Modern
Messaging
Tech Tips. Vol. 2004 No. 07
|
Our office has no fax machine. Faxes we receive go into our
email inboxes. (Junk faxes are automatically screened out.)
We send all of our faxes by email. (For the occasional item
that wasn't created electronically, we simply scan it, then
fax it.) We don't use our phone company's voice mail: messages
left at our office automatically go into our email boxes, and
the on-call technician is notified of their arrival via cell
phone. If we chose to, we could even have our emails electronically
read to us over the phone. Welcome to "unified messaging";
you can do it, too, for not a lot of money!
Internet messaging services
Unified messaging "unifies" your communications through
your email facility. A number of internet-based service providers
offer unified messaging or components thereof. Here's a taxonomy
of services:
- Faxing. A plethora of providers is available to help you
send and receive faxes via email. Bells and whistles include
the ability to have a local or toll-free fax number, junk
fax screening, bulk faxing capability, and a phone call
to tell you a fax has arrived. You can buy a single fax
number, or a 'corporate' plan that provides and helps you
administer multiple numbers.
- Voice mail. You can elect to have voice mail routed to
your email box, where the message arrives as an attached
"wave" file; double click on it, and listen to
it through your computer speakers (or a headset, if you
prefer privacy). Bells and whistles: a phone call to another
number to tell you you've got a message. (Getting your voice
mail this way does NOT preclude your accessing your voice
mail over the telephone, as you do with any voicemail service.)
- Email. The advent of text-to-speech technology now allows
companies to offer a service that can "read" your
email to you over the telephone, allowing you to keep in
touch when you can't get to a computer.
Messaging Vendors
Type "unified messaging service" into Google, and
you'll get nearly 450,000 hits. While we won't claim to know
which vendor is best for you, here are some well-known vendors
who've been in the business for quite awhile:
- E-fax (www.efax.com). A simple email fax service that
is highly rated and easy to use. Individual and corporate
accounts, with all the fax bells and whistles. If all you
want to replace is your fax machine, this is a good place
to start. Free trials.
- Maxemail. (www.maxemail.com). Email fax and voice mail
services, standalone or unified, for individuals or in corporate
bundles. Most bells and whistles. This is the service we
use. Free trials.
- Onebox. (www.onebox.com). The whole shebang, including
text-to-speech. Sign up for standalone services, or various
"combo" packages.
- J2Global (www.j2.com, formerly jfax.com). Another complete
unified messaging service, including conference calling.
Free "receive only" fax trial.
When you evaluate costs of the various packages, be sure
to include in your analysis *all* of your relevant current
costs, including fax paper, ink, fax telephone call costs,
time spent at the fax machine, fax machine service and replacement
costs, voice mail charges, etc. You may find that unified
messaging is a very cost effective alternative!
Copyright 2003-2005 by Shulman Clark
Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.
|
