SM Space · Alerts & Notifications
Alerts and Notifications Software for Your Whole System
SM Space Notifications is the alerts and notifications software inside the SM Space ERP system. Any part of the system hands it a message — an approval waiting, an RFQ going to suppliers, a credit limit passed — and it writes the wording, queues it, and sends it by email, text, chat or the app. Every attempt is recorded, and anyone who has opted out is checked first.
Five ways to reach somebody, and one opt-out list that every one of them is checked against.
Last updated: September 2026
Something happens, someone is told
RFQ-000188 issued · 3 suppliers · RFQ-000188.pdf attached
- Queuedhanded over by purchasing
- Sentyour own mail server
- Delivered09:14
no module in SM Space talks to a mail server — they all hand it here
The one that did not go
same send, three suppliers
- Northgate Fabricationsent09:14
- Summit Metalssent09:14
- Braemar Ltdprovider down09:14
- retry, one minute laterno answer09:15
- retry, two minutes laterno answer09:17
- retry, four minutes latersent09:21
the wait doubles up to an hour; after the last attempt it stops on a list you can see
Three spellings, one person
opt-out list holds +14165550134
- +1 (416) 555-0134✗ not sentsame person
- +1-416-555-0134✗ not sentsame person
- email — licence expiry✓ sentthey stopped texts, not everything
bare 4165550134 — no country code → not guessed
inventing a +1 is how an alert reaches a stranger
Above: an RFQ going out to three suppliers with the PDF attached; one send failing because the provider was down and retrying with a longer wait each time — a minute, then two, then four — until it succeeds; and an opt-out list recognising three spellings of the same phone number as one person, while still sending that person their licence expiry reminder by email, because stopping texts is not stopping everything. A number typed with no country code is left exactly as it is rather than guessed.
What you can do
- Get told when an approval is waiting on you, in the app or by email
- Reach people on Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Discord, Telegram, text or WhatsApp
- Send documents to suppliers and customers with the PDF attached
- Write your own wording for each of the 22 things the system can tell people about
- Use your own mail server, or a sending service
- Keep an opt-out list that is checked on every single send
- Stop one kind of message without stopping the others
- See what is queued, what failed, and what has been given up on
01
Messages That Do Not Get Lost
A message is not sent and forgotten. It goes into a queue, and a worker picks it up from there, sweeping every thirty seconds for anything due.
If your mail provider is down at 09:14, the first retry is a minute later. Then two minutes, then four, doubling up to an hour, until it goes through or the attempts run out. Nothing hammers a provider that is already struggling.
A message that runs out of attempts stops and stays on a list somebody can see and resend, rather than vanishing. Every attempt is recorded — so “did the supplier get the RFQ?” has an answer that is not “I think so”. And two copies of the worker can never pick up the same message, so nothing goes out twice.
RFQ-000188 issued to 3 suppliers RFQ-000188.pdf attached
- Northgate Fabrication sent 09:14
- Summit Metals sent 09:14
- Braemar Ltd provider down 09:14
- retry 1 of 5 09:15
- retry 2 of 5 09:17
- sent 09:21
A minute, then two, then four — the wait doubles up to an hour, so a provider that is already struggling is not hammered. After the last attempt the message stops and stays on a list somebody can see, rather than disappearing.
02
Opt-Outs That Actually Hold
+1 (416) 555-0134, +1-416-555-0134 and +14165550134 are the same person. If the opt-out list stores one spelling and a send uses another, the opt-out silently does nothing — the worst kind of failure, because everything on screen looks fine.
So every number is put into one standard form on the way into the opt-out list and on the way into a send. The two are then compared as the same thing, whichever way either was typed.
And the check runs inside the sending step itself, not in whichever module happened to be holding the phone number. That is the part that lasts: a module built next year inherits it without anyone remembering to add it.
On the list: +14165550134 stopped texts
- +1 (416) 555-0134 same person ✗ not sent
- +1-416-555-0134 same person ✗ not sent
- +14165550134 same person ✗ not sent
Every number is put into one standard form on the way into this list and on the way into a send, so a number stored one way and sent another is still the same person. The check runs inside the sending step, not in the module holding the number.
03
No Guessed Phone Numbers
A number typed as 4165550134, with no country code, could be Canadian. It could just as easily be the last ten digits of a number somewhere else entirely.
SM Space does not add a +1 to find out. Inventing a country code is how an alert about somebody’s expiring licence reaches a stranger.
Instead the number is matched against other numbers stored the same way — so an opt-out typed without a country code still holds — and your messaging provider, which knows which country your account is in, accepts it or rejects it. A rejection is recorded with its reason.
That is a decision to not be clever, and it is deliberate. This is exactly the kind of helpfulness that causes a data breach.
Typed on the record: 4165550134
- Could be Canada +1 416 555 0134 and could be the last ten digits of a number somewhere else entirely
- SM Space adds nothing a guessed country code is how a licence-expiry alert reaches a stranger
- Sent as 4165550134 your messaging provider knows which country your account is in — it accepts it or rejects it, and a rejection is recorded with its reason
Matching still works: a bare number is compared against other bare numbers stored the same way, so an opt-out typed without a country code still holds.
04
Per-Channel Preferences
Opt-outs are per channel. Somebody who asks to stop receiving text messages has not asked to stop hearing that their forklift licence expires next month, and SM Space treats those as two different requests.
So R. Okafor can be on the opt-out list for texts, off it for email, and still see approvals waiting on the bell in the app.
Obvious when you say it. Rarely built that way — most systems keep one “do not contact” box per person, and honouring a text opt-out quietly costs somebody the reminder they needed.
- Text messages +14165550134 opted out 4 Aug 2026 — nothing is sent here
- Email r.okafor@example.com not opted out — forklift licence expires 30 Oct, reminder sent
- In the app the bell approvals waiting on this person, wherever else they said no
The opt-out list is keyed on the channel as well as the person, so “stop texting me” is stored as exactly that and nothing else is read into it.
How SM Space alerts and notifications software compares
The one-line answers buyers usually ask for, and then the one that matters more — what it does not do.
- Email Your own mail server over SMTP, or SendGrid.
- Chat Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Discord and Telegram.
- Text and WhatsApp Through your own Twilio and Meta accounts.
- In the app A bell, for the people who work in SM Space.
- Your own wording 22 events, each with its own template and its own placeholders.
- Attachments An RFQ goes to suppliers with the PDF on it.
- Retry and give-up A failed send is retried at longer intervals, then parked where you can see it.
- Per-channel opt-out Checked inside the send itself, on every channel.
- Full send log Every attempt, with the reason it failed.
- Straight to the job An approval alert links to the Approve button, not to a menu.
- Cloud Runs in a web browser, nothing to install.
What it does not do. This is not marketing software: there are no campaigns, no mailing lists and no open tracking. It sends what the system needs to tell somebody, and nothing else. Text messages and WhatsApp run on your own account — you enter your own Twilio or Meta credentials and are billed by them directly, so the sender is your own number and we never resell messages. And it does not certify you against anything: the opt-out handling exists because CASL, TCPA and GDPR make honouring an opt-out a legal obligation, and it is built so an opt-out cannot silently fail — but whether what you send is lawful depends on what you send, to whom, and with what consent, and that part is yours.
How it fits with the rest of SM Space
No module in SM Space talks to a mail server. They all hand the message here.
- Workflow & approvals — 6 events hands over
- Sales & invoicing — 5 events hands over
- Purchasing — 3 events hands over
- HR & sign-in — 5 events hands over
- one Your templates — the wording, per event, in your words
- one The opt-out list — checked inside the send, on every channel
- one The outbox — what is queued, what failed, what was given up on
That is why the wording, the sending rules and the opt-out list are the same everywhere. Workflow and approvals hands over an approval that is waiting, with a link straight to the Approve button rather than to a menu. Purchasing and procurement hands over an RFQ with the PDF on it. Sales and invoicing hands over an overdue invoice, a delayed delivery or a credit limit passed. HR management hands over a document or a contract about to expire.
And a module that sends nothing today — reporting and dashboards, or Canadian payroll — needs no work here to start. It announces an event and hands over a message, and it inherits the templates, the queue, the retries and the opt-out list on its first day.
Who this alerts and notifications software is for
Companies of roughly 20 to 500 people. You found out about an order that needed approving when the supplier chased you — or the opposite, the system tells everybody everything and people have started filing it straight into a folder they never open. And somewhere there is a customer’s “please stop texting me” sitting in somebody’s inbox rather than in a system. SM Space is a cloud ERP system: it runs in a web browser, with nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
- What does SM Space Notifications do?
- It is the one place every part of SM Space sends a message from. A module hands it an event — an approval is waiting, an RFQ is going out, an invoice is overdue — and it writes the wording from your template, queues it, sends it by email, chat, text, WhatsApp or the bell in the app, and records every attempt. Anyone on the opt-out list is checked first.
- Can we use our own email server?
- Yes. Point it at your own mail server over SMTP and mail leaves from your own domain, or use SendGrid if you would rather not run one. It is a setting on the channel, not a rebuild — and you can have both, with different kinds of message going out through each.
- What happens if an email fails to send?
- It is retried, and the waits get longer. The first retry is a minute later, then two minutes, then four, doubling up to an hour. If it still cannot get through after its last attempt, it stops and lands in a list of given-up messages that somebody can see and resend — it never quietly disappears. Every attempt is recorded with the reason it failed.
- Can someone opt out of messages?
- Yes, and the check runs inside the sending step itself rather than in whichever module holds the phone number — so every message on every channel is checked, including messages from a module built next year. Numbers are stored in one standard form, so +1 (416) 555-0134 and +14165550134 are recognised as the same person.
- Does it send text messages?
- Yes — text messages through Twilio and WhatsApp through Meta’s Cloud API, alongside email, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Discord, Telegram and in-app. Text and WhatsApp run on your own account: you enter your own Twilio or Meta credentials and are billed by them directly, so the sender on the message is your own number and we never resell messages.
- Can we change the wording of the emails?
- Yes. Every one of the 22 things the system can tell people about has its own template, and you write it. The screen shows which placeholders that event fills in — the RFQ code, the closing date, the supplier name — so you can move them, drop them or write around them. Plain text or formatted, your choice per template.
Told what you need, when you need it.
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