Transitioning to E-faxing

As we grow more and more into being a paperless society, the presence of fax machines is fading, and people are finding that Internet faxing fills in the gap.

Internet faxing is also known as online faxing, E-faxing, fax-to-email, and virtual faxing. These are terms used for services that allow you to send faxes online through email. Most services let you use your free Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Live, AOL or other email addresses to receive a fax. You can also receive faxes in different formats like TIF, JPG, or PDF. Best of all, E-fax technology enables you to get rid of bulky fax machines that needlessly use up paper and ink as junk faxes stream in.

How Does E-Faxing Work?

You can send faxes online by subscribing to online faxing services. Some will require that you install special software on your computer in order to send a fax, while others provide you a local or 800 phone number to print on your business card so that you’re ready to go right away. The faxes people send to this phone number are automatically forwarded to your email address. Some services (usually the free ones) only let you receive and not send faxes. Others have bulk limits on how many faxes you can send for a certain price.

While some services are initially free, Internet faxing services typically cost you to use. Monthly subscription fees range from $0 to $19.95/month. With many services, you can receive faxes up to 200 pages for free and you can then send out faxes for around $0.11/domestic page and $0.15/international page. With some services, you can get additional services such as voicemail-to-email services.

This type of technology is working for traveling businesspeople, busy corporate environments, and for individuals who work from home because you don't need any equipment aside from your computer (and sometimes a scanner.) You don't even need to pay for a dedicated fax line. You can send or receive a fax anywhere you access your email and you can make it appear to come from a different area code or country if you are looking to do business in a specific region.

As with anything, there are benefits and drawbacks to E-faxing. Cost-savings and convenience are two factors that are influencing people to start using online faxing technology. The inconvenience of printing out documents, then feeding them to a fax machine, waiting for transmission, and hoping the line is not busy has been replaced with a simple click of a button from anywhere you have wireless access and a laptop. Another major benefit is that Internet fax doesn't give you a 'busy' tone, and therefore faxes can’t be missed. People can send you faxes even when your computer is offline, allowing you to receive all faxes that are being sent simultaneously. With Internet faxing, your faxes remain as digital files, allowing you to manage your files easily, whether you need them to be forwarded, filed for later or archived away. Internet faxing, however, does have one limitation. If you want to fax paper documents, you will have to scan them in to turn them into a digital file.

All in all, E-faxing appears as if it’s here to stay. As technology grows to meet our needs for convenience and cost-savings, more and more people will enjoy coming on board with virtual faxing. Then all you'll have to worry about is what to do with the extra desk space you’ll have after retiring the old fax machine, and how you plan to spend the dollars you save no longer having to buy toner, fax landlines, or fax paper.