Though you may no longer see multiple fax machines on an office floor full of cubicles, businesses still use faxing to securely transmit vital information such as legal documents and medical records. However, many of these businesses have replaced their traditional fax machines with online cloud faxing services. Here’s why.
What Is Cloud Faxing?
Cloud faxing, or online faxing, is a method of sending and receiving faxes that uses the internet and cloud-based technology. Unlike traditional faxing, which relies on physical fax machines and dedicated phone lines, cloud faxing operates in the digital environment while still maintaining superior security and other advantages of traditional fax machines.
Here’s how it works:
- You subscribe to an online faxing service that offers cloud-based fax solutions for your business.
- A digital version of your document with a cover sheet is made into a PDF, Word, or image file.
- You upload your digital document to the online fax service’s secure web portal or platform through your computer, tablet, or phone.
- You provide the recipient’s fax number and any additional information needed.
- The online fax service converts your digital document into a fax format and transmits it to the recipient’s fax service.
How Cloud Faxing Works: A Functional Breakdown
Here’s the step-by-step breakdown of how online fax works:
- First, you prepare your document to send it online. This often means scanning physical paper and turning it into a PDF or image file, or creating a document from scratch using a word processing software.
- Log in to your online fax solution. This can be a web application, a browser-based program, a mobile app, or your email.
- Create a new cloud-based fax, then add recipients and upload your document.
- When you send the fax, the online fax service sends it to the cloud server. The document is then converted into a format that’s compatible with traditional fax machines (usually TIFF image).
- The fax service dials the recipient’s fax number for you and encrypts the document to ensure secure document transmission.
- If the recipient is using a traditional fax machine, the cloud-based fax service sends the fax signal, and the fax machine prints out the fax. If the recipient is using online fax, they’ll receive the fax as an email, online fax inbox, or integrated system.
- You’ll receive either a fax confirmation if the document was delivered successfully, or an error notification if delivery failed. Most online fax systems store your files in a cloud-based document management system, so you can access faxes easily.
5 Benefits of Cloud Faxing
Cloud faxing revolutionizes the faxing process by taking it into the digital age. It offers comprehensive business communication benefits, including convenience, improved business continuity, cost savings, security, and compliance features, making it a valuable tool for modern businesses looking to streamline their communication processes while staying safe and efficient. Here’s a comprehensive look at how cloud faxing solutions benefit organizations:
Facilitates Accessibility and Saves You Money
By shifting the faxing process online, cloud faxing provides fantastic accessibility as it frees users from the limitations of traditional fax machines and dedicated phone lines by supporting multi-platform compatibility, allowing you to choose the most convenient method of faxing, whether it’s through web portals, email, or mobile apps.
Cloud faxing also offers considerable cost savings. In addition to eliminating the need for a physical fax machine, cloud faxing reduces paper and ink costs and the costs associated with the dedicated phone line needed for traditional faxing. Additionally, many cloud faxing services offer scalable subscription models that allow you to tailor faxing capacity to your specific needs, preventing financial waste on subscription models that force you to buy more than you need.
Send and Receive Faxes From Anywhere With an Internet Connection
Another great benefit of freeing yourself from traditional fax machines and phone lines is that you can send a cloud fax no matter where you are with a simple internet connection — which is available pretty much everywhere. This allows you to transmit and receive faxes while working from home, on business trips, or even in remote locations.
Additionally, cloud faxing services enable you to send and receive faxes through your email. This means you can fax documents by attaching them to an email and specifying the recipient’s fax number in the email’s subject line. Likewise, incoming faxes are delivered to your email inbox as digital attachments, letting you view and manage them conveniently from your email.
Ensures Compliance Through Encrypted and Secure Transmission
When you send an email, it goes through several servers before reaching its intended recipient. This makes it more vulnerable to hackers who are searching for private information. For organizations in the healthcare industry, cloud faxing services offer a level of security designed to protect medical records and comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — HIPAA.
Cloud faxing uses SSL — Secure Sockets Layer — encryption to safeguard fax data as it travels over the internet by creating a tunnel between the point from where the fax is sent and the point where it’s delivered. When your fax is sent, the information it holds is converted from plain, readable data into an unreadable format as it travels through the tunnel. It will then only be changed back into its original form once it reaches its intended recipient.
Another form of encryption cloud faxing services utilizes is Transport Layer Security — TLS. This encryption follows HIPAA’s requirement for strict access limitations and often provides audit trail capabilities that record activities related to patient health information for HIPAA audits and investigations.
Eliminates the Need for Physical Fax Machines
Cloud faxing’s ability to eliminate the need for physical fax machines helps you say goodbye to the busy signal and step into the future and offers multiple unique advantages.
- It’s eco-friendly: Shifting from paper and ink faxing benefits the environment by eliminating paper waste and lessening the need for ink, which uses plastic cartridges.
- It saves space: Fax machines, particularly multi-function printers with fax capabilities, take up valuable office space. Switching to cloud-based fax frees up that space.
- It eliminates maintenance: Traditional fax machines require regular maintenance and can be prone to technical issues. Paper jams, ink replacements, and hardware malfunctions can disrupt your business’s operations. Moving it all to the cloud eliminates these problems.
Improved Document Management Through Digital Storage and Retrieval
When you send or receive a fax through an enterprise cloud fax solution, the need for physical storage is gone. With cloud faxing, your faxes are digital files stored securely with your cloud fax services company until you need to reaccess them.
Cloud faxing solutions also often provide search and retrieval capabilities. You can quickly locate specific faxes by searching for keywords, sender names, dates, or other relevant criteria. Gone are the days of manually searching through file cabinets and wondering where the document you need has gone.
Cloud fax services also offer indexing, tagging, and version control to enhance organization and maintain a historical record of document changes.
Cloud Fax vs Traditional Fax: A Quick Comparison
Wondering why businesses are making the switch to cloud fax from traditional faxing? Here’s a quick comparison table highlighting their differences and similarities:
| Traditional Fax | Cloud Fax | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware Required | Physical fax machine, dedicated phone line | No hardware required |
| Cost | Fax machine, maintenance, paper, ink/toner, phone line | Monthly or annual subscription |
| Accessibility | Must be able to access the physical fax machine | Anywhere with internet access (computer, smartphone, tablet) |
| Speed | Can be unreliable or slow, prone to busy signals | Instant transmission |
| Document Quality | Can degrade with multiple transmissions | High quality with digital clarity |
| Business Communication Security | Faxes left unattended, misdials, no encryption | Encryption, audit trails, user access controls, often HIPAA-Compliant Faxing |
| Storage | Physical paper, prone to loss or damage, natural disaster | Secure cloud storage, easily searchable, digital archives |
| Scalability | Limited by physical machine capacity | Highly scalable, easy to add/remove users/numbers |
| Integration | Standalone | Integrates with email, CRM, ERP, remote work communication tools |
| Environmental | High paper and energy consumption | Paperless, eco-friendly |
How to Choose the Right Cloud Fax for Your Business Needs
It’s important to analyze your business use case before choosing a cloud fax solution. The cloud-based faxing service you select depends on multiple factors, so make sure you evaluate the following:
- Budget: Online fax solutions often use a usage-based subscription model. Keep your monthly or annual budget in mind when comparing tools.
- Fax volume: You’ll need to select the right subscription to support your fax volume – sending and receiving.
- Security requirements: Highly regulated or audited organizations will need encryption and regulatory standards.
- Scalability: As your business grows, your faxing needs will too. Ensure your cloud fax solution can support scale.
- Existing software: Many tools integrate into existing workflows, so take inventory of your tools and double check they are compatible with the online fax software.
MyFax is an online fax solution that offers all of the above features, in addition to an easy-to-use interface and integrations with your existing tools.
Save Time and Money With MyFax Cloud Faxing Services
MyFax’s cloud fax solutions make it easy to step away from traditional faxes and send your vital documents through a cloud-based fax server.
Getting started with our enterprise cloud fax services is easy. Just choose a toll-free, local, or international number for your business, and you’ll gain access to our affordable plans and features to customize your cloud faxing experience. With MyFax’s online fax services, you can send faxes to up to 50 recipients at a time, knowing that it’s all safely backed up by the cloud.
Choose your number and get started with MyFax today.
FAQs
What do I need to get started with a cloud fax?
An internet connection, an internet-enabled device, and a cloud fax subscription are all you need.
How can I send a cloud fax?
Log in to your online fax provider, upload a document, attach a cover letter, and enter recipients. Then, send your cloud fax.
What types of files can I send using an online fax service?
Text files, images, PDFs, and Microsoft Office files are supported on most online fax solutions.
Can I send international faxes using a cloud-based fax?
Yes, most cloud fax solutions offer international faxing. You need the international access code and country code for the recipient.
Is cloud faxing secure and HIPAA-compliant?
Cloud faxing can be a secure and HIPAA-compliant method of communication. You should confirm you are subscribed to the secure or HIPAA-compliant tier of the cloud fax solution you choose to use..
What is the cost of cloud faxing for businesses?
The cost of cloud faxing for businesses depends on the provider, the included features, and your usage volume.
