4 Reasons why you need a Fax Server

Fax servers offer more benefits than just sending and receiving faxes. Fax servers cater for the needs of organizations of all sizes, from SMBs to Fortune 100 companies. Here are 4 main reasons why you should deploy a fax server.

1.     Save money

Implementing a fax server such as GFI FAXmaker eliminates the need of dedicated analog fax lines (FOIP) as well as specialized fax equipment such as fax machines which also eliminates the cost of maintenance. Moreover, fax servers helps reduce telecom costs through Least Cost Routing (LCR) and provide a high return on investment usually realized within 3–6  months.

2.     Increase productivity

With a fax server solution, users can send faxes from their own email client, for example Outlook, which eliminates the need of having to walk back and fourth to fax machines to retrieve faxes. This allows you to boost employee productivity. Apart from sending faxes from Outlook, users can also send from other desktop applications. Third-party applications and business processes can also integrate with fax servers through APIs. a Fax servers also provide a faster and more efficient way of fax broadcasting. Furthermore, you can deploy a fax server in a unified messaging solution where faxes and email share a common mailbox.

3.     Focused workflow, security & regulatory compliance

Many fax server solutions give you the ability to implement clustering and load balancing for high-volume and fault-tolerant fax transmission. Furthermore, fax server solutions such as GFI FAXmaker allow you to store faxes on disk, archive and generate reports on faxes. They ship with transmissions reports which advise whether a fax was sent or received correctly, or not. This creates an audit trail that facilitates regulatory compliance with regulations such as SOX and HIPAA amongst others. Furthermore, to ensure that only the person that the fax was intended for actually sees the fax, many fax servers can automatically route incoming faxes to the user’s mailbox or to a particular printer based on a DID/DDI/DTMF number or to the line on which the fax was received. Faxes can also be forwarded to a public folder or assigned to a network printer per installed fax port. This means that the fax goes through no other hands.

4.     Various features

Most fax servers integrate seemlessly with Active Directory or LDAP, so you do not need to maintain a separate database for fax users. This does not mean that fax servers cannot exist without AD and/or Exchange. Users can also send faxes from a web browser, for example by sending faxes from OWA. This  meets the requirements of mobile workers who need to send or receive faxes on the move. Fax servers also have high-image-quality, including colour faxing.