On the inbound side, high-end products now offer
several client options. There may be a purpose-dedicated client
which accesses your mailbox on the fax server, directly. If you
prefer unified messaging (fax and e-mail in the same inbox), most
makers offer a middleware arrangement that integrates with Outlook,
with or without using Exchange Server as an intermediary. Products
are also available to integrate with Lotus cc:mail and Domino. RightFax
has recently announced an integration with single-user WinFax Pro
— a good deal for offices where folks have made a big commitment
to this well-loved interface, but want to trade up to a more powerful,
centralized solution. Several makers now offer a browser-based interface,
as well; converting faxes (normally stored in .TIF format) to .GIF
for “pure HTML” display on any browser (local, remote,
WebTV, kiosk, etc.), or serving them raw for display in a plug-in
viewer.
PICKING AND CHOOSING
Like everything else in telecom, fax servers are engineered
for more or less specific markets, and differentiate themselves
by features and scale. Products like AVT’s RightFax, Omtool,
and Optus balance inbound and outbound functionality; presenting
a package aimed at replacing conventional fax machines throughout
an organization. On the outbound side, they can scale to handle
up to a few thousand clients, doing basic business faxing to single
destinations or small groups (up to several hundred).
On the inbound side, they offer a wide variety of routing options:
manual (a human has to read the cover page on-screen, and route
the fax to an individual mailbox), DID-based, T.30-based (here
there’s a single inbound phone number, but the sending fax
machine provides additional digits to designate a mailbox, prior
to document transmission), and even more “intelligent”
routing schemes, including sophisticated OCR of typed (better
results) or handwritten (worse results) cover-page info. If you’re
into OCR, the system of the moment seems to be Optus, which employs
pattern recognition technology created by the Israeli military.
Most people serious about inbound fax routing, however, opt for
DID, which is reliable, relatively cheap, and as confidential
as an inbound phone call to the desktop.
If you need to fax tens of thousands of pages per week and/or
have specialized inbound requirements, you’ll need something
bigger. Products from Biscom, CommercePath, TopCall and others
offer sophisticated features for large-scale outbound fax management,
specialized OCR, OMR (Optical Mark Recognition, which reads filled-in
multiple-choice tests, for example) data retrieval from faxed
forms, and EDI integration.
At the other extreme, a small office of 20 or so employees and
no extraordinary faxing needs can get by nicely with a two-port
system. Look at Castelle and Copia solutions here.
One thing most fax servers do NOT do well is handle complex,
multi-source transmissions (e.g., a Word document, a Quark document,
and an Excel spreadsheet in one file) and large-scale outbound
mail-merges from a word processor or database. Some can handle
the mechanics, but require complex user-interface machinations
to set up files for sequenced transmission, include cover sheets,
etc. If you need this kind of powerful outbound fax capability,
the one product we’ve found that really does the job is Copia’s
FaxFacts. Among other advantages, FaxFacts presents a straightforward
user interface for assembling complex faxouts.
The “killer app” for fax servers is least-cost routing
over the Internet or company intranet. In this vein, the most
powerful mid-market product is probably RightFax, which lets you
define a self-healing network of fax servers at different offices,
linked by a private WAN or across the ‘Net. When connectivity
is functional and reliable (low latency, not too many lost packets)
the servers route across the network, in store and forward mode.
Omtool’s IP Fax solution posits one central IP-enabled
server at headquarters and less-expensive IP-enabled fax modems
— called IP Fax Satellites — at branch offices. These
can be connected through the existing corporate intranet, and
can also divert office faxes from traditional stand-alone machines
and ship them out over free IP.
When the ‘Net is jammed up, they use regular phone lines.
Other products can be configured to exploit SMTP/POP3 e-mail service
for document transmission, though this method offers no immediate
confirmation of successful delivery.
Herewith, our capsule looks at what we feel are the top 11 companies
working in the fax server arena. There are many others with much
smaller market shares.
AVT RightFAX Software Group
Product Name: RightFAX Enterprise Suite V6.0
Hardware/OS Supported: Brooktrout Technology and Dialogic
fax boards, Windows NT.
Routing options: DID, DTMF, Voice-assisted DTMF, DNIS,
ANI, PBX. DNIS/DID interface, CSID, ISDN, OCR, Manual, Line/ Channel,
Combination.
Inbox/Outbox Integrations: Microsoft Exchange, Outlook
and Mail; Lotus cc:Mail and Notes, Novell GroupWise; and all SMTP/POP2
compliant Internet e-mail software.
IP enabled: Yes.
Pricing: RightFAX Enterprise Suite V 6.0 is $5,995; priced
by the license, not the number of users.
How best to buy: Through VARs, system integrators, distributors.
Fax Service Bureau Relationships: Sister company MediaLinq
Services Group.
Acording to IDC’s 1998 fax report, AVT’s (Tucson,
AZ — 520-320-7000) RightFAX is the best-selling Windows NT
fax server worldwide. In addition to LAN fax servers for workgroups
and enterprises, RightFAX provides module and connector products
designed to let companies create their own fax integrations. Most
recent of these: the RightFAX Connector for SAP/R3.
The RightFAX Enterprise Fax Manager (EFM) uses the popular Explorer-like
interface to permit centralized administration of all RightFAX
servers on the network. Administrators can view the status of
every fax server; start and stop fax services individually or
globally; determine server workload; and configure LCR rules.
RightFAX extensions to Microsoft Exchange provide a single interface
from which administrators can manage both e-mail and fax users,
and automatically synchronize Microsoft Exchange and RightFAX
user accounts.
With V 6.0 paging and alerting support, users can receive pages
or short messages when any new fax (or one from a particular party)
comes in. Screening can work with Caller ID or ANI. Users can
even be paged when fax sending failures occur. Users can receive
faxes through RightFAX’s own user interface — FaxUtil
— or via their e-mail client. On the road, they can dial
into the system by touchtone from any phone, and vector faxes
to a nearby destination fax machine.
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