Online Fax Service

Online Fax Services - Buyer's Guide

Online fax helps you save time, money, resources and environment. But most of the times, you will find that email takes care of your requirements and you don't need a fax service at all. It is when you start looking for features an internet fax service offers over and above your normal email account. So, what should you look for while buying an online faxing service? Our buyer's guide for online fax services tries to help you with just that.

Type of Documents

What are the different types of documents that you need to fax? What would be their file format and size? You need to ask yourself these questions because your fax service should support the size and format of your document. Most of the providers allow sending multiple documents and offer support for large file sizes in different formats like JPG, TIFF, GIF, PDF, MS Office files, etc.

If you will be sending formal or legal documents that need to be signed, then digital signature would be a great feature to look out for; note that only few providers offer this facility. And if the documents to be faxed are highly confidential or sensitive in nature, or require you to comply with privacy regulations of certain Acts like HIPAA, then you need to search for a provider who meets your security requirements.

International or Local Fax?

If you will be sending and receiving faxes within your country, check out whether the fax provider offers local or toll free number in your area. Most of the big brands offer this in USA and Canada. But if your faxing requirement is mostly for international numbers (whether incoming or outgoing), then you need to find out what call rates apply to you and your senders. In such cases, a provider with international presence will be able to offer you the most cost effective solution.

Faxing Features You Need

Different companies offer a different set of features. Since you may not find all the features in a single fax service, it becomes imperative to assign priority to the features that you need. Some of the widely offered features that you can expect from your internet fax service include preview and editing of fax before sending it, adding annotations and cover letters, scheduling of fax to be sent on a future date and time, auto retry to send a failed fax, delivery confirmation, archive and retrieval of sent and received faxes, mobile alerts for incoming fax, easy contact management, etc. Some providers also offer caller ID management to facilitate displaying of your business name while yet others may try to tempt you with fancy fax numbers.

Analyze Your Monthly Volume

So, how many pages of fax do you need each month? Out of this, how many pages would you be sending and how many would be incoming? Analyzing and breaking up of your estimated consumption will help you find a suitable plan for yourself. Many online faxing companies place a separate cap on incoming and outgoing fax pages while few of them are flexible enough to offer you an overall cap. Apart from this, you should also consider the number of users in your organization who need access to the faxing system and the number of email IDs (most providers offer up to 5) you want to use for sending faxes.

Integration Capabilities

Even if you buy the best fax service out there, if you can't use it from your device or OS, what's the use? So, checking out for compatibility and integration capabilities is a must. If you will be using it on your tab or smart phone, it should have a mobile app for the OS of your device. And if you need to integrate it with your CRM, billing system or any other business software, then your fax provider should offer support for that. Given the importance of cloud storage in our digital life, your online fax should at least offer integration with popular cloud storage apps like Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, etc.

In addition to above, you may sometimes want to retain your existing fax number or sometimes even the existing fax machine. In such cases, it would be helpful to know that many providers offer fax number portability, and some of them also offer a fax adapter to integrate your fax machine with the online fax system.

If you are new to the concept of fax over internet, you may also want to look out for reliable customer support and a free trial account.