Cloud Faxing Solutions

Transcription

1 Top Ten Considerations for Cloud-basedCloud Faxing -2 - The New Fax: A Technology Reinvented from Fax Machine to Enterprise Fax Software 1 Cloud Faxing Solutions Top Ten Considerations for Cloud Faxing Biscom, Inc.

2 -3 - Overview Cloud computing has been described as "the next stage in the Internet's evolution," providing the means through which everything computing power, computing storage, applications, business processes can be delivered as a service wherever and whenever needed. Among the most popular and widespread cloud services are online fax services, sometimes known as -to-fax and fax-to- services. In the simplest terms, these services associate an address with a fax number, enabling anyone with an Internet connection and an address to send/receive faxes. A cloud fax service can offer vastly more value and functionality, however, particularly when designed for use by business enterprises. This document describes the enterprise-level value and functionality. To that end, it is organized according to the top ten things to consider when evaluating whether an online fax service is the way to go. Things to Consider 1. Eliminate Hardware Perhaps the number one consideration driving organizations to the cloud is its seemingly never-ending availability of computing resources. In other words, why budget for hardware that must be available 24/7 when it is used only intermittently? Moreover, why budget for personnel to maintain that hardware? And why budget for the updates needed to ensure the hardware is delivering peak performance? While it is true that a fax server is a highly reliable device, it is still a device, meaning it must be housed, maintained by IT departments (who may have many other responsibilities), and often otherwise idle except for specific peak periods of activity. (As for fax machines, this document assumes that they have or should have been already replaced by the far more intelligent and capable fax server. Replacing fax machines also reduces the operating costs associated with toner/paper, etc.) 2. Eliminate Telephony As for consideration number two, is there any person or business that doesn't want to loosen the hold of the phone company? There are so many aspects to running a business (heat/lights/trash removal/cleaning services/health insurance/administrative overhead, etc.); that organizations are looking to outsource what can realistically be outsourced. Eliminating/reducing telephony costs can be a source of considerable savings. Moreover, online faxing is not only cost effective; it is also a time saver. With cloud faxing, there is never a wait to send a fax due to a busy signal, or need to resend it continually till successful. Faxes are always sent immediately, with retries handled automatically.

3 -4-3. Automate Faxing With consideration number three, the advantages of moving to cloud faxing become less about what costs can be eliminated, and more about what capabilities can be implemented. Faxing has moved well beyond the simple sending/receiving of faxes to include complex, sophisticated automated fax processing. By selecting an online fax service designed for corporate use, rather than personal use, you get access to capabilities such as these: Advanced Fax Routing a rules-based module for specifying actions that automatically route incoming faxes. Inbound routing actions can range from very simple redirect faxes when the recipient is out of the office to highly complex information extraction from the received fax image and do a database lookup for routing instructions. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) performing OCR on received faxes in order to generate searchable documents (PDF or TIFF). The received faxes can then be searchable either by individual fax recipients, or programmatically by an Advanced Fax Routing module, which can then automatically route the fax to the correct recipient according to data extracted from the fax itself. Fax Processing Workflows processing of inbound faxes as part of a business workflow. In a typical workflow, faxes progress based on information specified in data entry fields by workflow participants. Once specific criteria have been met, the faxes move automatically to the next workflow stage, with the fax ultimately available to be imported into a document management package. 4. Integrate with Virtually any Application When you select an online fax service with enterprise-level features and functions, you are able to use every client and application that is integrated with fax service. The cloud fax service you choose should offer support for such clients and applications as these: Clients Windows desktop clients, browser-based clients, clients, MFPs, Electronic Records Management clients, and more Applications SharePoint, Oracle, FileNet, SQL, PeopleSoft, CRM, OnBase, ISeries, Epic, GE Centricity, McKesson, Siemens, Meditech, and more APIs Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) with which to connect your custom applications directly to the service. Access to an API, such as a Web Services API, enables you to build entirely new applications for specialized faxing tasks, or add extensive faxing functionality to existing systems and applications.

4 -5-5. Fax Policy Enforcement Key to selecting the right online fax service is understanding the options it offers you for managing your fax users. A superior service will be one that is integrated with Active Directory or another LDAP-compatible directory device. Why? Because such integration means you do not have to maintain and synchronize an external database of fax users. Network administrators can manage fax user behavior with the same tools (such as Group Policy Manager), with which they manage all users/objects in their network. Such policies as whether to include a cover page, whether outgoing faxes must be authorized for actual transmission, whether users receive faxes as PDF or TIFF files, can then be established for all users in a domain or organizational unit at once. 6. Best-case Redundancy Another question to ask when evaluating a cloud fax service is how it can be of value as a backup or supplement to your existing fax system. A far better business continuity strategy than duplicating hardware is implementing a hybrid solution whereby you automatically failover to the cloud service whenever the on-premises systems are down or overloaded. Since a cloud fax service has infinitely flexible bandwidth with no limits on capacity, combining onsite and cloud fax services adds up to always-on faxing. 7. Easier Fax Management Any online fax service you adopt must simplify not complicate how your IT department manages organization-wide faxing. Avoid cloud solutions that require your personnel to be trained in yet another application. Look for a cloud service that just snaps-in to an existing network management program, such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). IT workers can then immediately configure and manage such settings as whether users see the Pending queue of outgoing faxes, how automatic retries are handled, whether and how faxes are tracked and archived. 8. Easy Migration If the plan is to replace an onsite fax system with a cloud system, make sure the migration path from one to the other is smooth and streamlined. A superior service should transfer (also known as port) your existing fax numbers transparently, and with no interruption of service. The replacement service should also be completely transparent to your users, enabling them to send a fax exactly as they currently send messages. 9. Professional Service, Support, and Consultation When implementing an online fax service, satisfy yourself that it is backed up by experienced, knowledgeable support engineers. Work only with an organization that understands faxing is mission-critical for a business, and any problems/issues must be treated accordingly. If possible, implement a cloud service from a vendor with long and deep experience working/consulting directly with customers, never referring them elsewhere.

5 Data Center Quality Finally, learn more about the data centers maintained by the cloud fax service so that you can feel confident in their document security and their ability to comply with privacy regulations. Work only with a vendor who can offer you: Servers that are housed in secure US data centers, such as secure Level One premium Verizon data centers Assurance that all faxes and fax data are secured within your organization not on their servers 128-bit SSL Encryption, which is the same level of encryption used by online banking and financial institutions to protect all inbound/outbound communications Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protection, whereby the message is encrypted end-toend, meaning the message is encrypted before the fax is sent from your location Conclusions While there is any number of online fax services from which to choose, when you evaluate them according to the considerations enumerated here, there is only one choice: An online fax service that is designed for use by business enterprises Accept nothing less than a cloud service that is built to provide the same high-level features and functions as the best on-premises system. Fax technology has come a long way, and, whether cloud or on premises, holds its value as a secure technology in an increasingly unsecure world. ABOUT BISCOM Founded in 1986, Biscom, headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, pioneered the fax server and cloud on-demand cloud fax marketplaces. Biscom, the industry s recognized innovation and customer service leader, has provided many of the world s largest companies with secure communications solutions, most notably its award winning enterprise FAXCOM Server and FAXCOM Anywhere cloud enterprise-class fax solutions, and Biscom secure file transfer products.