Questions to ask when evaluating fax services?

First of all not all fax services are the same. Yes, there is basic fax receiving and sending, however the major differences and costs are in how the users will access a fax service. Is there a web site to log on to? Is there software to install on all computers? Does it work from an email? All these are critical to the cost of operating the service in an efficient and time saving manner. If use of a service takes 3 minutes to launch a fax document then you may be better served with the old fashioned fax machine!

A fax document received by a fax service mush go somewhere, either printed to paper, in the trash,
                       stored in recipients’ email, saved to a shared archive folder, or imported to a
                       document management system? How are your faxes handled? Are they manually
                       moved around, manually archived, etc.?

Does your fax service require users to log on to a website? If so, how much time is

consumed simply by the log on process and the browse to find a fax file?

Have you ever been surprised by your fax service invoice? Many have price rounding or

bait and switch tricks that will cause heart failure when you see the invoice.

Information security? How secure is the fax document as it moves from your office to

the fax service and, on received faxes, is it secure from the service provider to 

your email?

Operationally, how many carriers does your service try the call on before it fails?

Do you have to manage how many fax pages are sent or received by each user? Is this

a good use of your time?

Do you pay a higher rate per fax if the volume goes over the plan limits?

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