FoIP, short for fax over internet protocol, is a method of sending an online fax, which means that companies don’t need to invest in specialist fax machines anymore which often just sit in the corner of the office gathering dust before being rolled back out once in a while when you have to send a fax to a client, customer or governing body.
By Team Savant
Image: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
A reliable, trustworthy, and secure FoIP service is essential if you’re going to send files over the internet; allowing you to send confidential paperwork quickly and easily without the risk of information falling into the wrong hands. This is essential for the general running of any day-to-day business, especially for customer service companies and call center management. You can read up on the best practices for call center management for more information, as this is just one of many you will need to follow.
When you start talking to people about investing in a new type of online service, security is one of the first things that gets brought up in the conversation. If you’re going to send bank details or information about certain goods and products, you want to make sure that these are kept secure and there is always the risk that sending the file electronically could go wrong or the message could be intercepted. With the best online fax services, however, you can be assured that every message sent is done with security as a prime focus which ensures that only the sender and the recipient see that document. All companies offering online fax services have to be registered by authoritative bodies, allowing them to be involved in the sending and receiving of mail process, and some will even offer reporting services which tells you that a message has been successfully delivered.
Image: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Fax is Dead…Long Live FoIP Providers
Times change as we all know, and trends that are hot one minute are stone-cold minutes later. During the 1980s and 90s, faxing was a highly popular form of communication allowing businesses and individuals to quickly and easily send documents around the country, or world, rather than having to rely on the postal services or couriers. However, the digital world has exploded in the past twenty years or so, and faxing is now dead as a Dodo. Email and video conferencing have become the most popular forms of business to business communication but FoIP providers, offering services that combine the benefits of faxing and email, have emerged in recent times and allowed those companies who still need to send faxes to do so. Rather than sending a paper-based file down a second home or office phone line, the sender now sends the message through an existing IP (internet protocol) connection and the recipient picks up the message through an email attachment, essentially faxing from computer to computer rather than from fax machine to fax machine.
FoIP providers have allowed businesses to do away with the outdated machines that might have that retro look that some like these days, but the actual purpose for it in the office has long gone. There is no need for the machine, the paper, ink, or toner; meaning the company saves money in the long run while still maintaining the ability to send a fax if the need arises… long live the FoIP providers.
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How Do I Find a Reliable Fax Over IP Provider?
Faxing isn’t the kind of communication method that modern, vibrant businesses use anymore. It’s all about video conferencing and emails with the occasional phone call and every so often they might even meet face to face. However, sometimes you just need to send a fax to a customer, client, or boss that includes a signature signing off on a project – but you haven’t got a fax machine anymore… In the modern technological world that we live in, that’s not a problem because you can now find a reliable fax over IP provider who will help you to send that message using the existing internet connection with no need for specialist equipment. There are many different providers out there, it’s down to you to choose the one that best suits your requirements. After all, you don’t want to pay for something you’re never going to use again. On that note, the first thing you need to be looking for in your quest for a reliable fax over IP service is a free trial period.
New technologies are often difficult to get to grips with and you might not want to splash the cash on a service you’re not comfortable with, so be sure to give the system a try before you buy it. The next thing you need to check with your prospective fax through email service is that it is fully compatible with the various modern operating systems and devices. Gone are the days where you only needed to send from a desktop PC running Windows to another desktop PC running Windows, you now need to factor in smartphones, tablets and laptops running Windows, OSX, Android, and iOS — if people can’t open the message, it’s technically failed so make sure that your chosen service covers all bases.
What are the Benefits of FoIP Fax Services?
New technologies leave many people skeptical, questioning what makes one service any different to all of the others out there and why the price is so high or low. With so many products and services on the market already, especially in the technology industry with companies seeming to adopt new systems and processes each week it’s easy to see why some people prefer the ‘old school’ methods, but the fact is…times change.
Sending a fax, for instance, is now a thing of the past with new, modern FoIP fax services in place allowing you to send a fax over the web rather than through a phone line and specialist fax machine. There are two distinct benefits to FoIP fax or fax over IP services; the first being that it has the potential to save a company hundreds because you’re not paying out for the equipment needed for a traditional fax like paper, ink, toner and the phone line connection. The message goes from fax to email rather than fax to fax, essentially going like a modern email attachment and arriving in the recipient’s inbox in a matter of minutes no matter where they are in the world – and on any device, if you use a fully mobile and desktop compatible service provider.
The other benefit is that it’s far more efficient, getting the message sent across as quickly and easily as possible so both parties – sender and recipient – can get on with their busy day jobs rather than waiting at the machine at either end for the message to be transmitted down the phone line which could take up significant amounts of their time – and as any business will tell you, time is money.
To conclude, there is no denying that fax is a dying art. However, with progressions that have been brought about in recent years, fax has been given a makeover and it has been brought back to us as a digital service. This is something that will be highly beneficial for businesses in particular industries, for example, in the medical and legal sectors whereby official documents and signatures are required on a daily basis. Call centers and customer service centers also widely use FoIP too.