With a dedicated and reliable fax server, Telebroad supports several eFaxing options. You can send and receive faxes directly from the TeleConsole (see Android, iOS, or Web/Desktop versions). You can also send faxes using our print2fax Windows driver as well as our email-to-fax solution.
Not sure if you want to ditch the old fax machine and switch to a cloud-based faxing environmen. Consider the following when making your decision...
Advantages of eFaxing
- Complete mobility: A physical fax machine is tied to a specific location. It's certainly not the most convenient piece of machinery to drag along when you are on the move.
But eFax is completely software-based. All you need is Internet access and either a computer, your tablet, or even just your smartphone for full faxing functionality. - Faxing documents directly from any program: Almost any document produced nowadays is generated digitally on a computer or mobile device. To have such a document faxed it needs to be printed first (many fax machines do function as printers as well).
This extra step is bypassed with Telebroad's print-to-fax Windows driver. It can take any document you have and use the printing function to generate a virtual fax-compatible file that will be efaxed directly to a recipient.
Our non-Windows users need to convert documents to a PDF file before sending them from the TeleConsole app. Another choice is to efax documents simply as email attachments. The email is sent to a special Telebroad server that handles the entire faxing process.
In either case, there is no physical printing required. You save money and trees and avoid paper waste. You also save time by not having to scan documents. - Full access to any fax and faxing history: A traditional fax machine is just a transition medium. It has no archiving capabilities. To be able to access any old faxes you would need a laborious system where you scan every fax and store it digitally, preferably on a cloud storage solution.
But with eFaxing such a system is automatically implemented for you. You don't need to bother with scanning faxes or figuring out any archiving method. Any fax you receive is stored digitally on Telebroad's cloud servers and is fully accessible from anywhere.
With a digital eFax archive your entire faxing history is always readily available. It makes it very easy to find specific faxes, not only by date and time but with actual keyword searches. - Saving on supplies and repairs: Paper is not the only expense you will save on by using eFax instead of a regular fax machine. You can stop stocking toners and avoid dealing with messy ink. There is no need for a dedicated phone line. The biggest savings probably come from the fact that eFax doesn't break down, eliminating costly repairs and replacement parts.
- Selective user access: You don't want to have to stand guard by the fax machine to prevent important documents from being received by unauthorized staff. With eFaxing you get a level of security and privacy that is just not attainable with a regular fax machine. Since faxes are delivered from a server and not from a phone line, access can be limited to selective users with clearance to the server and blocked from others.
- No busy signal: Traditional fax machines have an obvious bottleneck problem – there is usually only one phone line that receives (or sends) faxes. The outcome is a busy signal when multiple faxes are sent simultaneously. Fax machines can retry sending but may abort after several attempts, frustrating the sender. But eFaxing uses your broadband connection instead of a phone line. This means your virtual fax number will never have a busy signal as it can handle numerous faxes simultaneously.
Disadvantages of eFaxing
- Limitation on document scanning: An eFax is just a combination of software and a server. It works perfectly for receiving documents and it will satisfy all users who need to fax a digital document. However, if you have a paper document to deal with, you may find that the lack of hardware can sometimes be a problem. With a traditional fax machine you can easily scan and send a paper document. But with an eFax you would need to find and use an actual scanner before you can have the fax sent to any recipient. Of course, instead of scanning you can just take a picture of a document with your smartphone or use a scanning app, but the quality will not be the same as if you would use a real scanner.
- A slightly bigger chance of downtime: With eFax you have two networks that have to function in order to send and receive faxes – your local broadband network and Telebroad's own servers. Telebroad reliable servers have a track record of 99.9% uptime. Still, between this and your own broadband provider (with uptime depending on their performance), you can probably have better odds and uptime with a traditional fax machine that only depends on one "network" – your telephone line. For this to be a real disadvantage, your business will need to send and receive a large volume of faxes on a daily basis. For most companies this will not be an issue.
- Cyber security considerations: A traditional fax is a low-tech solution. Faxes are printed when received and are stored as physical documents. EFax on the other hand is a cloud-based high-tech solution that comes with some level of security risks. While Telebroad's servers are shielded with the highest degree of protection and encryption, no servers or organization on the planet is completely safe from cyber attacks. To minimize this risk it is advisable you move sensitive faxes to a local offline storage solution or simply print them and delete them from the server.