A Tale of Two Technologies

As the EMEA distributor of the world’s leading fax solution (humble brag intended), no one is more surprised than us that organisations still use fax. After all, horses used to be our main form of transport! That changed when better alternatives emerged. With today’s world of texting and emailing, you’d be forgiven for thinking fax disappeared long ago, but it hasn’t.

Actually, the fax over internet protocol telephony, FOIP, has continued to grow 15% annually since 2009, so love it or hate it, fax is not going away just yet.

Some organisations have eliminated fax entirely, while the heaviest users, bound by compliance regulations, have not, and the latest FoIP technology has had a positive impact on them.

Early technical problems of FoIP have been ironed out and it’s gathering pace due to:

• The decommissioning of traditional technology in the public service telephone network (PSTN)
• Government privacy and data security compliance and industry regulatory compliance requirements
• Suppliers providing essential communications in bundles

Those drivers of FoIP present an opportunity for customers and suppliers alike to skip other offerings.

Cloud is playing its part as well and provides a simple, pay-as-you-go model suitable for low fax volumes or basic desktop messaging.

Cloud vs On-Premise

If your fax traffic has diminished and is largely restricted to inbound, the cloud could be right for you as it will simply deliver as an email. If you need anything other than fax to email or email to fax, then you should look at what an on-premise solution can offer – it doesn’t have to create a significant management overhead.

Compliance

Hardcopy won’t go away and traditional fax devices are open to misuse – documents can be seen by unauthorised users and outbound documents that harm an organisation can be sent with impunity. A modern system will all but eliminate that risk but without creating disruption with users.

It also facilitates the creation of a properly compliant audit trail, as well as sensible archiving, encryption and retrieval. This will keep your organisation compliant in the face of the increasing power of regulatory bodies.

Bundling

Flexibility in an offering is key and the ability to work in multiple telephony environments is essential – many suppliers overlook the dual responsibility created by fax which is an IT as well as telephony requirement. Telephony managers welcome the idea of a fax exit strategy that eliminates old technology responsible for diluting their investment in IPT or the cloud. IT folks do not want to have to ‘own’ traditional fax technology from a support point of view and print/facilities management managers do not want to continue with the cost of fax machines or fax cards for MFDs. The right supplier is one that can satisfy all of those areas (and you know that we’re waiting to say that’s us).

Don’t Forget SMS

If your provider can combine a fax solution with a SMS text solution, you’re in for a treat. They often work hand-in-glove to provide quality of service, speed of communication, first class emergency planning as well as cost effective and practical two-way business processes where modernisation is needed. What a coincidence, then, that ProcessFlows provides SMS solutions as well as fax solutions…

So…

With fax still very much alive and kicking and traditional PSTN networks changing rapidly, acquiring a bundled solution which is flexible and adaptable makes perfect sense for your organisation.

Fax and text, the unlikely match made in tech heaven, are available in bundles from ProcessFlows.

Want to know more? Contact us at 01962 835053 or via email at enquiries@processflows.co.uk.