People have been sending and receiving faxes since well before the invention of the Internet. Even in today’s digital age, there are plenty of circumstances that require sending faxes instead of regular emails. The good news is, businesses can now use online fax services instead of wasteful fax machines. Read on to find out about a few of the benefits of ditching the fax machine and using an online faxing service instead.
1. Increase Convenience
Services like mFax make it incredibly easy to digitize the historically analog process of sending faxes. Users just need to sign up for fax through email service, then they’ll receive a unique toll-free number so they can send and receive faxes just like regular emails.
The faxes get sent directly to a user’s email, so there’s no need to learn a new system. Plus, digital faxes can be sent and received from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection, and they can even be viewed from mobile phones.
2. Save Space at the Office
Traditional fax machines take up a lot of space. Office workers need to keep not just the fax machines but also supplies like paper and ink toner on hand.
Most companies also keep records of paper faxes, necessitating extra filing cabinets and storage rooms to accommodate them. With fax to email, there’s no additional equipment required whatsoever and a digital record of the faxes can be maintained on local networks or on the cloud.
3. Reduce Maintenance Costs
Fax machines are notoriously finicky. Each time they stop working, the manager has to call in a repair technician, costing the business extra money on top of the electricity used to power the machine and the paper and toner required to use it.
In comparison, online faxing requires no maintenance on behalf of the average user. The company simply pays a per-user fee to get access to the toll-free number required to access faxes, and that’s it. Good fax to email services offer scalable plans to accommodate companies of all sizes, too, so there’s never a need to pay for extra numbers that aren’t being used.
4. Go Green
Switching to online faxing doesn’t just save space, time, and money at the office. Cutting out all that fax hardware and those paper copies is also better for the environment. Digitizing documents cuts back on paper use and lets users store them electronically, reducing the need for printing copies and keeping paper records.
As people become more aware of humanity’s effects on the environment, it becomes even more important for companies to go green and do their part. Their reputations often depend on it.
5. Improve Security
Security breaches can occur in both analog and digital transactions. However, online fax services provide an elevated level of security protection. Some can even provide the extra security required to make fax to email services HIPAA-compliant.
Looking for a maximum-security digital fax service? Make sure the company uses data encryption and secured connections. There should also be advanced user controls and permissions in place to help prevent in-person security breaches and advanced reporting to facilitate audits, especially for healthcare organizations.
6. Save Money
The only capital investment businesses need to make in digital fax services is paying for a monthly or yearly subscription. Good online fax services scale their service plans to different organizational sizes and provide the toll-free numbers required to send and receive faxes by email at remarkably reasonable prices.
Traditional fax equipment, on the other hand, is extremely expensive. It’s not just paying for maintenance and supplies that make the difference, either. Each time the equipment outlives its usefulness, it must be upgraded at a great cost to the company. It’s much cheaper to ditch the fax machines entirely and make the switch to digital faxing.
7. Manage Documents with Ease
The ability to store and manage faxed documents online via the cloud makes it much easier to keep things organized. Employees with permission to view the documents can access them from anywhere without jeopardizing data security, and since all the paperwork is digitized, it’s much easier to find relevant information. The ability to manage faxed documents online also simplifies life for remote workers, who would otherwise have difficulty accessing the data required to do their jobs at home or on the go.
8. Send Large Files
Almost every business has experienced circumstances that make it difficult to transmit large amounts of information. Online fax services don’t usually place stringent limitations on file transfer sizes. As a result, people can send long faxes without worrying about whether the essential information will get to where it needs to go.
9. Streamline Business Communications
Traditional fax machines come with all kinds of obvious and hidden disadvantages. Paper jams, misplaced fax documents, and busy signals are all quite common, and these issues can really get in the way of effective communication. The good news is, none of them will come up after the company makes the switch to online faxing.
10. Compete in Global Markets
Online faxing lets users choose just about any kind of phone number to send and receive documents. As a result, business partners from all over the world can collaborate easily on projects and share essential information. Facilitating communication over country lines makes it much easier to compete in global markets.
11. No Need for Extensive Training
Some office workers are used to using fax machines in their daily lives, but those who have recently entered the workforce often consider them antiquated pieces of equipment that aren’t relevant to the modern business world. Both older employees and young, fresh-faced workers know how to use email, and that’s about all it takes in terms of expertise to use fax to email services.
The Bottom Line
Digital faxing comes with a host of benefits, and few to no drawbacks. The price of implementing online faxing is negligible, especially in comparison to the ongoing costs associated with fax machine maintenance, supplies, repairs, and upgrades. Fax to email services are safe, secure, convenient, and designed to be user-friendly. Companies that haven’t made the switch yet have every reason to reach out to an online fax service provider as soon as possible.