Should Your Company Use Internet Fax?

Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins

The operation of any company will usually entail many decisions that will determine the success or failure of your business. Choosing how you set up your company's communication system will no doubt be one of those crucial decisions you will have to make.

How your company communicates with its clients, employees, business partners, suppliers, shipping agents... are all vital to the running of an efficient business. Your communication system should be integrated, seamless and available everywhere.

Simply put: you must connect all your operations together into one useful network where none of the patrons listed above should be left out. Everyone should be connected and easily reachable; no matter the time of day or the location.

One obvious component of any company's communication system will be the Office Fax. However, the old traditional fax machine is slowly being replaced by a new kid on the block. For the reasons listed above and below, many companies are choosing to go with Internet Fax as their preferred method of faxing. If you're not familiar with online or email faxing some background information might prove helpful.

Internet Fax is simply using the Internet and your email system to send and receive faxes, anywhere anytime. It is mobile, paperless, efficient and you won't get any busy signals. Plus, there is no need for a second phone line.

Internet Fax is an extremely fast, convenient and simple way to send and receive your faxes. In order to use Internet Fax you have to sign-up to a Fax Service Provider where you get a local or Toll-Free fax number and an online site to send and receive your faxes. Your fax provider acts as a mediator, handling all your faxes whether they are coming from a standard fax machine or from another Internet Fax user. Faxes are sent as email attachments usually in TIFF, PDF or JPEG formats. Most services also let you store your faxes online so they are available wherever you have the Internet and these days that's just about everywhere.

Internet faxes are private and secure with SSL and PGP encryption. Most if not all companies are compliant with such privacy regulations as Gramm-Leach-Bliley & HIPAA in the United States and PIPEDA in Canada. Your faxes sent and received via email can be protected through PGP encryption.

Internet Fax also has some special benefits for companies that work in remote locations or away from the office such as real estate agents, engineers, onsite builders and contractors, traveling sales agents... just to mention a few.

Plus, keep in mind, Internet Fax is completely scalable to meet your company's needs. You can have or expand to different fax numbers for each department or salesperson in your company without the cost of installing all those extra phone lines.

Then there is Fax Broadcasting where you can send the same fax to thousands of agents or clients quickly and easily. This is not to be confused with JunkFaxes which are similar to email spam. Fax Broadcasting can be a very important factor in the competitiveness of your business.

If you do choose Internet Fax there are many well-known online fax providers you can use such as MyFax, eFax, RapidFax, TrustFax, and Send2Fax. You should also consider some lesser known fax providers such as Metrofax out of Seattle and Faxage out of Denver; sometimes going with a relatively smaller company will give you better individual service... you or your company won't get lost in the crowd or in the large numbers.

Also, many companies and individuals like to consolidate all their phone/fax services into one provider. RingCentral is a popular choice since it gives you virtual phone and fax services all rolled into one.

If you do use an Internet Fax services make sure you shop around to find the best plan that is suited to your needs; plans range from a very modest $20 a year to around $10-$15 a month. Each plan will have a different number of faxes that you can send and receive. Rates are usually based on minutes... so multiple page faxes will cost more with with 5 cent per minute the average cost. Keep in mind, International faxes will usually cost more.

Since Internet Fax involves the web and computers, it can be totally automated to meet your needs. It can be used to connect and integrate your whole working network. Also remember, Internet faxing is the wave of the future, if you want your company to remain completely competitive in this brave new computerized world you must have online fax.

Like any business decision, it really comes down to one sticking point, it is not a matter of whether you can afford to use Internet Fax but whether you can really afford NOT to use it. It's Your Call?