
Protecting data at rest
Physical access control, complying with another standard
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
Equipment disposal approach
A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
Data can be downloaded as a csv file, including sent messages, received messages and contacts
Data export formats
CSV
Data import formats
CSV

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
Other protection within supplier network
FireText utilise firewalls and access controls to restrict communications between systems in our network.

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
FireText will guarantee 98% monthly availability of the Services, between 8:00am and 11:00pm Monday to Sunday. Should the FireText SLA be violated and the customer has made a pre-purchase of SMS credits, the customer can request a refund of any remaining credits (less any administration costs, such as G-Cloud management charge fees).
Approach to resilience
We operate in multiple geographically separated datacentres with multiple clusters within each datacentre. More information is available on request
Outage reporting
FireText use StatusPage for communication during outages. Users can view the StatusPage here: http://status.firetext.co.uk/ and can also subscribe via this page to receive updates via email.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Username or password
  • Other
Other user authentication
Users are authenticated through the web platform with a username and password. Through the API authentication can be done with a username and password or an apiKey. Additionally, 2 factor authentication can be enabled.
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
FireText management enable access control for all members of staff, and permissions are managed as required. Permissions are managed independently for interfaces as well as support channels. Access can be restricted at various levels, including complete or partial restriction.
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users contact the support team to get audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
At least 12 months
How long system logs are stored for
At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
The British Assessment Bureau
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
7/8/2015
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
N/a
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • DSP toolkit
  • Cyber Essentials
  • DataSeal

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
Other security governance standards
DSP Toolkit, Cyber essentials and DataSeal
Information security policies and processes
As per our ISMS Manual, the management are committed to defining and establishing our ISMS policy. This includes, but not limited to, defining objectives, the roles and responsibilities, approach to risk assessment, regular audits and continued improvements. Training is provided to all staff when they join, and at least on an annual basis. All staff can report directly to SIRO.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
FireText adopt a strict version control for all source code and configuration, so we can investigate and rollback deployments as required. Maintenance of physical components is managed by our accredited datacentre provider, and components are tracked using reporting tools such as Runscope and Opsgenie. All changes are assessed for security impact.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
FireText monitor and apply patches and updates when they become available. The infrastructure is designed with security as the priority. Any potential threats are mitigated through the design of the infrastructure, the servers & datacentre configuration, and is re-enforced by external annual penetration testing by an approved 3rd party security company. Threats are monitored via information provided by National Cyber Security Centre.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Our systems are behind multiple layers of security, we proactively monitor for abnormal activities and investigate any alerts triggered immediately
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
Incidents are communicated with all customers. We use an external platform that allows for regular updates to be communicated. This includes initial report of incident, the investigation into the incident, the status of the incident, right through to resolution. Incidents are followed up by a 'post-mortem' of which details the incident. All of which are communicated instantly via email to subscribed customers. Users can report incidents through the normal support channels.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
No

Pricing

Price
£0.02 to £0.04 a instance
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
Yes
Description of free trial
Setting up a free trial account online gives access to the full web platform, which can also be accessed via the API. Users receive 10 free trial SMS credits for testing - credits do not expire. Users can send SMS, create groups and upload contacts.
Link to free trial
Www.firetext.co.uk/pricing/trial/gcloud

Service documents

Return to top ↑