Send SMS Notification When You Receive an Important Office 365 Email

Problem

In order to monitor our databases servers, many email alerts have been setup in SQL Server to help us know what's happening on the server. It is really helpful for the monitoring and trouble shooting for the database servers. However, it causes the flood of email to my index. Some email alerts need my immediate attention, for example a production is in critical condition, need me to fix it right away. I may miss it just because I cannot read so many email and tell this one is much more important than the others.

Solution

There are several methods to setup special notifications for important office 365 emails:

Method 1. iPhone VIP email alerts.

The iOS email client allow users to add some contacts (for example your boss) as VIP senders, therefore receive VIP email notifications when an email from VIP sender enters the inbox. My cell phone is an Android phone, so this method does not work for me.

Method 2. Office 365 Email Text Message feature
Office 365 email support text message, which can be easily setup:

Limitations: it only support Bell and Telus in Canada. Since I am with Rogers, neither does this method work for me.

Method 3. Email to Text Feature (Cell Phone Carriers) and Office 365 Email Index Rules

Most cell phone carriers provide email to text feature, which can send you a text message once an email was sent to your phone's email inbox. I am with Rogers, my phone's email address is 10digitphonenumber@pcs.rogers.com. This is how I setup my SMS notifications:

1. Add 10digitphonenumber@pcs.rogers.com as a contact in Office 365
2. Create an inbox rule in Office 365 to forward important emails to 10digitphonenumber@pcs.rogers.com

You will get a SMS every time you have received an important email.