TMCnews Featured Article
IP Fax: Ditch the Phone and the Fax, Go With UC
By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor
Technology has afforded many businesses some pretty nifty features that make communication a heck of a lot easier. From VoIP to virtualization to IP fax, it’s a rather seamless process to get in touch with someone one way or the other. But with different technologies offering different features, a desk can get rather cluttered with various and sundry equipment. That is why it’s time to ditch the phones and fax machines and go the way of unified communications, or UC.
UC refers to the ability to integrate different types of communications -- including voice mail, e-mail, IP fax, instant messages, and video conferencing -- into one common interface. Essentially, it simplifies all the great communication tools and puts them in one, easy to access place.
UC can greatly increase productivity, especially in companies that rely on daily or more frequent communications with customers, partners, and vendors.
A recent article over at the South Florida Business Journal, says there are five good reasons to ditch the phones and fax machines and implement a UC system.
Aside from the reduced phone expense and the elimination of a traditional handset that would otherwise just take up space on your desk, the feature of unified messaging makes it easier to send and receive voicemails, e-mails, even IP faxes across multiple devices, PCs included.
The flexibility in messaging, such as with IP fax, e-mails, voicemails and text messages, is a major plus in utilizing a UC system. In a UC environment, IP faxes are treated the same as their email counterparts because they actually are the same to a UC system.
Rather than work with legacy equipment acting as nothing but pretty paper weights or dust collectors, a UC system allows for less hardware, which means less money being spent on hardware, which translates to money in the till for other, more necessary items.
“It’s a brave new world,” said Robert Plessett, managing partner of Miami-based TeleSwitch, “where one wire runs both phone and computer,” reports South Florida Business Journal.
Most businesses find the fax machine a necessary evil. With a UC system, the traditional fax machine is eliminated and, in its place is a UC-enabled IP fax solution that allows faxes to be sent and received from a computer.
With a UC system, businesses can significantly reduce the cost spent on ink, paper and fax repairs by utilizing an IP fax system, in conjunction with other unified messaging solutions.
Edited by Brooke Neuman