Fax retains wide-scale use within business, but many companies don’t want to own fax machines anymore — particularly small companies. Is it possible to be part of the fax communication network without actually owning a fax machine?
Sending a Fax without a Fax Machine
Fax machines are not suited to the modern business environment, which means many companies are seeking to remove them. A major barrier to this, however, is fax as a practice remains important. The result is businesses are looking for options to send fax without a fax machine. This may sound like a wild notion, but with eFax, it isn’t.
How to Send a Fax without a Fax Machine
Contrary to what you might believe, fax doesn’t actually require a fax machine. A fax is a piece of visual communication, which means other visual platforms are available — beyond paper — to accommodate it. With eFax online fax, you can now send fax from your computer or phone.
Why Would You Want to Send Fax without a Fax Machine?
The fax machine was invented in 1843 — nearly twenty years before Abraham Lincoln was US President, and the same year Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol.” The fax machine wasn’t made popular until much later, in the 1970s, but that doesn’t take away from the fact the technology is rapidly approaching the milestone birthday of being two-hundred years old. It would seem bizarre then, for modern businesses to have such technology in the workplace. In an age of automation, smart technology, and increased computing power, using analogue hardware that shares files over copper phone lines would appear to be akin to using a gramophone to play music instead of an iPod.
So, you keep your fax machine.
But that creates more problems. For small businesses, fax machines are often a major irritation. They’re expensive to upkeep, require active phone lines, and take up office space. For businesses in general, fax machines are woefully inefficient for work, due to signal problems, constant absorption of resources, immobility, and the fact they are only usable by one individual at a time. Fax machines also present a litany of data security issues, starting at simple missending of information right down to opening IT network weaknesses that allow your entire computer system to be hacked. Add on top of this, the upcoming ISDN switch off, and you’ll find all the hardware will eventually become obsolete in the UK.
So — you don’t keep your fax machine?
That seems to be the obvious answer given the scale of the problems. But then, how do you fax without a fax machine? Actually, it’s not as difficult as you might think.
How Does eFax Work to Send a Fax without a Fax Machine?
Fax is a new fax technology. It does one very simple thing, and it does it very well: it allows you to send and receive fax documents. But eFax isn’t hardware — it isn’t a fax machine. eFax is a software solution accessed via your computer or smartphone. It’s essentially faxing on a digital device. We call it cloud faxing, online faxing, or digital faxing.
But how does that work if fax is a paper file sent using a fax machine and printed by another fax machine?
Well, that isn’t what fax is. A fax is a document sent in visual form. Often fax will contain a signature or some legally binding element unsuitable for other platforms like email. That, however, doesn’t mean it has to be a hard paper copy. Visual files exist on computers in the form of Jpegs, PDFs, PNGs, and other image formats. These visual files can contain all the information of a paper copy, without the actual paper, which means they can be sent electronically without a fax machine. And, thanks to the eIDAS regulations put forward by the EU that qualify some forms of electronic signature as legally binding, you now don’t need a fax machine to send a legally binding fax document.
eFax presents your business with a solution to paper fax by allowing you to send digital fax. But that doesn’t solve all the problems you might have. What about those businesses that still use fax machines?
Digital fax is not just a system of sending a computer file to another computer. With eFax, you can still maintain connectivity to fax machine hardware. It works very simply. You send a fax document using your online fax service. eFax then takes the digital document you’ve sent (PDF, Jpeg, etc.) and converts it to a format readable by an old-fashioned fax machine. The fax machine then prints it as if sent by another fax machine. You don’t need a fax machine anymore, even if your clients/customers still use one. This system also works in reverse. So if you receive a physical fax, the eFax system converts it to a digital format readable by your device.
It’s intuitive, easy-to-use, and doesn’t require any additional input from your business. The system is entirely automated.
How to Send a Fax without a Fax Machine
Sending a fax without a fax machine couldn’t be easier. You don’t need any training or tutorials, or new hardware to make it work. eFax is available on any device you currently own that can connect to an internet browser — so that’s phones, tablets and computers.
But then what?
Sign in to your account after starting your subscription with us. Then, you go to our fax management portal and start writing your message. You upload your fax as an attachment, just as you would an email. The file can be one that already exists digitally, or you can capture it using a camera or scanner. If you need to sign the document, our e-signature tool helps you do that too. Then all you have to do is put in the recipient’s fax number and send.
That’s it.
You’ve got rid of your fax machine, cut out all the negative consequences of owning the hardware, and sent fax digitally. You can even send a fax through email systems, such as Gmail or Outlook. All you have to do is write your message as an ordinary email with attachments. Then, instead of an email address, you add the recipient’s fax number alongside an exclusive eFax email domain address. The email will be sent through our systems, converted to a fax and sent to whoever it needs to reach. You can also link up your fax number to your email, so any fax sent comes through to your email — making it easy to track all your digital correspondence from one location.
Starting sending fax without a fax machine today. Upgrade your fax systems while keeping hold of essential fax communication with eFax.