#TechTip: reduce the amount of wasted fax paper by converting over to a fax to email service. Easy to delete junk faxes. Saves paper too.

Fax machines are that one technology that sticks around despite having so many better solutions.  Ask a law office or a doctors office to get rid of their fax machine and they would just laugh.  While revolutionary at the time, the need for fax machines have waned over the last decade while scanners and email have taken over document transmission.  Fax quality is poor compared to other technology.  You can actually get a better quality document taking a photograph of your document with your camera phone and emailing it.  Yet despite this fax machines still remain a requirement for many businesses. 

If you accept the need to receive faxes bit hate the idea of a fax machine or dedicated phone line then its time go consider a fax to email service.  It provides the benefits of a fax line for receiving faxes without the hassle of a fax machine. 

How does it work?

You would still have a phone number dedicated for faxes but when a fax comes in the call is routed to a computer that converts the fax into a PDF and then emails it to you.  Doing this not only saves the hassle of a fax machine bit also all the paper associated with it.  Deleting a junk email is a lot easier than having a junk fax print and then have to be recycled. 

Even though you will have a dedicated fax number you don’t need an additional fax line.  There are many service available that will run the solution for you.  There is no additional equipment needed to be purchased for incoming faxes, although an investment in a modern phone system can be configured to handle faxes through your primary phone line.

If you also need to send a fax you have a couple of options.  Some services will allow you to print a PDF to their system and have them fax on your behalf.  Other solutions include using your existing analog phone line and a computer with modem plugged in sending the fax.  For those that do require a fax machine do sending, faxing with a voice over internet connection is possible to avoid the extra phone line costs, but tends not to be as reliable. 

The best solution is to convert over to non fax technology , but if you still require faxes for your business, consider these options to reduce your costs and frustrations.