It's time to take a fresh look at fax messaging and how it can deliver serious business value through application integration in the workflow process. Most network managers think they understand network faxing. They know that fax servers enable you to send documents from network PCs via a print queue. They understand features such as online fax phonebooks and broadcast faxing. And they know that fax servers cut the time it takes to send a fax from a few minutes to a few seconds, thereby boosting employee productivity and saving the company significant clerical and white-collar labor costs. But few network professionals realize how the broader integration of fax messaging into the enterprise environment can provide even greater cost savings AND deliver serious competitive business advantages. As a result, many companies are missing out on lucrative opportunities to streamline operations and increase revenue. A well-integrated fax messaging platform can release the additional potential value residing in databases, customer service applications, workflow systems, document imaging tools and many other enterprise assets. FACSys Fax Messaging Gateway for Microsoft Windows NT is specifically designed to be such an open fax platform. It provides open, native integration that allows other systems on the network to trigger fax transmissions and incorporate documents received on the fax server into automated business processes.
Here are just a few examples of how companies are using these techniques today:
Fax narrowcasting Many companies have a wealth of information about customers in a SQL Server database or a customer information system. Line-of-business managers typically use telemarketing or direct mail to target customers fitting a specific profile with a specific offer. In the age of voicemail, however, telemarketing is becoming a less efficient process. Studies also indicate that people pay more attention to faxes than regular mail. So fax narrowcasting offers a cost-effective way to reach targeted prospects with a timely message. Recipients meeting any desired criteria can be selected from the database, and an effective marketing piece can be developed using a desktop publishing app. With FACSys, this document can also be customized so that the recipient doesn't even perceive the document as a mass faxing. Triggered faxes FACSys can also be set up to send individual faxes based on specific triggers or events in another application. For example, an accounts receivable database can send out past-due notices by fax, eliminating the delay and expense of snail mail notices. One national paint manufacturer even uses FACSys to send a list of delinquent accounts to its own internal shipping locations throughout the country, so that any further shipments to those customers are prevented. Fax is the ideal medium for this purpose because dock workers aren't inclined to use PCs to check on account status before loading their vehicles. A faxed report does the job very nicely, and it can be automatically updated with as much frequency as required. Inbound fax ordering Fax is also useful as a means of receiving documents as part of an automated workflow process -- especially when they're received on a fax server. An international chemical manufacturer receives orders from around the world on its FACSys server. By capturing the incoming fax's CSID (the number at the top of faxes that identifies the transmitting machine), the company can automatically route it to the appropriate account manager. In addition to notifying the account manager, FACSys also sets in motion the rest of the order fulfillment process. The image of the faxed order is attached to that order's folder, and it remains part of the job file throughout its life-cycle. That fax image is therefore readily available in case of any future dispute. Fax-to-data A major automobile manufacturer uses FACSys to automate its parts recall procedure. The manufacturer's independent dealers are given hard-copy forms for ordering replacement parts. The dealers simply fax the completed forms to the fulfillment center, which runs a forms-processing program on a FACSys fax server. The data from the forms is then automatically entered into the workflow process. This technique eliminates the need for human operators to enter the data -- a time-consuming and error-prone process. Because the dealers don't have a network connection to the fulfillment center, fax provides an ideal data communications solution. Unfortunately, many companies miss out on these opportunities because of a misperception about the role of fax in the current communications landscape. They perceive fax as an outmoded technology. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fax is a staple of day-to-day business communications, and its use continues to increase. Fax is immediate, universally compatible, reliable and inexpensive. Ten-year-old fax machines can communicate readily with state-of-the-art fax servers. Information in a wide variety of formats can be sent and received with ease. It's the most convenient way to receive everything from the corner deli's Launch menu to today's inventory report. Fax is available virtually everywhere today - from the office to planes, trains and automobiles. And it requires less training than operating a VCR. Fax is particularly indispensable when it comes to applying workflow processes to the world beyond the enterprise network. Often, certain steps in such processes require that a customer or supplier receive some information -- whether it's a simple notification or a data-packed report. Fax is often the medium-of-choice for such communications because:
There is no e-mail address available for the specific recipient
The recipient isn't near a computer at the moment
The two parties either can't or don't want to deal with file format issues
Fax is perceived as more reliable than Internet e-mail
Fax offers excellent security when properly implemented
The time-stamp and authentication that fax provides is a requirement of the process
Hard copy is often more convenient than digital data
Faxes are easy to annotate and share with others Saying that e-mail will eliminate fax is like saying that the Web will eliminate the telephone. Each medium has its own place in the universe of business interactions. The position of fax will only become stronger as it becomes integrated into the growing digital infrastructure of the corporate intranet and the Internet itself. Organizations that learn to integrate data into as broad a messaging environment as possible, rather than trying to replace one method of communications with another, will be more efficient, effective and responsive to their customers' needs.
How much money does your company waste on conventional faxing each year?
If your company currently sends and receives faxes from stand alone fax machines, the fact of the matter is - you are wasting both time and money.
LAN Faxing Saves Time And Money
A LAN fax server can save up to 90 percent of the labor costs associated with manual faxing, resulting in an immediate and high return on investment. With a stand alone fax machine, an employee must first print the document, carry it to the fax machine, possibly stand in line, then scan the fax in and wait for all pages to go through before he can return to his desk and resume working. Of course if there is a busy signal at the receiving end, the procedure must be repeated, perhaps several times. With our solution, employees can send faxes directly from their workstations, as well as from the applications where their documents are created or from an existing e-mail interface.What's more, with a variety of custom in-bound routing options, each user on your network can also receive faxes directly to their own desktop, increasing both efficiency and privacy. Most importantly, the increased efficiency gained from computer-based fax translates into a substantial decrease in your overall fax budget. The average fax operation takes no less than 10 minutes. For an employee making $40,000 a year, that 10 minutes amounts to $3.50 of time. If that employee sends 25 faxes per week, the resulting cost is $4,000 per year. If your company faxes a high volume of documents each day, the expense can be staggering. When the timely and cumbersome process of manual faxing is eliminated, savings in associated labor costs are recognized almost immediately. An additional cost-savings benefit of computer based faxing is the ability to schedule faxing events at "off-times" when telephone rates are much lower. After you install our solution on your network, even if you send as little as 12 faxes per day, your faxing expenses will drop considerably:
