Many companies are considering an Internet fax service so they can receive faxes not on paper (the “old fashioned” way) but as e-mail attachments. This is a relatively new development in the evolution of document exchange, and one that is pretty compelling for boosting productivity and streamlining business processes.
In particular, Internet fax services like that offered by RingCentral let the user decide the best way to view a fax—as a TIFF file or as a PDF document. The flexibility to receive faxes in the most convenient format is a key benefit of fax-to-email.
Another thing that’s new with incoming Internet fax services is the ability to pay a flat monthly rate rather than being charged per-fax. Especially for companies that get a lot of faxes, this feature can translate into significant cost savings.
Fax-to-email is definitely desirable for companies with employee who are frequently mobile—working at locations other than the office. It’s also very convenient for anyone who does a lot of traveling but still needs to receive faxes in a timely manner. With an incoming Internet fax service, such users can receive their faxes from any location where they have access to e-mail. This means faxes get to their recipients faster and business can go on without delays.
Since so much of business today is done electronically, receiving faxes as email attachments translates to reduced costs associated with maintaining and using a traditional fax machine (paper, toner). It also eliminates the need to maintain a phone line for receiving faxes via a fax machine.
Also, since faxes received by email are already in electronic form, they can be easily save on a computer for future reference—no hanging files and cabinet needed!
