Issue Date: HHN - November 21, 2008, Posted On: 11/18/2008
Banish your fax (to the island of obsolete office equipment)
At a key point in the TV Christmas classic Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer, Rudolph and his traveling companions stumble across the
Island of Misfit Toys. It’s the place where toys that don’t quite
measure up to expectations are banished, forever wishing they could
serve a useful purpose.
Of course, this being television — which requires a happy ending for
all except the bad guys — at the end all of the toys find a happy home.
Seems like they were useful to someone after all.
In the real world, however, things are a little different. Once an
office product or technology has outlived its usefulness, it’s time to
banish it to the Island of Obsolete Office Equipment. The steno or
dictation machine has surely found its way there. Hardly anyone
dictates letters for secretaries or stenographers to type up. We type
our own letters on computers now. (This is progress?)
The classic typewriter itself is in that class too. There may be one
hanging around to address a quick envelope, or sitting on the desk of
some crusty old timer who just won’t give it up. But for the most part,
typewriters are now part of our nostalgic past. And there are plenty of
other examples as well.
But then there are those that should be there, but haven’t quite made
it yet. I’d put the fax machine in that category. Not because faxes
aren’t used anymore — in truth more faxed pages were sent in 2007 than
in any year in history, including the building and construction
industry — but because there is a better way to send and receive faxes
than hovering over a machine waiting for it to scan pages and slowly
transmit the data over phone lines, bit by bit. Or standing by the
machine waiting for it to spit out pages in fits and starts. We’ve all
been there.
That better way is by using an Internet fax service. These services
allow you to send and receive faxes as electronic documents, either
through your e-mail account or via a secure online server. With the
e-mail option, received faxes appear as attachments (either in .PDF or
some other common format), with the ability to preview, forward and/or
save the fax to any folder you choose. With the online server option,
you can read the fax online, download it to your PC or other device,
forward it as a fax or e-mail, and store it. Either allows you to do
all of this from your desktop, anywhere you can get an Internet
connection.
When you send a fax, it also goes directly from your desktop, much as
you would send an e-mail. Yet the fax goes to the recipient’s fax
machine (unless he/she has also wised up and ditched the machine for an
Internet fax service), creating a seamless connection between both
parties.
Making the move to an Internet fax service has several benefits, including:
• Greater mobility. With a fax machine, the limiting factor on where
you can be to send and receive a fax is the location of the machine.
With an Internet fax service, though, you can send and receive faxes
anywhere you can get an Internet connection. In today’s age of the
mobile builder, that alone might make it worth it. In addition, you can
store all your faxes on your laptop or other mobile device, allowing
you to keep those important documents at your fingertips. Some services
even allow you to store faxes online for as long as a year, letting you
access them even if you forget your mobile device.
• No (or at least less) paper. Fax machines create paper documents.
Paper costs money, can get lost, misplaced or destroyed, and takes up a
lot of space in filing cabinets when there is a lot of it. Because
documents faxed via an Internet fax service are electronic, they’re
much easier to handle and manage. The only time you’ll need paper is if
you choose to print a particular fax (or part of it). That’s better for
the environment, and better for your bottom line too.
• Lower cost. To operate a fax machine, first of course you need to buy
the machine itself. Then you have to pay to install another phone line.
Each month you have the cost of paper, toner, electricity to keep it
ready to use 24 x 7, and ongoing phone line charges. Maybe even a
maintenance fee for the machine. With an Internet fax service, the only
expense is the cost of the service itself — which is lower than just
about any one of the above expenditures.
• Increased privacy/security. Fax machines tend to be placed in common
areas for the sake of convenience. The problem with common areas is
that anyone can go there, which means that confidential fax you’re
sending or receiving is potentially left open for viewing by anyone who
walks by. Not exactly the picture of tight security you need to have
when you are sharing all your financial information. Since Internet fax
services deliver faxes directly to the user’s desktop, the chances of
unauthorized eyes seeing a particular fax are reduced by an order of
magnitude. It certainly keeps the amateurs and busybodies away.
• No more lost faxes. As mentioned earlier, fax machines generate paper
faxes. Paper faxes can be mis-filed, blown off desks by fans (or
co-workers hurriedly walking by), become stuck to another piece of
paper, accidentally tossed in the trash or suffer other fates. Should
that happen, the contents are lost, sometimes forever. The electronic
documents generated by Internet fax services not only are immune to all
that. They can also be backed up and restored in case of a catastrophic
loss. Not so important if the fax is a general one, but extremely
important if the contents are mission-critical. Such as the contract
for a new piece of business.
• No extra cost for a toll-free number. If you want to look big in the
eyes of your customers by having a toll-free phone number, you’re going
to pay extra for it if you’re using a fax machine. And every time one
of those customers uses your toll-free number you’ll pay again. Most
Internet fax services allow you to choose between local and toll-free
numbers for the same cost.
• No extra space required. A fax machine takes up space, pure and
simple. So do the filing cabinets required to store paper faxes. An
Internet fax service frees up that space. Use it to put in extra desks,
or maybe even a few nice plants to dress up the office.
The bottom line is there’s simply no good reason to keep a fax machine
in the office anymore. Sign up for an Internet fax service and you can
finally banish your old machine to the Island of Obsolete Office
Equipment. Don’t feel bad about it, though. It can always turn to the
steno machine for company.
Steve Adams is Vice President of
Marketing for MyFax (www.myfax.com), a provider of Internet faxing
services for individual home users, small businesses, and large
corporations. MyFax has won a number of awards in head-to-head
competitions for ease of use, reliability, and best overall value. He
can be reached at sadams@protus.com.
