Verizon Wireless Feature Question

I've had cells since the early 1980's and have tried just about all of them. After switching to Verizon 16 months ago, it's the first time I'm thrilled with the reception and availability of towers. Nextel and AT&T were the absolute worst ones I had and the towers were available only about 70% of the time. I'm happy.

My question:

With those other companies, I was able to have my home answering machine and alarm system send text pages to the phone by calling a special number: ie: 555-PAGE with nextel (555-MAIL for voicemail). The answering machine pages when I get a call and sends the caller ID to the cell phone, the alarm tells me what zone(s) were violated.

I'm trying to accomplish the same thing with Verizon, without having these devices call the phone directly. At the current time, i'm having them call my regular number, with a big delay to wait for voicemail, then sending a text message that way. Is there a special number I can call to send a text message through the VZN network, or to access their voicemail system?

If you know, I'd REALLY appreciate this info.

Thanks in advance
Mike