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Posts Tagged ‘web based faxing’

Fax machine? We don’t need no stinkin’ fax machine!

I’ve never been a fan of fax machines. It seems like their only consistent feature is jamming. And a new machine only meant jamming in more creative ways. I needed to get my home office set up; I knew that a fax was a necessary evil but I kept putting it off. I was less than thrilled at the prospect but I finally waded into the logistics of set-up. Little did I know that I had options – gotta love options!

When I transitioned into working at home, one of the issues I needed to look at was faxing. I have an all in one machine that has faxing capability but I wasn’t keen on having to toggle back and forth between phone and fax on a land line. I’ve had to do that before and it never worked well. I certainly didn’t want to have the added expense of installing a second line dedicated to the fax. I mean, when you’re just starting out every penny counts, right?!

I was talking about it with a brilliant friend of mine who asked, “Have you ever thought about a web based fax service? That’s what I use and it’s great!”

This woman is a financial genius, and when smart people talk, I try to listen.  I was more than a little skeptical, though. I had heard of efaxing before, but what I’d heard was that it was unreliable with faxes often ending up somewhere in the nether regions of cyber space instead of where you sent them. Also, that the file formats were greatly limited and needed a lot of storage space.

As soon as I got home, I fired up the trusty computer and started researching. Come to find out, efaxing has come a long way baby! Web based fax services are more reliable than ever. The more I read, the more I was persuaded.

• No paper and toner needed, saves trees, good for the environment. Like that. 
• Many allow you to choose your desired file format and include PDFs which is space efficient. Like that.
• Many have reporting functionality if you need to track the metrics of your faxing activity. Probably won’t use it, but like that.
• No phone line needed/monthly service fee is less expensive than having a dedicated line. Love that.
• No long distance charges. Love that.
• Was able to choose a fax # that closely correlated to my business #. Love that.
• Increased privacy; I always hated it when proprietary faxes were left sitting on the machine for anyone to read. Love that.
• NO MORE JAMS!! – LOVE that!

There are a several sites that break down the various services including price and a whole lot of technical stuff that makes my eyes glaze over. I’m listing two, because between them, they cover most of the services available:

http://faxing-service-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.faxcompare.com/

I personally use RapidFax and Metro Fax, one for a client and one for my business. I went with different companies just to avoid confusion. My personal experience has been good with both. I’ve had them for over a year and have only had one small glitch with RapidFax. They never figured out what happened, but instead of faxing all of the pages, only one went through. Luckily, I caught it and was able to re-send. It only happened once and I have sent hundreds of faxes. I just try to be diligent about checking the confirmation email to make sure all the pages went through. I also set up a web based email account for the fax # so that my Inbox didn’t get slogged with faxes. The services vary on how long they retain faxes on their server, but the incoming faxes and confirmation emails stay on the dedicated email account as long as I want to leave them there. I save some onto my computer, but most just stay on the email’s storage system. This also reduces my storage space requirements.

The days of the clunky fax machine taking up precious counter space are all but over. If you’re searching for ways to free up counter space, reduce costs, help the environment, or just plain don’t like fax machines, web based faxing may be a good fit for you. There are several services with many different options so there is sure to be one that meets your needs. If you’re still not sure, try a few on! Many of the services offer free trials.

Happy entrepreneuring!

Katherine

© Yanwe