Disaster Planning!

Wow, what a tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma! Our prayers and support go out to that community of strong independent fellow Americans that have suffered property, physical damage and loss of lives.

After a tragedy such as this it is good to reflect on 'what if's', What if my business was destroyed? What if our communications was interrupted, no phones, no faxes, no email, no internet? There are many valuable questions to ask. Regarding business communications, if you use a cloud service outsourced online fax and phone communications setting up a temporary business location is quick and painless!

Cloud based services do provide a great level of disaster comfort should one ever need to relocate business temporarily, no online faxes and no voice calls will ever be lost due the built in delivery mechanism of email and voice mail. On the other hand, if your business facility housed it's own fax machines or fax server, and phone system, the disaster would shut you down much longer than if your communication services were cloud based. All you would need to be back in communication is internet access from any physical address. Using in house systems callers and fax senders would hear a busy signal, which could take weeks to rebuild these systems to operational. Consider cloud based communications as part of your disaster plan!

(c) Copyright 2013, Global Access Inc, Smyrna, Tennessee, (866) 809-0399

Another Cover Up!

ANOTHER COVER UP!

Lately there's a lot of discussion about a possible high level government coverup over the Benghazi terrorists attach on the U.S. Embassy. There is another coverup happening in the fax machine and fax server industry to promote traditional fax methods while denying the benefits of online fax.

There is absolutely no reason any business should hang on to traditional fax equipment that is
1) expensive to replace,
2) requires technical support labor to maintain,
3) needs phone lines, paper, ink, long distance, cleaning, etc.
4) fax machines consume an amazing amount of employee time to print, walk, dial, re-dial, and watch a fax be sent or walk to pickup received faxes, tracking down lost faxes picked up by someone else.
5) fax machines are a security risk, exposing private information.

Worth hundreds of thousands in savings, online fax can have a huge impact on all these expenses, plus provide gains in productivity increasing employee efficiency, better customer service, plus the benefit of fail safe delivery on multiple carriers will get your critical documents delivered quickly!

(c) Copyrights 2013, Global Access Inc, http://www.onlinefax.com, (866) 809-0399

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?

(c) Copyrights, Global Access Inc, 2013, www.onlinefax.com

Online Fax - Client Side Security

Client Side Security: It is a good idea to consider what kind of information access you will need on a per user basis. Will there be areas where an open terminal is used that will need Online Fax access? The fax machines are no longer acceptable technology for receiving faxes due to security compromises. Employees will inadvertently pick up the wrong fax or the faxes will eventually be delivered to the wrong in boxes. How about the embarrassing follow-up to these problems, calling and asking that the fax be re-transmitted? What is the cost of lost confidence, lost orders, misplaced contracts or poor customer service? An enterprise-grade, hosted fax server solution should eliminate these problems.

OnLine Fax - Security of Premises

Security of Premises: The premises of your off site Online Fax solutions provider should also be considered. Your data transmission and storage equipment may be secured but how do you know who may have access to the vendor facilities? What is the risk factor there? Is the facility guarded by a qualified security guard? What hours is the guard on duty? Is there video monitoring of the facility? Is the video monitored live, for immediate response? What kind of after hours access is there to the building; to the servers?

Online Fax Network Security

Network Security: Your fax network servers will need to be behind a firewall. The key here is that there should NOT be any public access to the web servers where your data is stored. Even with the best of secured servers, there's always a better hacker out there (Wiki Leaks?). If you're the server where your data is stored has log-in access, then that data is compromised and you do not have an enterprise-grade security solution.

Some corporations require custom Online Fax solutions such as having faxes received sent to an administratively controlled server for in-house distribution or having inbound faxes land on an SFTP server for retrieval. The important thing is to consider the nature of the content that will be moving inbound and outbound. Determine your network security requirements but do not set yourself up with the loophole of having your faxes go to an outside server with public log-in access.

It is also imperative that your outbound faxes would be sent from your service provider through secure internet lines (SSL); just as the service provider should be using a secured server (HTTPS, SFTP, SSH).

Online Fax Document Security

Document Security: It is not enough that you would need the option to send your data as an encrypted PDF document. An enterprise grade Online Fax solution should be able to assign this option on a per user basis and allow that user the option to send each document as secured or unsecured. Make sure that the secured data is encrypted before it is transmitted from your computer; before it is routed to a server.

Online Fax Security

Enterprise-Grade Internet Fax Solution

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “fax security”? An officer standing next to the fax machine? Maybe a password protected document? That's a good start, but in order to have a truly secure solution, every stage and condition of your information through the fax system must be accounted for.

Converting to OnLine Faxing - Common Mistake #5

Converting to OnLine Faxing - Common Mistake #5

Assumptions of immediate fax document transmit either sending or receiving. This is a point particularly not considered when moving from a system of fax machines where faxes through the phone line are customarily pretty immediate. Or when moving to an internet fax server solution, where it is easily assumed that faxes will travel at the speed of email. Is timely transmission of information crucial to your business? Faxing business contracts, legal forms, medical records or signature deals usually require something close to immediate transmission where as personal fax solutions may be okay with a variance of fax speed, even willing to wait up to 20 minutes.

  Copyright 2012, Global Access Inc, Smyrna Tennessee, USA, (866) 809-0399
http://www.globalaccessinc.com

Online Faxing Make an Office Green

Online Fax Services Make an Office Green

In an increasingly interconnected world, technology has made reducing your carbon footprint at work that much easier. With e-mail tools, PDFs and scanners, you can cut down your office's paper consumption to nearly zero. But no matter how much you cut, there are still those occasional things that require you to kill a tree. Contracts, signed purchase orders and invoices still need to be hard copied. That's why, if going green is the name of the game, <a href="http://www.onlinefax.com" title="online fax">Online Fax</a> can help.

According to the National Resources Defense Council, offices are finding ways to use less paper. In 2007, the group released a list of ways offices have cut back their paper consumption. The NRDC recommends you put a message in all e-mails asking readers to think before they print, and to use e-mail for all internal memos and client communication. By getting printers that print on both sides, offices can reduce the amount of waste they create. And by stocking your office kitchen with reuseable cups and plates instead of paper and plastic ones, you can cut down on office waste.

But even with all these tips, using some paper is unavoidable, even four years later. One key way offices can cut down on paper usage with Online Fax. Our online fax software allows you to receive all faxes digitally so you print less, using less paper. This system allows your customers and clients to send you their signatures and hard copies just as they would a normal fax but you receive it digitally over the internet.

Combining these tips and using a web fax service like ours, we can create a smarter, greener, less wasteful world. Check us out at www.onlinefax.com.

Considerations for an On Demand Fax Solution

Considerations for an On Demand Fax Solution

As corporations adopt digital fax file systems as part of their standard business communications processes, a critical question facing IT is how to achieve enterprise-grade standards. Due to the demands for software customization options, contact integration and the importance of your business-critical data, your corporate online fax solution must be just as robust as the rest of the enterprise. While it may be the instinct of IT to achieve this with an in-house fax server, this DefinitiveGuide for Corporate Fax Solutions will discuss how an on-demand, desktop fax system will provide a more robust solution.

The 5 keys to delivering enterprise-grade, multi-location fax solutions are:

1. Security
2. Usability
3. Integration
4. Scalability
5. Performance 
   
   
   
   
   Copyright, 2012, Global Access Inc, Smyrna, Tennessee, USA, (866) 809-0399
   http://www.globalaccessinc.com

18 Online Fax Cost Savings to Evaluate

18 Online Fax Cost Savings to Evaluate

Today, many trucking and other companies are trapped by their fax machine. Their communications and security are lacking due to fear of change to new technology complicated by the difficulty of determining productivity savings of a switch to online faxing, www.onlinefax.com. Here's a partial list of productivity gains a company needs to consider when evaluating whether to switch to Online Fax.

1. Eliminates printing a document to fax, employee time, paper, and ink
2. Eliminates employee time walking to the fax machine, dialing, redialing, waiting for confirmation
3. No more lost faxes
4. No calls to customers asking to resend a fax
5. Eliminates need to scan faxes received
6. Sign fax documents digitally, saves time, paper and ink
7. Experience fewer interruptions to fax communications
8. Never busy fax receiving
9. Easily grant corporation wide fax capability at the desktop computer
10. Enables mobile workers to fax while traveling
11. Automatically capture a copy of all faxes sent and received
12. Create searchable fax archive
13. Get rid of phone lines
14. Get rid of old fax servers
15. No more fax server software upgrades or support costs
16. No more fax machine maintenance costs
17. Increase fax document security of sensitive information
18. Block junk faxes

Ultimately corporations that accept change, catching the wave of technology, can tremendously impact their business with productivity gains and enhanced competitive strategy be propelled past competition by providing with the best industry customer service and products.

copyright 2012, Global Access Inc, Smyrna, Tennessee, http://www.onlinefax.com

Executive Privilege for Traditional Fax

Executive Privilege for Traditional Fax

President Obama can claim 'executive privilege' in order to protect 'fast and furious' documents, as stated by the Huffington Post.  Since the 1960's when fax machines became popular in the office they have soared in use to over 19 million in just the United States, as stated by NationMaster. Fax machines gave business an inexpensive way to send documents quickly which was a replacement for the mobile courier or Federal Express. Thus the fax machine became the holy grail of office equipment, a business could not be without one. Usually each corporate group, physical location or department in larger corporations would have a shared fax machine centrally located for twenty or thirty people to access. 

At the time this was a great step ahead in efficiency, however, is it efficient in today's business?

In the business environment fax machines have been given 'executive privilege' protecting them from being replaced by newer more efficient technology such as Online Faxing or a fax server.

Consider how simple and inexpensive sending an email is, now imagine sending faxes just like an email or receiving a fax as an email! Wow, now faxing, Online Faxing, is more simple than even the old fashioned traditional fax machine.


Is your corporation trapped by your fax machine in a tradition of inefficiency?

Copyright 2012, Global Access Inc, Smyrna Tennessee, USA

Find Missing Faxes in 3 Quick Steps

3 Steps to Track Missing Faxes

In the days when faxes were received on a traditional fax machine or fax server, then printed directly to paper, you could know for sure it was received. However, the world of fax machines and fax servers has merged with the digital computer world creating much more efficient online fax sending and receiving, it now integrates with mobile devices, phones, desktop and laptop computers.

Online Faxing, can be accessed from many sources, an office phone system, online fax service provider, virtual office services, local phone company, and through internet service providers. We still tend to think of fax as machine to machine, not realizing it can pass through other services before reaching the target. So, that fax you just sent could be delivered by a hundred different services, using email, ftp, fax machine, fax server, internet folder, etc. 

Now, if the recipient says it didn't arrive, but we know it was sent. Where could it go?
These 3 Steps will help you find that missing fax and diagnose the source of the problem.

FIRST STEP: Find out How Faxes Arrive at the Recipient?
Ask the recipient how they receive faxes?
    Is it an Online Faxing service?
    Is it by a fax server?
    A fax machine?
    From the in-house phone system?
    Is it from a hosted phone service/system?
    Does it arrive in email?

SECOND STEP: Here are suggestions to check if faxes are captured by in-house equipment.
If they use a fax machine have them check if it is working properly?
    Start by printing the machine log report looking for the senders fax number?
    Does it have paper, ink or show any error message on the display?
If they use a fax server have them check with the company computer support person, is it working properly?
If the faxes are handled by there in-office phone system they need to check with the telephony support person, is it working?

THIRD STEP: Here are things to check if faxes are captured by outside or hosted services.
If the faxes are processed by a hosted (out of the office) phone system, Online Faxing service, virtual office, hosted telephone number provider, etc, they need to check with the service, there could be a problem with the service provider? Normally faxes are delivered by email from a service provider and 99% of the time email is the weakest link in receiving faxes.

Be sure to check your junk email or spam folder of the computer you are using in case a spam software update now views those critical faxes as junk.

As always happy Online Faxing!

3 Internet Fax Sending Options...How to Choose

Corporations considering replacing an aging fax server with cloud Internet fax service must understand the three fax sending options, benefits and drawbacks! So make sure you research each service type before investing time and money to implement a fax solution that is inefficient which doesn't match the corporate requirements and policy.  

Web based account... This type of Online fax sending provides good security, but is the least user friendly and extremely inefficient.  

Email to Fax... Without a doubt the easiest to use and implement, has poor security.  

Desktop software... Provides maximum security, fits in with network security policy and depending on the software features can provide many user productivity benefits.

Before considering any Online fax service be sure to define goals such as increased efficiency, expanded fax capability, provide for remote staff, fax enable world-wide locations, fax machine overflow capture, and on and on. A great resource to quickly provide the details needed for evaluation of services and implementation planning is right here...free online fax guide, protect against wasting time and money, plan a mix of Online fax solutions to best fit overall corporate needs. For in depth planning check out The Definitive Guide to Corporate Fax Solutions. 



















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10 Checkpoints for Internet Fax

Once you've decided that your approach to finding an OnLine Fax solution will be based on your business requirements rather than a prepackaged personal fax account, you will need to identify your fax needs on a per line, per location, per user basis while keeping the macro view of your corporate network.

The 10 point checklist is designed to help you get started building an assessment of your company fax requirements. This Is not an exhaustive index of questions to cover every possible scenario. However, answers to the checklist will be an exercise to help reveal the possibilities, concerns and requirements needed. The checklist will also serve as a tool to help anyone prepare the necessary information for a candidate vendor to understand your company fax requirements.

10 Checkpoints for Internet Fax System Requirements

1. What fax solution are you currently using? Machines, fax server, modem, or service?

2. Which corporate departments will be using online fax services?

3. Estimated monthly page volume: all users, all locations, all fax lines, both sending and receiving

4. Which email server are you using?

5. Which email desktop clients are you using? Which versions?

6. What software are you using to store all customers contacts?

7. What software are you using to store all vendor contacts?

8. Do you have personnel that needs to send and/or receive faxes on mobile devices such as a PDA or smart phone?

9. List special options that you may require of the Internet fax service.

10. List the users by department, noting fax capability needs per user: send, receive, remote, in office, from mobile device, etc..

OnLine Fax has a resource tool that organizes this by department, notes security requirements, user email address and fax number. You may download it for free here:

http://www.onlinefax.com/OnLineFax-User-List-Worksheet.xls