Your Resource for Online Fax Facts

Considering Cloud Fax?  Good Idea.

Document management is a constant expense, and fax documents are no exception.  Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate some of the paper, equipment, ink and toner from your annual budget?  You can eliminate at least some of your office document costs by shifting from dedicated fax equipment to an online fax service.

Online fax, or cloud fax, is a mainstream way to manage your fax needs.  You sign up with an online provider.  They give you a fax number, either local or toll free.  If you have an existing fax number, you can likely have it transferred to the new system.

Good for Your Clients – To your clients and partners who want to send you a fax, nothing changes.  They punch in the number and send the fax.  But instead of getting a busy signal when your fax line is busy, or getting an error report when your machine jams or runs out of paper, their fax simply goes where it was supposed to go.

Good for You – Instead of hunting through your office to find out who got your fax off the machine, you get an email notice that you have fax or a text message on your cell phone.  You log on, or simply open the attached file, and there is your fax.

You Decide – You decide what to do with the document.  You can copy it, file it in a folder on your computer, back it up to a CD or USB drive, forward it to a team member or even print it.  Because it’s an electronic copy, it doesn’t lose quality every time you copy it.  With many systems, you can even edit the fax, sign it electronically or make notes on it and resend the crisp, clean document to others who need to see it.

New Phone System : Dead Fax Machine – You just installed that new digital phone system, or maybe you have embraced VoIP for your office phone needs.  Now you discover your old fax machine doesn’t work without an adapter, and even then it isn’t completely reliable.  It’s time to make the switch to cloud faxing.

It’s easy.  It’s secure.  It’s cost-effective.

Questions?  TopOnlineFax.com has Answers.

TopOnlineFax is your one-stop source for answers to cloud fax questions.

Our first-hand research into the current state of online faxing provides you with accurate and relevant information intended to help you become an informed consumer.

The Benefits of Cloud Faxing

Reduced Cost – Let’s face it.  We’ll never completely eliminate the need for printed documents.  You can, however, reduce the number of different machines used to handle documents.  When you eliminate the stand-alone fax machine, you eliminate the need for a dedicated phone line, special paper, ink or toner, a service contract or maintenance costs.

You will also reduce the amount of printing supplies you use.  Not every document you receive needs to be printed.  When your faxes come to you as a PDF or TIF file, you are able to choose which documents get printed and which ones can stay in an electronic form.

Enhanced Security – Your client swears they sent over that new contract, but it’s not on your fax machine.  Where is it?  With online faxing, you never have to worry about missing that important fax.

  • Transfers are secure using SSL.
  • Server redundancy.
  • Power failure security.
  • Portability.
  • Immediate access.
  • Improved service to clients, customers, business partners.

How-To

  • How to use the Print-to-Fax driver
  • How to set up Microsoft Word and Excel to send faxes
  • How to edit received fax documents
  • Vendor supplied software
  • Third party software (PDF-XChange Viewer, Able, OpenOffice Draw)

FAQ’s

Where do my faxes go?

  • Your faxes are received by the vendor and saved on their servers as a TIF or PDF file.  This file is then made available to you in the way you chose when you set up your account.

How long are my faxes kept on the server?

  • Online fax storage varies from as short as 30 days to as long as forever.  Check with your vendor for the specific terms of your account.

How do I know my documents are secure?

  • Most cloud fax vendors use SSL encryption for all data transfers conducted online.  This is the same technology used by your bank and government agencies to protect their online data services.  Once the documents are on the vendor’s servers, they are protected by the vendor’s internal security systems and policies.  Any quality cloud fax vendor should be able to provide you with details of their internal server security plan.

Can I use my existing fax machine with this service?

  • You don’t necessarily have to trash that fax machine.  There are different ways you can use your existing fax machine with most online fax providers.   Most people find it unnecessary to do so, but it is possible in most cases.

Learn more about fax and FoIP.