Internet Faxing Service Review
Copyright © 2006 Ellen Farrell
The Internet is reshaping every form of communications medium,
and faxing is no exception. The latest twist: Internet faxing
services that let you send messages to any fax machine from any
Web browser or email, and others that give you a "personal fax
hone number," then forward any documents sent there to your
e-mail inbox.
The Fax Machine - Workhorse in the '80s and '90s.
It enabled you to send a document to anyone, anywhere,
at any time, and know that it was received instantly. It
was a godsend in the 1980s and everyone had to have one.
But it has become an expensive bit of machinery that will
cost you money every time you use it. Smart organizations
are now reducing or eliminating the fax machines they use
in favor of electronic services. The fax machine costs you
in paper, toner, phone bills and repairs. It is like a
taxi-meter in that regard, and the bill keeps growing and
growing. Currently most of the documents that you fax are
created on a computer. If you fax them through a fax machine,
you must print out the documents, manually create a cover
page, and you must go to the fax machine to send the
documents. Every time you receive a fax, you must retrieve
it from the community fax machine, rather than having it
delivered directly to your PC workstation like any other
document. Many people still use fax machines today. The
alternative is to use fax services from companies that
provide Internet fax services.
Fax Machine Costs
The fax machine is considered a simple tool by many,
which is probably why they haven't replaced it yet.
Anybody can stick a document into the auto feeder, dial
a phone number, and send the document at 14.4 or 33.6
Kbs. But it costs to send a fax.
Among the actions employees must take to fax a document,
labor is the greatest hidden operating cost. Labor is a
key factor because your staff is more expensive than phone
calls, and it makes the biggest difference in fax costs.
Most businesses neglect to factor in the costs of actions
such as employees walking to the machine, waiting to use
it, the faxing process and the employee's return trip to
their desk. All of this takes time. And in the world of
hidden fax operating costs-you guessed it-time is money.
Also, keep in mind that it isn't unusual to find executives
with six-figure salaries performing some of the same
fax-related tasks as clerical workers. When that happens,
those labor costs can be as astronomical as some of those
six-figure salaries. Costs also incurred are lease and
maintenance charges for fax machines as well as sending
charges for making fax phone calls. These depend on the
rates you pay and the speed at which your fax machine and
the machines you send to can distribute faxes.
How Internet Faxing Works
Ever heard of eFax? You sign up for a fax number. When
people send you faxes, they're auto-forwarded to your e-mail
Inbox, where you can read them, trash them if they're junk,
or print them out only if necessary. Not only do you save
paper and ink, but you don't need a fax machine or a second
phone line-and you get your faxes wherever you happen to
be in the country.
Together, in principle, these Internet fax services offer
all the advantages of fax -- a universal system for quick
and convenient distribution of anything you can put on paper
- without making you spend your money on a fax machine, fax
supplies or fax phone fees.
In the business world, any time that you can save money,
your customers will ultimately save money too. That is why
Internet faxing is a good idea. Internet faxing is the
practice of using your email (or a website) to send and
receive faxes. The speed and efficiency of email, coupled
with the lower costs of sending broadcast faxes via email
is more desirable than making lots of phone calls.
Sending and Receiving faxes over the Internet with your
regular fax machines sounds cool, but so far, today's
standard fax machines do not yet know how to speak Internet
- you can't use them over the Internet. Some of the newer
models will have this capability, but it will take time to
gain worldwide acceptance. In the meantime, there are a
number of services that bridge the gap between traditional
faxes and the new world of Internet-based communications.
A number of companies, such as eFax, Faxaway, Internet Fax
Provider and MaxEmail, allow you to send or receive faxes over
the Internet. These services are either free or charge a
monthly fee.
However, many of these services are limited in what they can do:
Don't work for handwritten faxes (unless they are scanned in) [all]
Still, Internet faxing provides many advantages.
Convenience and better resolution are the two main pluses. They allow
you to send and receive your faxes entirely with your email service -
the best thing to happen to the business world in the last 10 years.
You can send and receive faxes anywhere you can access your existing
email account: from your home, office, client's office, hotel, airport
or cottage. Or even better, a web-based interface that keeps track
of everything you've done with your faxing business and allow you
to do cheap and efficient broadcast faxing.
Some of the advantages of Internet faxing:
- To send a fax, simply send an email. It will automatically
be converted to a fax and delivered immediately
- To receive a fax, simply check your email. All faxes sent
to your fax number will be forwarded to your email
- Web fax - For people who need to fax their information to
thousands instantly. Send thousands of faxes in minutes from our
website - Broadcasting.
- Avoid tying up your computer or telephone lines
- No software to download or hardware to buy
- Easily distribute press releases, product and pricing
information, newsletters
- Sending to International phone numbers is cheap - the charge
is based on the destination country
- Easy and convenient - faxes are sent and received over the
Internet from the office, at home or on the road. Your Internet
"Fax Machine" is available 24x7 and is never busy.
- Toll-Free is cost effective - some virtual fax numbers are
toll free so that no matter where your customers are, they will
not pay any additional long distance charges and your North American
clients and contacts can reach you free of charge.
- Privacy - You are the only person to see your faxes, giving
them the same privacy as your email.
- Portable - You can receive your faxes at multiple email
addresses simultaneously and you can send and receive faxes while
traveling.
- Receive faxes directly in e-mail - Faxes are receivable and
retrievable anytime, anywhere. Faxes are not misplaced and privacy
is ensured.
- Send faxes directly from e-mail. - Eliminate manual faxing.
Faxing is integrated into workflow and faxes are delivered faster
and at less cost.
- Immediate Implementation - No unique client/server or software
is necessary, only standard e-mail capability. Minimal to no user training.
- Unlimited scalability - Support as many users as required
without purchasing additional fax machines.
- Combine multiple document types into one fax - Fax multiple
documents as easily as sending an e-mail.
- Account code
tracking - Budget and cost management is simplified.
- Automatic retries for busy or incomplete deliveries -
Eliminates need to continually check progress of a fax.
- E-mail notification of incoming faxes - Users know immediately
when a fax has arrived.
- Delivery confirmation via e-mail - Users always know when their
faxes have been delivered.
Quick Summary of the 4 big services
- Efax - (http://www.efax.com/) Undisputed leader in the field
of Internet faxing. Offers free version. Free version doesn't provide
you with a local number. Regular service is expensive. Offers many
other products - remote control of computer, etc. Requires proprietary
fax viewer software to view faxes. The most local area code numbers
available in the US.
- Fax-away - (http://www.faxaway.com/) Competitive regular
service. Web faxing not supported. Many customizable features
and options for sending. The personal fax number they assign you
is not local - they are all in some location where the area code
is not local to you - just like the free eFax service - not too
useful for your customers.
- Internet Fax Provider -
(http://www.internetfaxprovider.com/) Offers toll-free numbers
which can be used anywhere in the US with the first 50 faxes per
month included in the monthly rate - very convenient for the
people sending faxes to you - they will not pay any additional
long distance charges. Best rate for broadcast faxing. Many
customizable features and options for sending. Comprehensive
Web faxing features.
- MaxEmail - (http://www.maxemail.com/) Offers local numbers
in the US. However, you will find that only the major cities are
covered. No web faxing available. Good receiving plans.
These fax services use the Internet to mimic real
fax machines - that is, they deliver your fax to a recipient's
fax machine, anywhere in the world, just as if you had dialed
it yourself. Most of these services charge anywhere from 10 cents
to 20 cents a page. That's more than you'll pay to send a fax
across town, but it's much less than you would pay to dial
an overseas phone number, even for a short fax.
Most major e-fax vendors offer additional features, including
broadcast faxes, the ability to route incoming faxes to you as
email attachments and monthly billing.
On the sending side: Most Internet faxing vendors allow you
to send faxes by attaching files to an email. When the Internet
Fax server gets the email, the emails get converted into a fax
coversheet with the recipient's fax number pulled from the
"To:" address. The attached files then get converted to TIFF
or PDF files for easy viewing by the recipient. The service
will then deliver the converted fax to the recipient's standard
fax number.
On the receiving side: Most Internet fax vendors will provide
you with a phone number that you can then give to your customers.
This number can be a local number (if you are located in or
near a major US city) or a toll free number (available everywhere.)
People will send you faxes to that number in the standard way.
The service will then convert the fax to a PDF or TIFF image
(or in the case of eFax, a custom image for viewing w/ their
software) and send to your email as an attachment. You can
then view the fax with any standard Windows Image viewer.
In the future as more fax machines include built-in Internet
connectivity, faxing might give email a run for its money as a
cheap, convenient way to send documents. Until that time,
however, e-fax services will provide the best alternative
to picking up the phone and sending faxes the old-fashioned way.
Conclusion
In summary, after reviewing all of the major Internet faxing
service vendors, I have found the best service to be the one
provided by Internet Fax Provider (IFP). IFP has the best rate
plans and offers toll-free numbers that include 50 free faxes
per month. I don't go over 30 faxes per month, so it certainly
makes sense for me - because with the toll free number provided,
my customers don't have to pay long distance charges when they
send me a fax. IFP also has the best broadcast sending rates
and regular sending plan with the most features. And it was
the simplest to use (you don't have to use all the available
options.)
For free Internet faxing, I found that eFax offers the best
plan. But of course, it puts limitations on the service and
you don't get a local fax number. Also, if you live in a big
city and you would like a local fax number, then eFax is the
best solution. That is if most of your customers are local,
because if not, they will pay toll charges when sending you a
fax.
Internet Faxing Services Reviewed
The following services provide some type of Internet Faxing:
CallWave
http://www.callwave.com
Installable software helps consumers and businesses get more
out of their wireless phone, home phone, and Internet-connected
PC by 'bridging' calls between these devices.
More of a cell phone solutions provider - requires custom software.
Data On Call
http://www.dataoncall.com
The company offers a comprehensive suite of fax services including
electronic faxing (inbound and outbound), web/fax integrations,
APIs, fax broadcasting, fax on demand, and custom applications.
Only offer 858 area code and toll free. Expensive. Broadcasting
at 8cents/min.
Digital Mail
http://www.digitalmail.com/
E-mail to fax and fax to e-mail services. Users receive a unique
phone number, accepting voice mail and faxes.
Difficult to
understand, No price structure setup
EasyLink
http://www.easylink.com
Small Business Integrated Desktop Messaging - E-mail to fax, fax
to email and desktop faxing. The service was previously named FaxSav.
Large corporate solutions - not meant for small businesses or individual users.
eFax
http://www.efax.com
Send faxes, Receive faxes,
anywhere you can get email. They have a free service with limitations.
Standard service is expensive.
FaxMate
http://www.faxmate.com
E-mail to fax, desktop to fax, broadcast fax, and fax to fax via
the Internet. Its U800 service allows users a personal toll-free number,
which automatically forwards faxes and voice mail to e-mail.
International send rates are standard. $30/mnth, $0.15/min
Faxaway
http://www.faxaway.com
Internet fax & unified
messaging service. Faxaway gives customers faxing tools at their desktop.
No local numbers available. Competitive rates and many features and options.
FreeFax
http://www.freefax.com
Send via web, receive as email
Ad supported. Only web-based interface available.
IntelliFax.com
http://www.intellifax.com
Allows you to send
and receive Internet faxes. Provides middleware for other Internet fax vendors.
Limited local numbers available. Good send rates. Limited features and options.
Internet Fax Provider
http://www.internetfaxprovider.com
Email-to-Fax, Fax-to-Email, Broadcast faxing. Best Internet faxing solutions
and rates available in the US. Simple to use with powerful options.
Offers toll free numbers with 50 free incoming faxes included.
Best rates for broadcasting service. Web-based interface included.
Interpage
http://www.interpage.net/sub-faxing.html
Offers a variety of Internet and Telecommunications-based services
- including E-Mail Paging, Web and E-Mail Fax Services, Remote Site
Monitoring & Internet Voicemail. Focus is not on faxing services.
Competitive rates - meant for large corporations.
MaxEmail
http://www.maxemail.com/
Allows you to send
and receive faxes via the Web or e-mail and includes voicemail. You
can receive notification of incoming faxes and voice messages directly
to your digital phone.
Expensive service. Offers local fax numbers,
but not as many as eFax and not as convenient as a toll-free number
with free service.
Our Fax
http://www.ourfax.com
OURFAX, is the world's first,
easy to use, ad supported 100% FREE service, that allows any email user
in the world, to send faxes directly from their email address, to almost
any fax machine in the world.
Free - Ad supported, Amateur website
SuperFax
http://www.superfax.com
Super Fax is a small internet fax
device that replaces your fax machines, receive your faxes,
and emails them to you, on your email address.
$495US per unit. Still need a fax line
ZipFax
http://www.zipteam.com/zipfax/
ZIPFAX.com will allow you to send from your desktop e-mail to fax machines. It offers text
only with no attachments.
You must prepay for online postage with a minimum opening
balance of $9.99. Rates are 14 cents per page for most US states.
About The Author
Ellen Farrell - former telecommunications
specialist in Telecom. Have reviewed many telecomunications products
for large and small business. Worked with large Telecom service providers
in marketing and development. Currently review technology for business
development in Northeastern US. farrell@faxwize.com
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