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| Maximizing the Fax Power-How Organizations can Benefit from a Native.NET Browser-Based Fax Solution |
2008-2-14 |
When Microsoft unveiled its .NET platform a few years back, there were naysayers who doubted its viability. Today, .NET-based applications are enabling IT departments to easily integrate disparate applications, reduce turnaround time and increase productivity. In fact, forward-thinking IT pros are harnessing the power of .NET by targeting existing technologies, such as fax, and transforming them into powerful business transaction tools that deliver necessary business documents at Internet speed.
To gain more perspective, a fax server solution consists of three components ¨C 1) a LAN connected PC running a Windows OS such as Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003, 2) fax application software, and 3) an intelligent fax board from companies such as Brooktrout (www.brooktrout.com). A fax server offers the potential to deliver fax communications to every workstation and application in the organization. In seconds, users can send or retrieve a fax from their PC. Fax servers, due in part to the design, become a central repository for every fax transmission that enters or leaves the company. When a need to search, retrieve or retransmit these important business communications arises, organizations are relieved with the knowledge that the document is accessible from a single source with powerful search tools.
Fax Is Not Dead
While some may roll their eyes at the sound of fax in today¡¯s ¡°paperless office¡± environment, the demise of fax has been greatly exaggerated. The fact is that faxes continue to drive many strategic business functions and processes. For legal purposes, many documents just cannot be sent in electronic form via e-mail due to the requirements of legal signatures and ¡°confirmed¡± delivery. Add in the proliferation of spam emails and viruses such at the SoBig into the mix and it becomes even more difficult to confirm delivery of the documents that move business. Entire industries would come to a halt without faxes including manufacturing, financial services, food services, education, legal, travel, healthcare and government/public sector. Legal documents, purchase orders, stock trade confirmations, airline/hotel bookings, insurance contracts, engineering drawings, blueprints, patient records, and high-level federal information are just a few of the documents that are driven by fax communications.
Plus, as organizations continue to downsize, automation of this process is vital since the staff is just not there to perform administrative functions such as fax. Manually faxing documents is a function of yesteryear and a colossal waste of time and valuable resources. And, fax is not going away anytime soon. The fax server continues to play a vital role and has evolved into a mission-critical component of the technology infrastructure.
If you ask anyone to choose between Internet/email and the telephone as the most reliable and secure communications tool, the answer will always be the telephone network. Emails can often replace a telephone call; however, with commerce applications, the inclination is to send a fax or request an order to be faxed. Fax messages travel over the most reliable and secure transport available -- the telephone network. When was the last time a fax machine or fax server was down and out of service because of a computer virus? Fax servers continue to be a valuable business tool because the technology always delivers the documents that commerce relies upon, with safe, secure and confirmable delivery. The next generation fax servers also act an enabler by easily (and transparently) providing a means to fax-enable ERP, CRM, purchasing and other back-office applications. In addition, fax servers double as a legal archive of all incoming and outgoing correspondence. The challenge is to find innovative ways to incorporate faxed information into our evolving digital world.
In fact, one software development company based in Copenhagen is implementing a fax server solution for use with products such as Microsoft Visual Basic. This organization is leveraging the API programming possibilities both in .NET and .COM to connect with the fax server solution to obtain transaction IDs, send time, status, and more.
In another instance, a Netherlands based company needed to connect its in-house developed .NET software with a computer-based fax server solution. On a regular basis, the company¡¯s in-house application can generate more than 3,000 faxes in a matter of minutes, and each one must be successfully and quickly sent to the final destination. This significant fax volume requires more than 100 fax lines and a seamless integration between the company¡¯s .NET based application and another .NET based fax application to provide fast, scalable and reliable delivery of fax transmissions. A next generation fax solution offering a web services design provides the scalability and fault tolerance required for mission- critical fax services.
If your organization is considering a next generation fax solution that utilizes the Microsoft .NET framework and offers a service to deliver seamless, XML, .NET, VB, browser and email-driven fax communications, contact Microsoft or an integrator that specializes in delivering computer telephony applications. A properly implemented fax automation solution will enable an organization to streamline processes, improve workflow and ultimately reduce costs. The key to implementing a successful computer fax solution is to work with a company that understands the software application side as well as the telephony side, which is a rare combination, but well worth the effort in locating such a partner.
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Passive Components
