Most businesses probably have some fax machine even up to date, a tool that has been a crucial IT piece for many companies, and it comes with a cost too just like any other business infrastructure. You will have to purchase the machine, pay for toner, papers, down time and a couple of other costs. For the toner, you need between $40 and $200, and this is for each cartridge.
In cases where you have a number of fax machines, the cost gets exorbitant. Do you have to go this way? Not in modern times when you have better options thanks to advances in technology. There is an inexpensive way that other businesses have adopted. They are still sending faxes at little costs or no costs at all.
Faxing With No Physical Fax Machine
Modern small business server operating systems have built-in faxing services. Thanks to Microsoft, these programs come free, and you can perform the following among other functions:
?Save an email into a file
?Send a fax to a printer (just like the old time with the fax machine)
?Send a fax to one or a number of mail lists
In these cases, your fax experience will not be any different from the past time when you had a fax machine. You will have the printouts, but you will have the advantage of archiving or emailing them as you wish. In cases where you do not need the hard copies then you are saving many dollars worth of printing paper. Another advantage of not printing is that you will have better privacy to your documents.
The Internet Fax Option
Are you not at ease with an in-house fax server? There are varieties of internet based fax services that can fully suit your business’ needs. You can use services such as FindaFax.com to view and pick your best option from the long list you will come across. Charges are mostly on a monthly basis, and they are worth every dime you pay for. You will be able to receive your bundles of faxes through your email. This is very convenient for your business as you are left to concentrate on other important aspects.
Online Faxing Equals Savings
An online fax service goes a long way in saving businesses enormous sums of money that would have otherwise been ‘wasted’ in printing. You will always be receiving your faxes in your mailbox thanks to the fax service company. You do not need a fax machine or worse to tie up a particular phone line for it. These services will not mean abandoning faxes at all, but you will be cutting down on the costs and the processes of traditional faxing. Faxes are a very vital part of any business, and that is why they should remain, affordably so.
Breaking Down The Cost of Online Fax Services
Internet or email-based faxes are very affordable, and that is why businesses should consider making the switch at the earliest convenience. The charges are often less than $20 per month for the most basic plans. For larger companies that may have multiple individuals on a single login, there may be an additional startup fee. There are lots of incentives for these services though. The most lucrative service is where your business will be given up to 1,000 pages free every month. The rest of the pages over this threshold are charged at a very fair rate of 3 to 10 cents per page. If you want a more permanent service then the yearly services could be the most suitable. The companies that offer the annual subscription charge between $20 and $30 in a year if your fax volume is low.
Conclusion
There are countless ways to bring affordable, fast and environmental friendly faxing tools into the contemporary times. With your business’ existing IT infrastructure, you can save lots of money that could have otherwise gone into hard-copy faxes. When compared on cost basis, online faxing wins hands down, and this is the way businesses should be moving.
Sources:
http://wireguided.com/2009/07/fax-machine-that-is-so-1980/
http://smallbusiness.costhelper.com/fax-service.html
The writer, Edrick Hypolite, is himself a small business owner who recognizes the many challenges in setting up a reliable and affordable communications infrastructure. He uses online faxing extensively as a low cost alternative to the bulkier and pricier traditional fax machines.