Yes,
indeed conventional fax machines are dying, and will be out
of the business very soon. We are now living in a digital
world - emails, cell phones, instant messenger, GPRS systems
are everywhere, slipping themselves into everybody's life.
Ask yourself: When is the last time you post your mail through
the postman? And, when is the last time you click on that
reply or forward button to send out an email?
Technology change, so does our life quality.Faxing
services are quite similar with email. When first email services
were introduced, not much people get hooked on and they still
think the posts sent out thru their office boy are more secure
and reliable. But as soon as people find the convenience of
emails …the heat just spreads out and affects every
single person's life.Internet faxing,
or sometimes known as online faxing, or efax or fax to email
or virtual fax, is a technology that enables you to send out
and receive faxes in email forms.
Modern internet services had made faxing easier
and faster in a cheaper way compare to conventional facsimile
transmissions. “We are eliminating the need for a fax
machine," says Janice Kapner, director of marketing and corporate
communications at eFax. eFax is one of the pioneer in internet
fax business that offers a free fax-to-e-mail service to more
than one million subscribers.
By signing up with eFax services, you will
get a real fax number at which you can receive faxes, which
are then forwarded to an e-mail address of your choosing.
You can as well send faxes out to normal fax machine through
the service. Click here for more readings on eFax
service reviews.Internet faxing
has caught the attention of both large and small businesses.
More than 14 billion pages had been sent over IP-based networks
in year 2002 and the number is keep on increasing, yielding
more than 20 billion pages sent at the writing time of this
article.
Why internet faxing service is growing this
fast? Answer: the cost. Internet faxing requires less cost
compare to conventional fax machine, which required user to
buy fax machine, fax machine toners, extra fax lines …and
the list goes on. With internet faxing, you don't have to
invest in equipment; you don't need to pay for a dedicated
fax line; you don't have to allocate extra budget to maintain
your fax machine.
Often, Internet faxing services require only
a flat fee to use. As for eFax, with subscription fees range
from $0 to $19.95/month; you can receive faxes up to 200 pages
for free; you can then send out faxes with a low price of
$0.10/page; you get a local or a toll-free number; you get
additional services such as voicemail-to-email services.Further
more, internet fax doesn't give you a 'busy' tone.
You can always receive faxes as it will just
drop into your email inbox. Faxes can be received even your
PC is offline or the phone line is being used- it's always
on and you will never miss a fax with internet fax. "The `always
on' aspect of a Web-based fax service means that numerous
faxes can be received simultaneously at the same number,"
says Leslie Morgan Nakajima, director of corporate communications
at Onebox.com.Convenience is another
plus point for internet faxing. With internet faxing, your
faxes become digital files automatically.
This in turns helps you manage your files
easily. Just as other files in your computer, you can now
copy, forward, and organize it in your PC hard disk - simple
and clean. With most Internet faxing services, your faxes
become digital files that can be copied, forwarded, and archived.
There's no learning curve for the service, one can just subscribe
and start using it to improve your daily job.
On the other hand, there are a few limitations
to Internet fax: You need online access and a scanner to fax
paper documents. That's why Dataquest's other numbers show
traditional faxing sticking around for years to come. However,
the economy and manageability of Internet faxing will allow
an increasing number of savvy home office workers to do without
a fax machine. |
