Faxing might sound like outdated technology to the younger members of your workforce, but the truth of the matter is that many organizations (especially in legal, healthcare, and government industries) still rely heavily on faxing for document sharing, and expect to be able to conduct business with your organization over fax. So how can you maintain faxing functionality while freeing yourself from the physical resource burdens that traditional faxing entails?
Virtual fax (also known as “online fax”, “electronic fax” or “eFax”) is a modern solution to the dilemma of faxing in an increasingly electronic world. Virtual fax allows you to upload electronic documents to an online fax portal, which converts and securely sends the documents to the required fax number. Incoming faxes will be sent as electronic attachments to your selected email address.
Below are six benefits for switching to a virtual fax service:
1. Fewer Resources Required
With virtual fax, there’s no need for a fax machine taking up space in your office, and therefore no ink or paper to purchase, and no equipment repair and maintenance to handle. You also won’t need to pay for a dedicated phone line for faxing, since virtual fax uses the Internet.
2. Location Flexibility
With virtual fax you can receive faxes from anywhere in the world that has Internet, since incoming faxes go straight to your email inbox. So if you’re working from home for the day or are out of the office on a business trip, you can still have immediate access to any important documents that might be faxed your way. Same goes for sending faxes, since you simply upload the electronic documents to the online fax portal.
3. Convenience
Virtual fax means no more waiting by the office fax machine for it to print or send! Incoming faxes are available in your email inbox and outgoing faxes can be uploaded electronically with the click of a mouse from your computer. You can send the same fax to multiple fax numbers at the same time, and can have incoming faxes be received by multiple people in an email distribution list.
4. Going Green
Traditional fax machines automatically print out every incoming fax, even if its spam, which leads to a lot of waste. According to this article, “government research has shown that fax machines consume 200 billion pages of paper each year in the United States alone” – that’s a lot of paper! Virtual fax sends incoming faxes to your email, so there’s no need for printing documents unless you need a physical copy for some reason.
5. Greater Security
Virtual fax is more secure than traditional fax, since documents with sensitive information will never sit out in the open on the fax machine. Files are encrypted during sending and when you receive a fax, it will only be accessible by whoever has access to the chosen email address or by logging in with a password to the fax portal.
6. Ease of Recordkeeping
Storing faxes is easier with virtual fax since you can electronically sort and file documents directly from your email, instead of maintaining bulky physical files or having to scan in physical faxes for electronic storage. You can also view a log of incoming and outgoing faxes on your fax portal.
Thinking About Switching to Virtual Fax?
If you think your business could benefit from a virtual fax service, talk to us! Allied has an eFax service that is available as a standalone product or as an add-on to any of our AllCloud voice services.
Business vector designed by Pressfoto – Freepik.com
