Faxing

Estimates are that as scan-to-email capability rises, the need for faxing will someday decrease. Even though this may happen someday, the total volume of faxes sent are currently rising as businesses are continuing to provide technologies their customers want. Multifunction systems feature a wide range of options for faxing documents that a traditional fax machine simply may not offer.

Outgoing Faxes

Multifunction systems allow for faxing from the device itself just as a stand-alone fax would. The greatest benefit of most multifunction systems, from an outbound faxing perspective, is its ability to allow faxing from any Windows desktop on your network. Rather than printing a document only to scan it again during the faxing process, you simply send your fax from the comfort of your office.

Routing Incoming Faxes

The most common scanner in the world today is a fax machine. As a fax machine user initiates a fax, he or she is simply putting that document in a scanner for transmission. This document can either be printed on your fax machine in your office, or the electronic version of that document can be captured and routed to the location of your choosing. This can be routed to an email address, a folder on your network or even automatically indexed and routed directly to your electronic document management system.

Fax Servers

Fax server technology allows for greater functionality for faxing. Fax server technology has all the basic functionality of a multifunction system, but adds greater productivity features. Some of those features include the ability to electronically manage all your fax documents in one, easy to use interface, route documents to multiple locations based on the phone number dialed, reduce the number of telephone lines your company uses but increase the number of fax lines and many more features. For medium to high volume fax applications, these features allow for greater productivity and lower costs for faxing in any organization. In addition, fax servers can be tightly integrated with multifunction systems to allow for better end-user experiences.

Additional Fax Features

Whether your fax system is from a standalone device, multifunction system, or fax server, some of the features that your organization will benefit from are as follows.

Multi-tasking Access

One of the largest concerns with any multifunction device is what to do if the device is being used for another function. If the device is being used for copying or printing, how will that affect an inbound fax? Of course, standalone fax systems don’t require multiple access capabilities, but multifunction systems allow for the system to be used for multiple functions at the same time. If the system is being used for copying, printing, or scanning, the fax function will simply work in the background.

Multiple Line Support

In many cases, high-volume faxing applications require more than one line. Traditionally, the approach would be to have two separate fax machines available for your users. Many multifunction systems now have the capability to incorporate a second line in the same system. This prevents the necessity of multiple fax machines in any given location. Fax servers can support two, four, eight, or more fax lines.

Multifunction System or Fax Machine?

For your organization, you may find that a standalone fax machine is all that is needed to meet your specific business requirements. In the event that you need more for larger or more specific faxing applications, you should consider adding faxing capability to your multifunction system or adding a fax server to your network environment.