Why email is inadequate for fax management

January 19, 2017

Category: News

Most electronic faxing services transmit your inbound faxes to an email, with the document as an attachment. If everyone has their own fax number, usually the faxes go directly to the recipient’s inbox. In a lot of cases, there is a general fax for an office or a department, and the email is actually a distribution list and goes to several people’s inboxes. While some efficiency is gained by this electronic process (you don’t have to leave your desk), in reality inefficiency persists.

Here are five reasons email is insufficient for fax management.

1. No oversight. Email programs just weren’t designed to provide the level of fax oversight you need to keep your business running. Even if you have a central fax portal you can sign into, typically it is just a list of the faxes that have come through. You don’t know if they were received by the user or if they are being worked appropriately.
2. Difficulty assigning the work. If a fax comes in to a group distribution email, added layers of communication need to happen to know who is handling the document. This could result in duplication of effort or, even worse, an important document falling through the cracks.
3. No guarantee of timeliness. If the recipient of the fax email is out of the office, how will others know important documents have been received let alone be able to follow up on them? There is no escalation or alert process that would signal that a fax has been received but not addressed for a period of time.
4. Lack of central, permanent storage. Most companies don’t dictate how you organize your email folders or storage.  If faxes are saved in a decentralized manner, in each employee’s email program, retrieving that fax later (e.g. for an audit) can become nearly impossible.
5. Additional steps needed to work the fax. If you use a document management or business process management program, your employees will need to download the fax off the email and then import it to be worked. This creates additional, counter-productive steps and additional opportunities for error.

Medforce has developed a Fax Management App that can be used with any third-party, cloud-based or on-premises electronic fax solution. Our streamlined workflow ensures fast routing, automatic assignment, fax tracking, and alerts and escalations to keep your business running smoothly. To learn more or see a demonstration, please contact a Solutions Consultant at 845-426-0459 x1 or sales@medforcetech.com.

SHARE THIS POST