Alexander,
I'd have to agree that the only really reliable fax solution is to plug
a machine into an actual analog line. I suppose if there had been the
demand someone would have made widely available a traditional fax
machine type of device that actually talked SIP (or what have you)
directly, or communicated with a service via the Internet that would
then deliver the pages as faxes.
Your comments about getting customers away from using faxes seems all
too familiar to me - same arguments, same pushback.
Fax-to-email seems to be the most cost effective solution - and it is
what I use for my business. For me the service is much less expensive
than the cost of a phone line. Really handy for incoming, and for small
volume outgoing using the web interface is OK.
I think fax technology is almost at the point I remember in 1988-ish
where the company I was working for moved to a new office, and the move
included moving the Telex machine. The office move also marked getting
a fax machine for the company. Within weeks the Telex machine was
gathering dust, having been supplanted by the fax machine.
I suppose the only argument for a fax is that (as I understand it) a
faxed document is considered a legal copy of the original, although a
scanned and emailed copy isn't. The line here becomes very blurry when
you scan a document, upload it to your fax service, then it is faxed,
and possibly then it is converted to an attachment to an email when it
is delivered.
Regards,
Doug.
On 04/11/2014 6:01 PM, Alex Robar wrote:
Doug,
We spent a long time trying to find an ATA that worked reliably for
outbound faxing, but the reality is that it's just too flakey. It doesn't
work in the moment that customers need it, and they get ticked off.
So we started telling customers they can spend $60+/month on an analog line
from Bell, or they can change their process and spend $10/month on a
fax-by-email service. Initially we got a lot of pushback - customers feel
it's crazy to pay that much per month just to send 10 pages. So we told
them to go talk to their vendors who require communication by fax.
At the beginning of the conversation, customers tell us that vendors
require faxing, and there's no other option. After speaking with their
vendors, most customers are finding that they can actually email the
vendors, or submit data through online forms. The customers simply hadn't
asked the vendors about how they could contact them in so long that they
just assumed fax was the only real option.
Today we had a customer who did this, and found only one vendor out of ten
that required faxing. They shopped around, found a competitor who didn't
need faxing, and told the original vendor they needed to accept forms via
email, or they were losing business. Suprise... An hour later the vendor
had a way for my customer to email the vendor everything they needed.
Fax is a dying technology, but it's been very hard to get rid of. The past
few months have started to seem like the tide is finally turning. At this
point we are always encouraging customers to reach out to any vendor who
requires faxing and ask for alternative communication methods. The results
have been excellent.
Cheers,
Alexander
On Tue Nov 04 2014 at 5:45:30 PM Douglas Pickett <[email protected]>
wrote:
I'd be especially interested in the consensus on how best to deal with
fax machines in a SIP environment today.
Once upon a time I'd have leaned towards keeping the fax systems on
analog lines all for themselves (maybe also using them as the backup
lines). Or else use a fax-to-email for the incoming. Outgoing was
always a question mark - how to do the hardcopy original outbound in a
way that is as low fuss as a physical fax machine.
Regards,
Doug.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
