16 Essential Features For Business Faxing

World-wide commerce continues to rely heavily on thein color.
use of facsimile transmissions. To be certain, the use6. Bar Code Tracking: Track responses with a
of email has substantially reduced the use of faxbarcode; particularly helpful when issuing a blast or
machines and fax servers, but the use of faxbroadcast fax which requires a fax-back response.
continues to be widespread. And faxing technology7. Automated Forms Overlay: Populate forms with
continues to evolve to meet the increasinglyvariable data and forward the completed form as a
sophisticated needs of organizations today. At thefax to recipients.
same time, however, many companies are under8. Receive Stamping: Imprint the actual date and time
mounting pressure to cut capital investments - includingof receipt on the bottom of each page.
new technology spending. So as organizations assess9. Fax Identification Tags: Identify the actual originator
the efficiency and effectiveness of their fax solutions,of a fax by name or designation, rather than just by
it is more critical than ever that the evaluation befax number.
comprehensive. The most obvious consideration is10. OCR Optical Character Recognition (OCR Fax
cost. But the advertised price of a faxing product orServices): Convert an electronic fax to plain text,
service tells only part of the story.allowing you to edit, copy or cut text from that fax
The true value of a faxing solution, whether handled inmessage and import it to another file format.
house or by an outsourced fax provider, lies in its11. ICR Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR): Pick up
flexibility; its ability to scale to an organization's changinghandwritten characters and numerals and incorporate
needs. Today, you may not need all the advancedthe data into your documents, data files and forms.
faxing features available on the market. But what12. Fax Number Options: Provide your customers or
about tomorrow?personnel with toll-free numbers or numbers which
Flexibility is often the most overlooked considerationhave local area codes.
when evaluating the merits of a faxing solution. Yet, it13. Application Faxing: Interface with and migrate data
can have a tremendous impact on cost becausefrom any of your applications, including legacy systems.
flexible, full-featured solutions enhance productivity -14. Message Archiving: Have your outbound and/or
now and in the future. Just imagine how your companyinbound messages automatically archived.
can benefit from the breadth of features available15. Vacation Routing: Route faxes to one or more
today from top-tier providers:alternate email addresses during a vacation or period
1. Web Administration: View and manage fax traffic inof absence.
real time.16. Customer Associated Data: Attach fillable fields to
2. Custom Fax Cover Pages: Develop cover pagesa fax record so a particular fax could, for example, be
with your company logo or other personalizedassociated with a particular patient, file number, clinic
information or design.location, doctor, and any other information that is
3. Custom Reporting for Business Messaging:relevant to the customer's work process.
Generate reports automatically to include informationYou probably don't need all of these features
such as fax volume, delivery status and cancellations,immediately. But when evaluating solutions, look for
sorted by individual, department or company.providers who offer not only what your organization
4. Integrated Broadcast Faxing: Send a single messageneeds today, but what it might need tomorrow - as
to multiple recipients in various formats, including fax,your company grows and business practices change.
email, telex and SMS text message.Flexibility enhances productivity, yet it is the most
5. Color Faxing: Send and receive medical reports,overlooked consideration that impacts the cost of
photographs, engineering reports, and other documentsfaxing services. Don't be caught without it.