Virtual Fax Services: Fulfilling the Dream

Accounting Technology, September, 2007 by Harprit Singh

The accounting industry, just like other industries, has been chasing the elusive paperless dream for years. Although great strides have been made in the realm of e-business, there is one decades-old technology that still presents a visible opportunity to go paperless: the fax.

Look around any accounting office, and you are likely to find a fax machine. This long-standing technology is so reliable in exchanging documents that it continues to be used today, despite the pervasiveness of e-mail. However, the fax machine, as we know it, is headed for obscurity. The reason: new online or virtual fax services.

Let's study the drawbacks of the traditional paper fax:

* Paper usage

* Paper jams

* Toner usage

* Dedicated phone line

* Lack of privacy, as in confidential fax documents sitting on the machine

* Lack of immediate notification of fax receipt

* Filing and archiving challenges

* Lack of mobility Online fax ...