Fax machines have always been an essential tool for businesses when it comes to sending and receiving relevant documents. Today, this revolutionary communication tool is even more effective and secure with cloud technology. Cloud faxing allows businesses to send and receive faxes through email and enjoy seamless integration with their day-to-day workflows.
With an online-based faxing service, there’s no fax machine, no printing, no fax phone lines, and no busy signals. You only need an internet connection and a mobile device or desktop to enjoy online faxing. If you’re wondering whether it is the right choice for your business, here are some considerations to help you choose the right service.
Assess Your Needs
How many employees in your organization need faxing ability? How many pages or documents will you be sending and receiving in an average month? Do some of your employees telecommute? These are some of the initial questions to consider as you choose a cloud faxing service. Assess your needs to determine what cloud faxing package and pricing option best suits your needs.
In real practice, versatility and functionality are critical components of cloud faxing. Your employees can easily send and receive documents from any internet-enabled device, such as PC, tablet, or smartphone, from virtually anywhere. Faxes can be stored and accessed safely in the cloud and printed when needed. To learn more about how cloud faxing works, you can check out eFax.
Security
When choosing this service for your business, you’ll need to assess your security needs. Will your online faxes remain private and secure? Does the cloud fax service assure you of secure, encrypted delivery of all your important faxes? Look for added protection that provides maximum security for both important and confidential faxes.
Whether you want a secure way to send and receive legal contracts, loan paperwork, real estate documents, financial statements, or more, an online fax service offers the perfect solution. Faxes are delivered directly to the recipient’s inbox, and can only be accessed from a secure server using unique login credentials.
Network Reliability and Redundancy
If cloud faxing will be critical to your day-to-day business operations, is your network infrastructure and internet connection up to the task? Do you have a back-up plan in case things don’t work as expected? These considerations are as crucial to the decisions you make about it as other technology products you use.
A properly configured network infrastructure and fast and reliable internet connection are critical to getting the best out of your cloud faxing service and any other cloud-based solutions for business. Focus on building an agile communication plan for your business first so you can deploy and implement a reliable online fax solution quickly.
Integration With Cloud Storage Services
Cloud storage has become a critical business tool today. Integrating cloud faxing with cloud storage not only helps you archive existing documents, but also creates new documents with word processing apps and spreadsheet apps built into the cloud service. Take an example of Google’s G Suite or Microsoft’s Office 365, which are quickly becoming core business tools.
Some online faxing services offer automatic archiving of documents too. When evaluating different types of cloud faxing services, look for one that offers easy integration with cloud solutions that suit your business operations. Integrating such apps helps you enhance workflow and ensures a seamless process of making, creating, and faxing PDF documents.
Seamless Implementation
The last thing you want is putting your business on hold while a new solution is being integrated into your business infrastructure. How disruptive is the implementation of the cloud faxing service you want to work with? The right solution should not disrupt your day-to-day business activities for long periods. The process should be seamless and involve little downtime.
The best cloud faxing solutions guarantee quick, easy, and pain-free implementation. Solution setup should only take a few hours, and no system disruption should be expected. Just like other cloud solutions, connecting to the service requires only an internet connection and a web browser. If you need specialized integration with other business systems, that can also be executed.
Consider Usability
When you invest in a cloud faxing service, you need to manage and control your faxing operations easily. What tools are available to do so? Your fax service solution should provide a practical and convenient tool to manage your account and ensure secure sending and receiving of faxes. You should get access to a secure web interface to manage your account.
This comprehensive administrative tool should allow you to tailor fax operations, manage corporate document templates, analyze faxes, and archive data that can be stored and searchable online for a specific period. The right tool should provide the flexibility and autonomy you need to manage your cloud fax account.
Seamless Fax Search With Real-Time Visibility
How easy is it to track and search your fax documents? The ability to search, view, and track the status of all transmissions in real-time should be an essential component of your cloud fax solution. Choose a solution that allows you to easily find any fax you’ve sent or received using date, recipient name, keywords, and other parameters.
