Why more companies are turning to fax processing

Faxes have become an important communication tool for almost every business. Most companies, regardless of how large or small, have at least one fax machine to receive and send communications. Faxes are especially useful for correspondence that is very detailed or requires confirmation or signatures. With the advent of fax processing, many businesses are turning to automated faxing to save time and money as well as to make their employees more productive. Simply put, fax processing automates faxing functions using a desktop computer or fax server rather than requiring employees to manually send or distribute faxes. A fax server can network fax capabilities to any number of client PCs. Automating fax distribution gives users the added benefits of complete fax confidentiality and 100 percent correct fax routing. And fax processing provides advanced fax features (broadcast faxing, fax back, etc.) typically limited to more expensive fax machines.

Save Time

In today's busy corporate settings, time is at a premium. There is more work to do and less time in which to do it. Typically, saving time increases individual employee and overall office productivity. Automating fax processing minimizes unproductive time, allowing employees to address more important projects. For example, employees can spend a tremendous amount of time walking to and from fax machines to pick up or send fax messages, sometimes even waiting while a fax is being sent. With a fax server, users can send and receive faxes at their workstations. Faxes are routed directly to a user's desktop, eliminating time-consuming trips to a central fax machine and manual sorting of incoming faxes. Faxes can then be stored in the user's computer, increasing the availability of the fax for later use.

Potential clients and customers for any business want information about the products and services offered. Fax information systems can automate information requests with fax publishing and fax back. To provide these services, product brochures, specification sheets or answers to frequently asked questions are loaded on a fax server system. The client can then call the fax server system and request a fax of the documentation on product XYZ by entering the document number for that information. Customer and technical call centers can benefit from fax publishing by minimizing interruptions in representatives' schedules. The representatives do not have to stop helping customers on the phone to send information. (Note: with fax server technology, if the representative is on the line with a customer and information is requested, the representative can send a fax directly from his or her computer to the client while still on the telephone.) Customers can request information at any time of the day or night, on holidays and weekends.

Boost Your Productivity

When combined with voice mail and e-mail, fax processing solutions become unified messaging solutions. Unified messaging delivers all messages (voice, fax and e-mail) into one central box location. Visual voice mail systems provide caller information, time and date of the call and message length. The combination of these three messaging options allows users to see all their messages in one place. Now a user can prioritize his or her messages and respond to the most urgent messages first -- regardless of the message medium - thus increasing productivity and, in many cases, customer satisfaction.

Faxes that are stored in a fax mailbox (combined fax/voice or universal in-box with e-mail) can be remotely retrieved when users are not in the office. Faxes can be sent to a hotel or other fax machine through the telephone interface. Users no longer have to rely on office support when they are on the road. When combined with Internet integration, faxes can be viewed on a laptop, eliminating any long-distance charges to retrieve the fax. In addition, users can be notified of incoming faxes via screen pop, pager, cellular phone, etc.

Save Money

In 1996, approximately $35 billion was spent on long-distance charges for fax. Fax servers can reduce the amount of money businesses spend on their faxing by programming faxes to be sent during the lowest long-distance rate times. Some fax servers can even be integrated with the Internet to send and retrieve faxes via the Internet and eliminate long-distance fax charges.

There are two ways for fax servers to integrate with the Internet: client-toserver and server-to-server. Client-toserver integration allows remote users to access the main server via the Internet to retrieve fax messages. Client-to-server integration can be used to retrieve all message types (voice, fax and e-mail). Server-to-server clustering allows companies to network or cluster servers in different locations around the world via the Internet. This type of integration is currently only available with CallWare voice and fax servers. Anywhere in the world a company maintains a site, these servers are able to connect to each other through the Internet and forward fax or voice messages to other servers in the network. For example, a message can originate in New York for a London office and the server will send the message via the Internet to the server site in London. The clustering is completely transparent to the user.

Features

It is important to carefully look at the features offered by different fax servers to ensure all of a company's fax needs are met. Basic fax send and receive are a must. Most fax servers support sending faxes created in any application that uses Windows-based printer drivers. Especially important in receiving faxes is for them to be routed to the recipient correctly and automatically. More advanced fax features include fax back, fax broadcast, fax store and forward, and Internet faxing.

* Fax Back - Fax back or fax-ondemand allows a company to provide a collection of fax documents to callers. Fax back systems can be configured to allow callers to retrieve faxes in one of three ways: 1) callers request a fax and receive it on the same call, 2) callers request a fax and receive it on a separate call, or 3) callers can choose whether to receive the fax on the same call or a separate call. Some fax servers offer all three configuration choices, allowing the company implementing the system to select the configuration and ultimately control who pays for the fax call. Clients are provided 24-hour access to information, while companies reduce the printing, postal and clerical costs associated with manually providing the same information. * Fax Broadcast - Fax broadcast is the ability to send a single fax to multiple recipients. Larger companies may use fax broadcast to send faxes to branch offices and remote users as well as to individuals outside the enterprise. Businesses can send a fax to a list of clients or other interested parties with minimal employee time involved. Once the broadcast has been started, the fax server will automatically send the fax to each individual on the list. After the broadcast has been completed, employees can check the transmission log to make sure all faxes have been successfully transmitted. Fax broadcast is available on fax machines, but the numbers generally require manual programming and the individual fax machine is tied up for long periods of time.

* Fax Store and Forward - Fax store and forward allows faxes to be easily retrieved by users, whether in or out of the office. For example, a user on a business trip to Washington, DC, calls into his fax mailbox to check for messages. He can choose to forward his new fax messages to the fax machine in his hotel and enter that fax number. The fax server then sends the faxes to the hotel.

* Internet Faxing - As described earlier, Internet fax server clustering allows users to send faxes via the Internet to other fax server sites maintained by the company and is currently only available through one company. With this fax server clustering, businesses can broadcast faxes to other sites through the Internet, eliminating long-distance fax charges. The receiving server distributes the fax to each worker's mailbox.

With this Internet server clustering, a company can also use the Internet to reduce charges for broadcast faxes to individuals outside the company. For example, a Seattle worker wants to broadcast a fax to 500 people in Boston who are not employees of the company. To do this, she addresses the fax to a system user in the company's Boston office. The Seattle server sends the fax to the Boston server via the Internet, eliminating the long-distance charges. When the Boston worker receives the fax, he submits it with a call out list containing the local fax numbers of the intended recipients in Boston.

What To Look For

As a computer-based fax solution, fax servers allow all users on a network to share fax resources such as phone lines, fax boards and fax modems. Although many fax server solutions require expensive fax boards, some fax server solutions provide advanced features while only requiring inexpensive, generic fax modems. Potential buyers should look carefully at their fax needs and what each fax server will offer. Buyers should consider the following:

* Will the fax server leverage their current investments in network and telephone equipment?

* What are the hardware requirements?

* Will the fax server be able to scale and upgrade easily and inexpensively?

* Is the system secure?

* What kind of backup is offered?

Fax server technology can save time, money and increase the productivity of employees in almost every business. Companies that wish to incorporate a fax server into their communications systems need to be aware of the technology available and what will be required. The correct fax server choice can pay for itself in a very short time.

Sarah Gloyn is the marketing manager for CallWare Technologies, Inc., which is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lori Gauthier, senior engineer/advanced research for CallWare, has worked extensively with CallWare's voice and fax serving technology. CallWare is an international computer-telephony vendor that provides softwareonly Internet/Intranet solutions for voice, fax and call processing. CallWare integrates stand-alone voice mail and unified messaging systems in LAN and Intranet environments with over 300 telephone systems.

Copyright Technology Marketing Corporation May 1997
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved