By Abdul Mondal
Faxing is one of the most popular forms of business communication. The first version of faxing was invented in the early 1960s. Since then, companies in all sectors have been using it to share documents. However, due to technological advancements and the need to create digital workplaces, conventional faxing is diminishing. Instead, most companies are using online faxing technology to transmit faxes.
Online Faxing Explained
Online faxing is a modern technology that allows people to use the internet to receive and send faxes. Instead of traditional fax machines, online faxing uses internet protocol to transmit digital documents. Online fax is like a virtual fax machine, but it’s hosted by a fax server.
There are various ways to send and receive online faxes. These include mobile faxing, web faxing, and email faxing. Whether to use mobile fax, web fax, or email fax will depend on the online faxing service you select.
Pros Of Online Fax Systems
Investing in an online fax system for your company has many advantages. They include the following:
Enhance Convenience
One of the benefits of purchasing an online faxing system for your business is the convenience it provides. It allows you to send and receive documents online. Therefore, you can fax from anywhere. For instance, you can email to fax from the comfort of your home using your laptop or smartphone.
Faxing online is especially important if you’ve got employees working remotely. They won’t have to come to your office to access business information. They can receive and send faxes through their smartphones from anywhere in the world. They only need to have an internet connection. And this goes a long way in improving your business communication.
Reduce Business Cost
Investing in an online faxing system can be a great solution to reduce business costs. With an online faxing system, no fax machines are required. The cost of purchasing and maintaining fax machines can be too high. It also eliminates the need for printing documents. You can do everything from signing and sharing files online. Therefore, you won’t spend company money on printers, paper, and toner.
Switching to online faxing helps reduce your space rental expenses. While conventional faxing creates physical documents that must be stored in physical spaces, online faxing is entirely different. It helps create digital documents and store them in the cloud. Therefore, you won’t have to spend money renting a document storage space.
Improve Employee Productivity
Nothing can consume much of employees’ time than dealing with physical documents. For instance, it can be overwhelming for team members to keep arranging and searching for documents from piles of files in your office. Besides, the process of printing and scanning faxes can be time-consuming. As employees handling the management of your company documents won’t be productive.
An online fax system will allow you to store all documents in the cloud. It also allows you to classify documents and store them in different folders. This makes it easier for employees to retrieve a specific document they want. It ensures workers don’t spend time on printers and photocopying machines. All these help save time which can be used for other core business activities. As such, employees become more productive.
Enhance Data Security
Most online faxing systems have an encryption feature to ensure data is transmitted securely. It also helps ensure no one else can use or edit documents without your permission. Anyone who wants to read the information in your documents must use a binary code to decode them. Only those you’ve given access to can view your files. And because an online faxing system eliminates the need to handle physical documents, no unauthorized person can access your documents. This helps improve your data security and cybersecurity strategy.
Cons Of Online Fax System
While online faxing has many benefits, it also has some challenges. Here are the major cons of online faxing systems.
Subscription Service
Although online faxing can be a great way to reduce costs, sometimes it can be expensive. Most providers will allow you to use their service for free to send and receive a small volume of faxes. However, if your faxes are many, the fee might be higher than the conventional faxing method.
Depends On Internet Connectivity
You must be connected to the internet to use online faxing technology. Therefore, you might experience many problems if you’re in a place with an unstable internet connection. Research to determine the strength of internet connectivity in your area before you invest in an online faxing system.
Takeaway
Although one of the oldest means of communication, faxing is still popular in the business world. However, most companies have shifted from conventional faxing to online faxing. As you’ve seen in this article, investing in an online fax system has several benefits. But still, they’ve got their disadvantages. So, take your time and consider investing in this technology.
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