While today’s businesses now rely on modern communications such as email, some companies still rely on faxing to exchange essential documents. Fortunately, the faxing system has also adapted to the technologically advanced world. Bulky fax machines are now replaced by digital solutions, with numerous providers offering online faxing services to streamline business operations.
In this article, we’ll briefly examine online faxing and its numerous benefits. We’ll also explore the steps to set up an online fax for your business–from choosing a trusted provider to how to get a fax number. Continue reading for more information.
Understanding Online Fax
An online faxing system, also known as e-fax or virtual fax, is a modern technology that takes everything you know about traditional faxing and makes it better.
Essentially, online fax is the replacement for conventional fax machines. It’s a digitized tool that allows you to send and receive fax documents via the internet. With an online faxing system, there’s no hardware involved. All communication and exchanges of documents are carried out using an online portal that computers, smartphones, or the dedicated fax app of the provider can access.
Digital fax offers numerous benefits that traditional fax can’t provide. These include:
- Convenience and portability
- Enhanced security and compliance
- User-friendly
- Cost-effective
- Eco-friendly and sustainable
- Improved organization and accessibility
4 Steps To Step Up An Online Fax For Your Business
With its numerous benefits, your enterprise can easily streamline operations and adapt to the increasingly competitive and highly digitized world. To send and receive faxes via the internet, here’s a quick guide to help you get started:
Find The Right Provider
Finding a reputable online fax service provider to work with is essential to ensure you get the most out of your investment. But with a variety of options in the market, choosing the right one that best suits your business needs can be challenging.
To help you narrow down your options, here are some considerations to keep in mind:
Do your research
As with any vendor or partner, you want to do your research when choosing an online fax provider for your company. You can list potential providers and assess each based on their features. You can also read online reviews and feedback from their past and existing clients to determine their credibility in the industry. Moreover, compare pricing plans to determine the most cost-effective option.
You can also contact the provider to evaluate their prompt service and how they handle client concerns. You want to know how efficient their customer service is in case of potential problems with their service.
Estimate the volume of faxes you expect to send or receive
As you decide on a service provider, you’ll also need to consider how many monthly faxes you expect to send or receive. You wouldn’t want to settle for a low plan with limited volumes of fax and end up limiting your business or paying additional fees.
In contrast, you also don’t want to choose the highest plan than your usual fax volume, especially since it can lead to wastage. Hence, determine your organization’s faxing needs to find the right volume.
Check Their Fee Structures
While most online fax providers list their pricing plans on their site, you still want to do extra digging or ask questions to find out about any hidden charges, such as setup fees, long-distance fees, or overage fees. This way, you don’t have to be surprised by the high cost of your bill.
Create An Account Or Sign-Up
Once you’ve found the right online fax service provider for your enterprise, you’ll need to sign up for the service. Generally, creating an account won’t take longer than a few minutes. You’ll only need to enter important details such as name, company name, email, address, phone number, and payment details.
Choose A Number
After successfully creating an online fax account, you’ll need to choose a fax number for your enterprise next. You’ll be assigned a regular or toll-free number if this is your first time using a fax system. Also, you can choose from several available fax numbers and include your area code.
However, if you’re upgrading or already have an existing fax number, your provider can help you transition or upgrade to online faxing using the same number.
Set Up Fax Messages
Once you have a number, you can start setting up your fax portal to send or receive messages. In general, there are two ways to use online fax.
For one, you can use the standard email service. You can attach the documents and enter the fax number of your recipient and the name of the service you’re using. Secondly, you can use the fax service dashboard, which may be much easier. Depending on your chosen provider, you can use the dashboard to send and receive fax messages, much like an email service.
Takeaway
There’s no denying the many benefits an online fax system can bring to your enterprise. Whether this is your first time using online fax or you have been using traditional fax systems and looking to upgrade, setting up online fax is generally a straightforward process. As a good start, consider the steps mentioned above and have your online fax system running in no time.
