Network Fax Technology: A Primer

Network fax technology
A primer
Choosing the right fax server software and hardware
A fax server buyers' guide, this paper describes the features you need to look for in fax server software and why. It also describes the type of fax server devices (fax cards) available and which to choose.

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Introduction This white paper provides background information on network fax technology. It helps you decide on key fax server features, routing methods and what fax device to buy.
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2 Why you need a fax server............................................................................................................2 Email integration, email integration, email integration................................................................3 Look for minimal administration.....................................................................................................4 Inbound fax routing........................................................................................................................4 Fax devices ...................................................................................................................................5 Integration with back office applications via fax server API ..........................................................6 Internet fax/fax over IP/least cost routing......................................................................................6 About GFI FAXmaker for Exchange/SMTP...................................................................................7 About GFI ......................................................................................................................................7
Why you need a fax server Faxing manually is out of date. A professional fax server solution saves your company substantial costs, while also improving your customer service and image. The benefits over manual faxing are:
. 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 . Track fax activity, by archiving faxes and using call accounting . Make sure that only you can view your outgoing and incoming faxes . Send faxes in the same way as you send email . Automatically retry fax numbers if they are busy . Easily send faxes to groups of people. These benefits translate into significant cost savings. The following table shows an estimate of how much a company can save by using a network fax solution:
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Manual faxing GFI FAXmaker Time to fax in minutes 5 0.5 No of faxes per week 500 500 Average labor cost per hr $30 $30 Cost per week $1250 $125 Weekly Saving $1125
Email integration, email integration, email integration. The future of computer-based fax is as an add-on to an email infrastructure. The existing email infrastructure is ideal to integrate fax. Apart from offering administration ease, it is also much easier for users. Users already check their email inbox and are already familiar with sending and receiving emails: Integrating the fax server with email makes the sending and receiving of faxes a natural extension to email and is therefore much easier for the user. In this way, the user has no learning curve while retaining one inbox to check, one address book to store both email and fax numbers, and so on.
Faxes are received directly in the email client
Advantages include the following:
. Users do not need to learn a separate application to send and receive faxes . Users can check faxes from their email client . If your email server has web based access, then ... [download for more]