by Thomas Kinsinger
Director of Technology, E-N Computers
20 years experience solving business IT problems in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
In many communities, libraries offer the most affordable or sometimes the only fax service in town. But setting up a fax service that’s fast and low maintenance can be a chore. Here are the pros and cons of electronic versus traditional faxing and two solutions to common issues with library faxing.
E-N Computers has provided IT services to libraries for more than 20 years, which allows us to really understand technology issues facing libraries and to test many faxing solutions.
Why offer faxing at a library?
You might expect that by now faxing would have gone the way of the VCR. But many organizations still require faxing because it is more secure than email. Some workers must fax time sheets weekly. Faxing might be required for unemployment benefits or state benefits or tax forms. In many cases, the library may be the only public place in town to offer the service.
QUICK ANSWER:
Why is my electronic faxing so slow?
We have found that not all e-fax solutions are equal. At E-N Computers we offer two different solutions but prefer one over the other.
Concord Fax is our favorite solution. While Concord’s services work well for large institutions like hospitals, they also have a FaxPro service for smaller organizations. For less than $15 a month, you get a feature-rich solution that’s also easy to use.
Pros of traditional faxing
While the industry has moved toward electronic faxing, there are some benefits to using a traditional “fax machine” for this service.
- Patrons can walk up to fax machine, dial number and send instead of requiring a library worker to help with emailing a fax
- Many patrons are more familiar with the concept of a physical fax machine
- It can be more secure than electronic faxing
- The telephone lines used for traditional faxing are often more reliable than the internet connections used for electronic faxing
Pros of electronic faxing
Electronic faxing comes in a variety of options. Some can potentially make life more complicated while others can make it easier.
Here are some factors that make electronic faxing attractive:
- The ability to achieve a paperless solution.
- For most solutions, the faxes are received and sent by email. You don’t need to print something off to send it, and you’re not wasting paper and toner with junk advertisements that are often faxed.
- Features that are not available or require added equipment with the traditional solutions. These include the ability to:
– Receive faxes to a printer
– Auto send or receive faxes to or from a network folder
– Integrate with other systems through APIs
– Use print to fax solutions for quickly sending a file
– Send faxes to many contacts at one time
– Manage all your departments or locations from a centralized portal
– Simplify single billing across all locations
– Save money. Most organizations don’t send a lot of faxes, and e-faxing plans cost around $10- $50 per month depending on how many pages you send and receive.
Problems with electronic faxing and how to fix them
The list of positives with electronic faxing is long. But consider a few of the cons.
No physical fax machine
One of the common frustrations for electronic solutions is not being able to just walk up to the fax station and dial the number and send the fax. There is a solution to this. It’s called an ATA. Basically, it attaches a physical machine to an internet connection instead of a phone line. Many VoIP providers can set this up for you, including E-N Computers.
E-faxes that are slow
Another complaint that we often hear with e-faxing is that it takes too long to receive confirmation that the fax was received. We have seen this, and it can be a significant issue. We have found that not all e-fax solutions are equal. At E-N Computers we offer two different solutions but prefer one over the other.
Concord Fax is our favorite solution. While Concord’s services work well for large institutions like hospitals, they also have a FaxPro service for smaller organizations. For less than $15 a month, you get a feature-rich solution that’s also easy to use. Concord can also be tied to a physical fax machine, which can reduce the interaction with patrons involved in email faxing.
Another popular solution is eFax. While this solution will certainly work to get you started, we find that it is not as feature rich as Concord Fax.
Next Steps
Contact us if you would like help with your e-faxing service. E-N Computers also supports wireless printing, device security and other technologies that are critical for libraries. Visit our libraries IT resources page for a complete list.
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