Enterprises consider fax important and relevant. There are millions of fax papers that are transmitted or sent to different enterprises across borders such as small, medium-sized, and big firms. An enterprise fax solution should therefore be considered if a company has fax in its procedures and operations.
The papers transferred by fax are digitized by an enterprise fax server, which converts them into a format that can be placed in workflow or business processes. Therefore organizations can improve their performance and output as enterprise cloud faxing speeds up document flow, transmission, and processing.
The standard choice for a company seeking enterprise cloud faxing to run internally is an on-premise fax server.
This choice is often driven by security and privacy concerns, the need for customized administrative control over fax content, and data sovereignty. Additionally, it can be relatively easy to integrate these systems with other company applications.
Consequently, many successful businesses rely on the on-premise enterprise fax server model to enhance the delivery, forwarding, and handling of fax materials. In this article, we will guide you through the basics and explain why having one is important in 2024.
What is a fax server solution?
It is a VoIP solution that allows businesses to send and receive faxes without needing a fax machine or related stationery. By using internet protocol to transmit fax messages, it is referred to as a FoIP (Fax over Internet Protocol) solution.
This fax server solution enables businesses to send and receive faxes directly through their email clients or web-based email clients such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook. Additionally, companies can use a web app provided by the service provider to manage fax messages.
If your company handles a high volume of fax transmissions daily, it's worth considering a more secure and reliable enterprise fax solution. Secure fax servers protect your business processes, enhance productivity, and offer significant cost savings.
Large organizations probably already use an online system for sending and receiving faxes, but there's always room for improvement. Conversely, small businesses should move beyond just sending sensitive documents via email.
These businesses should adopt online faxing solutions that integrate seamlessly with document storage and management tools, such as Google Workspace and other custom-built business applications.
Is a Fax Server Solution Needed in 2024?
In 2024, the need for a fax server solution remains relevant for many businesses. Despite the rise of digital communication tools, faxing is still widely used in healthcare, legal, and finance industries where secure document transmission is critical. A fax server solution offers not just security measures, but enhanced security measures, ensuring that sensitive information is transmitted and received safely.
This robust security not only complies with regulatory requirements but also provides a strong defense against data breaches, giving you peace of mind about the safety of your data.
Most importantly, a fax server solution can significantly improve productivity and efficiency. Traditional fax machines require manual handling, which is not just time-consuming but also prone to errors. In contrast, a fax server automates the process, allowing employees to send and receive faxes directly from their computers or mobile devices. This seamless integration with existing digital workflows not only saves time but also reduces the need for physical resources such as paper and toner, leading to substantial cost savings.
Also, as businesses continue to embrace remote and hybrid work models, the ability to send and receive faxes digitally becomes even more critical. A fax server solution is not just a tool; it's a key that unlocks the potential of remote work. It supports remote work by enabling employees to manage fax communications from anywhere with an internet connection. This flexibility ensures that business operations can continue smoothly regardless of the physical location of the staff, empowering them to work from their preferred locations.
This makes fax server solutions a valuable tool for modern enterprises in 2024.
Finding the Basics of Fax Server
Fax services for business can best be described as a multi-tiered software program that serves as the central faxing resource of your firm and allows faxes to get sent and received from any computer connected to a company's LAN/WAN.
Fax servers may be viewed as one kind of network-based software operation dealing with inbound and outbound faxes, but the fax server program in turn interfaces with many business workflow applications that use faxes to flow in and out of the organization. In a nutshell, users, applications, and printers interact with the outside world through the fax server which essentially is a communication interface.
The implementation of enterprise fax solutions can be summarized by the following elements. As has been stated before, faxing systems are not homogeneous. Organizations that heavily use the fax, cannot afford to lose a fax, misplace it, or even have an instance in which they are unable to send/receive the fax on time. Thus, one has to critically examine the architecture of the overall system when choosing a proper fax server.
When enterprise-grade fax systems are set up correctly there is an exceptionally high system reliability since there are several forms of redundancy that are incorporated to guarantee that faxes are not lost, delayed, or perhaps accidentally erased.
The following is the breakdown of the important aspects of the fax server system. It is essential to get to know these terminologies to set up a benchmark when evaluating fax server solutions and the possibilities of different features.
- Fax server software. The basic set of application services deals with all aspects of the whole network fax environment, namely the fax-associated database, task scheduling and queue, document conversion, as well as telephone equipment interface services.
- Fax database. Real-time, open, relational database for storing system objects, FAX entries, and FAX delivery records.
- Client programs. These consist of client-side applications of the fax server, the enterprise administration software, the fax client, web-based user interface tools, and utilities that are integrated into the client's local network. The most frequently used client integration is the email client since it is included in most business fax server configurations.
- Additional modules. More functional modules can be incorporated for even more usability and movement enablement Common extra modules are often stated as a part of the fax server offering. Typical modules would be email integration, conversion of PDFs to searchable PDFs, PDF encryption, and optical character recognition.
- Integration modules, tools, and developer APIs. These modules are designed to enable interfaces between the cloud fax service and certain business applications. Vertical application systems are software designed particularly for healthcare, legal, and financial fields.
- Server hardware. A dedicated server that runs the installed fax server software and application. In certain cases, separate, dedicated server units may be provided to operate the telephony boards. Another option is running fax server software on virtual machines thereby eliminating the need for physical server hardware.
Key Benefits of Enterprise Cloud Business Fax Service
Although the intrinsic capabilities of digital fax solutions are amazing in and of themselves, they are only valuable if they convert into genuine business benefits. By this metric, digital solutions – particularly those that use the cloud – provide a compelling set of benefits.
Increased end-user productivity
From the standpoint of an employee, the nicest part of digital faxing with EveryFax may be its relative simplicity and convenience of use. By eliminating the need for manual fax machine operation and maintenance, employees may send faxes more efficiently and conveniently. Using a cloud-based fax service eliminates the need for human data entry from printed faxes.
Reduced hardware capital expenditure together with maintenance costs and lower TCO
Organizations get more productivity benefits besides a cheaper TCO when they do not have cloud fax service. This may include the removal of onsite fax gear, consumables, maintenance, and software plus dedicated phone lines among others. Eliminating manual data extraction and entry on the receiving end can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership.
Integration with current procedures and initiatives of digital faxing
It can help with digital transformation and cloud migration strategy and activities. Organizations may keep fax-based procedures that have grown essential to their operations while bringing them into the current, digitally integrated environment.
Secure transmission
Cloud-based fax service builds on and improves the parameters of secure fax and the compliance benefits of traditional faxing. Instead of being printed and faxed, documents generated digitally are transformed into immutable fax pictures using known fax protocols.
Fax photos may be transmitted directly to the secure workstations of their intended receivers, rather than being printed out on fax machines and visible to anybody passing by.
Key Considerations for Selecting a Cloud-Based Fax Solution
When assessing cloud-based digital fax solutions, organizations should go beyond technical specifications. The cloud business fax service provider must not only provide the necessary features and performance for the firm but also be a reliable and creative strategic partner.
Security
Do the solution and the provider use comprehensive physical and digital security tools and techniques to protect the enterprise cloud faxing and ensure secure fax, including virtual private networks, multi-level firewalls, removable encryption keys for transmitted and stored data, and continuous network monitoring?
Scalability and performance
Can the system quickly grow to accommodate fluctuating fax volumes while still meeting service-level requirements?
Business continuity
Does the solution and provider have high availability and disaster recovery capabilities, either in a single cloud data center or across many centers, to prevent data loss and downtime?
Enterprise integration
Enterprise integration refers to the employment of advanced fax data capture technologies to extract and route fax-embedded data to various back-end systems through a network of connectors and APIs. Does it support email, online, mobile, multifunction printers, and specific connections like EMR/EHR connectors?
Multiplatform support and deployment flexibility
Does the seller provide hybrid solutions that combine on-site and network-dependent cloud-based fax service for individual satisfaction?
Analytics and reporting capabilities
Can the company fax solution give a comprehensive view of past data, system performance as well as delivery records? Can it be presented through dashboards or user-friendly reports?
Automation and intelligence
Can most or all manual operations in legacy fax workflows be automated with digital faxing?
Wrapping up
It is important to choose the right enterprise fax solution that suits your company's needs. Luckily, there are many options available, so everyone can find something they like.
If you want something cheaper but still have good features; If you are only sending/receiving a few faxes each month; When you need an all-inclusive package without limits; If those are some of your criteria, then definitely, it is here where you will get the best service.