The paper fax is still with us. There are times when you need to fax a signed contract or handwritten documents somewhere. Some professionals, such as lawyers, doctors, real estate brokers, and designers, find faxing an easy way to send documents. However,  old-fashioned FAX technology is costing you money.  In addition to the cost of ink cartridges or toner and paper, that dedicated analog fax line costs approximately $35 per month or over $400 per year.

There are more efficient and cost-effective alternatives.

The Digital Alternatives

One alternative is electronic faxes, where you can use your Internet connection to send paper documents through a remote FAX server.

Using electronic fax (e-fax) eliminates the cost of fax machine maintenance and supplies. And the cost of a dedicated electronic fax line is about $10 per month so you save money. And since the fax image is digital, you can attach it to email, send it to a mobile device, and store it electronically.

However, there are drawbacks to e-fax, too. First, you have to convert paper into an electronic file. With electronic faxes you have to scan the document to convert paper to an image or PDF, and then use a web portal or email to queue it, and then send it to the recipient. Using a conventional fax machine is much simpler; you simply load the documents, dial a phone number and push send.

Security is another electronic fax concern. For example, sending medical files via electronic fax is not HIPAA-compliant. And what about sending sensitive information such as credit card or social security numbers?  And then there’s always the issue of incoming faxes that just sit on the fax machine for all eyes to see.

Another alternative is using your digital VoIP line to send analog faxes. You can use an analog adapter to convert your existing fax machine for digital transmissions. This offers most of the advantages of electronic fax, including the ability to email documents, read them and store them electronically. However, reliability is big problem. Most hosted providers can’t handle analog-to-digital signal conversions reliably.

The SecureFax Solution

We have come up with a more reliable alternative. SecureFax gives you the best of both worlds, offering the reliability of using a fax machine with all the benefits of sending digital documents.

SecureFax uses an adapter that is connected to your existing fax machine. You use the fax machine just as you always have – dial and send – but the fax goes over your network rather than an analog phone line.

This approach is 100 percent reliable with no dropped calls or interrupted transmissions. And since it uses HTTPS, the secure web protocol, it’s secure and compliant with regulations like HIPAA. And since faxed pages are sent as digital information, it can be accessed from email or a handheld device, and it can be stored and managed as data. And you have the option of having incoming faxes as email or stored in a portal, thus avoiding the privacy/security issue of a fax lying on a fax machine.

So with SecureFax you eliminate the cost of the old analog line and you still get to use that familiar old fax machine. It’s simple, and secure!

If you’re interested to learn more about SecureFax for your business, please call us at 510.785.2480.