By P James.
When you are looking for a fax machine or faxing software, you basically have three options.
1. Buy A Fax Machine
The traditional approach for both small home offices and massive multinational corporations. Still very popular, even with the choices available today.
The fax machine will always find a home somewhere because, for some people, you just cannot beat the fact that you can pick up and handle the paper that comes out. Yes, you are susceptible to fax spam, yes you have to pay for the machine, the paper and the ink, not to mention paying for a dedicated line so that it doesn’t tie up your existing phone system.
But the instant, paper in – paper out, bad picture quality fax machine of old just cannot be beaten for accessibility and ease of use, regardless of it’s shortcomings.
2. Self-Hosted Faxing Software
With the advent of fax modems, modern computers were granted the ability to both send and receive faxes. This was great in theory, as it meant that multitudes of homes and offices could use fax services without having to make an extra investment in a fax machine.
Except that the software was unreliable, buggy and unfriendly.
For a long period of time, this author worked for an office that required the features of faxing software for digital capturing of contracts and the like.
But it was a nightmare! The software was from a reputable developer (who now is one of the biggest sellers of anti-virus software in the world), but it crashed all the time. We were using the faxing software to capture and store contract images, but the crashes meant that more often than not, we lost them.
We changed software a few times, but again and again we found ourselves switching back to an old fax machine, then SCANNING the printed fax back in and storing it in a secure PDF. As you can see, this really defeats the whole point of fax software, even from “reputable” manufacturers.
Even now, many self hosted faxing software solutions are not very mature.
3. Faxing Software Hosted By 3rd Party
This is, in our considerable experience and opinion, the best of both worlds.
Combining the telecoms infrastructure of a large communications company with the power of well developed and feature rich software is the backbone of a decent hosted faxing software service. When you add the basic scanning and printing that your office should be capable of, it becomes a ridiculously powerful system.
Depending on the provider, you can save substantial amounts of time, which is, again in our opinion, even more important than the money that can be saved. Faxes can be split and sent to virtual numbers, which are then converted in PDFs and then mailed or stored, depending on your needs. Neither traditional fax machines or fax software can match that.
There are a couple of downsides, namely that if you have complex fax routing needs, it can be a bit tricky to set up. That said, it isn’t that much more difficult than setting up a few individual fax machines. Another potential problem, depending on your line of business, could be data security requirements.
Whilst the best vendors have comprehensive security and encryption arrangements, your country may have laws on what you can and cannot do if another company is going to host your faxing software, so it may be worth checking out the rules for your region.
If you are thinking about getting a fax solution for your business, we found a free trial from one of the leading fax providers.
You get to send 300 pages a month, a toll free number, loads of security features and total Outlook integration.
It’s completely risk free, so click here and check it out now.