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Network
Faxing
Features and Benefits
Network faxing allows employees to send and receive faxes right from
their desktops via the network. Some
of the benefits of network faxing include:
- Eliminate
expensive fax machines and maintenance contracts.
- Eliminate
the cost of ink, toner and paper.
- Send
faxes at the click of a button instead of having to print out every
fax, carry it to the fax machine, wait for your turn, and possibly
wait for it to retry when the number is busy.
- Store
fax numbers centrally in one phonebook, eliminating the need to search
for a fax number.
- Send
faxes that are more legible and of better quality, since they are sent
directly from your PC, using high-resolution techniques.
- Automatically
route incoming faxes to the right recipient as soon as they are
received. This ensures timely and secure delivery of documents.
- Automatically
retry fax numbers if they are busy.
- Easily
send faxes to groups of people.
- Schedule
faxes to be sent during cheaper off-peak times.
Once you have decided implement network faxing, the next step is to
identify which solution is right for you. There are many network faxing solutions available today and
no single solution is right for all situations.
Cost and features vary wildly with network faxing so care must be
taken to determine what features are important for your business.
Some of the major things to consider include:
- Compatibility
with your current network: Many
faxing solutions require specific network environments.
Make sure the faxing solution you choose will work properly
with your network.
- Receiving
Faxes: There are many
methods for electronically receiving faxes. This is commonly referred
to as inbound routing.
- OCR:
OCR solutions scan or “read” the first page of a fax
in order to identify who it was sent to.
It compares this to a list of employees in your office and
automatically routes the fax to the appropriate employee’s PC.
- Manual
Routing: All
incoming faxes are sent to one employee’s PC.
This person opens each fax and then forwards it to
appropriate PC.
- Printing:
Incoming faxes can be printed to any network printer.
- CSID:
This method uses the sending fax machine’s sending ID
(usually the sending fax number) to route the fax to a specific
employee in your office.
- DID,
DTMF, Line Routing: These
are other methods available for routing inbound faxing that are
rarely used in smaller business.
- Email
Integration: Many
faxing solutions can be integrated with email and messaging software
like Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Outlook. With email integration, all your faxes are sent and
received directly from your email software.
Incoming faxes appear in your Inbox along with your email.
Check features, however, because some faxing solutions
integrate with email better than others.
- Integration
with Other Software: Some
faxing solutions are designed to work with specific software programs.
Many agency management systems (or other line of business
applications) have special faxing software that integrates with them.
Check with your software vendors to see what, if anything, they
recommend. Compare price
and features, however, before using the faxing solution from your
software company. You may
find that other features that may be lacking offset the “special”
integration you get.
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