What to look for in a cloud fax provider

Staying competitive today means finding innovative ways to improve the employee and customer experience. Often, this starts with using the right tools to support your business.

This is why digital faxing is fast becoming a popular replacement for traditional fax.

In reality, businesses use cloud-based faxing to streamline communications and improve operational efficiency — it’s the best way to deploy a modern enterprise fax system. Plus, the market for cloud faxing is expected to grow 11% annually in the coming years, so it needs to be on your radar.

So, what steps can you take to find the best cloud faxing provider? And what makes cloud faxing a must-have for businesses today? Read on to learn the basics of cloud faxing, how to choose the right partner, and other insights into the digital faxing world.

A cloud-based fax service delivers and receives faxes over the internet via a remote infrastructure, so businesses don’t need to worry about maintaining on-site hardware and software. IT teams, in particular, love it because it means there’s no need to spend time and resources running local fax machines, traditional fax servers, or phone lines in the ‘traditional’ way.

Cloud faxing outsources the work to a third-party service provider and its network of data centers. Because these providers specialize in cloud faxing technology, you can take advantage of their networks to enjoy a reliable faxing experience with built-in redundancies.

Cloud faxing is like any other cloud-based service – it boosts efficiency and optimizes processes!

• Lowers cost of ownership: You’ll have no need to source and maintain expensive equipment and phone lines with cloud faxing. The entire faxing experience is completed digitally, making it more scalable and accessible.
• Scale with your needs. Faxing needs change as a business grows. Cloud faxing scales automatically to meet your highest faxing volume — no need to worry about bottlenecks when there’s a lot of traffic.
• Protection from cybersecurity threats. Faxing online doesn’t sacrifice digital security. Experienced service providers know how to protect data through encryption; and business continuity/disaster recovery (BCDR) features. This is crucial in heavily regulated industries like healthcare.
• Fits in with existing workflows. Most businesses use email, enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools, back-end applications, and mobile devices, so integration is vital. Integrations also enable process automation to significantly boost your communication system’s performance.

You’re likely already moving many internal tools and services to the cloud to boost productivity, so make faxing one of them.

With so many options on the market, choosing a service provider to meet your needs can seem challenging.

Tiers of cloud faxing service

Not all cloud fax service providers are created equal. Because of the variety of clients targeted, providers won’t always meet the stringent requirements needed. Examples include:

• Entry-level — targeting individuals who occasionally need to fax but don’t need to buy a fax machine
• Mid-range — serving smaller companies, which usually pay flat rates or use a pay-per-use model
• Enterprise-grade — for businesses who regularly fax for mission-critical tasks. This is where the highest standards of faxing performance, security, and integrations are needed

The high demand for enterprise cloud faxing makes it a competitive market. Choosing the right service provider means comparing options carefully with the following in mind;

• Broad network coverage. The network must reach multiple geographic areas. A redundant network performs better and scales easily, which makes for a reliable connection
• Enterprise-level reliability. Even one missed fax can cause problems in a business world demanding reliable communication. Find a fax provider who can deliver high uptimes no matter your industry, faxing needs, or business type
• Features and integrations. Cloud faxing must scale with your organization, so ensure your service provider can meet changing needs. Cloud fax APIs can boost functionality when you need it
• Cybersecurity features. All cloud faxing platforms must address security. Features like encryption and multifactor authentication prevent data breaches and ensure user privacy. They also help businesses prepare for independent security audits and conform to data regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2
• Maintenance and support. A cloud faxing service’s mission is to empower teams to send and receive faxes without issue, even if they aren’t tech-savvy. Providers must offer customer support resources so your teams can easily make the switch
• Ease of use. Even the most feature-complete cloud faxing service is useless if you can’t use it effectively. Choose a vendor with a user-friendly and intuitive interface with clear documentation and self-help resources to help your teams get up and running with minimal training
• Industry experience. Every sector, from healthcare to financial services, has specific communication standards and regulations to follow. Who else does the provider work with — does the company have experience in your industry?

Cloud faxing is rarely ever a separate service. It’s often part of a complete communication platform supporting multiple channels alongside fax, such as voice, SMS, and email.

Customers, partners, and employees all expect streamlined communications. Meet their demands by upgrading to a cloud faxing solution.

Research service providers to get a full view of what’s available. Look at track records for digital security, network reliability, user-friendliness, feature set, and more. It only takes a few clicks to empower your teams with a more modern tech stack.

Does more reliable and cost-effective faxing sound good to you? Talk to one of our experts to see what our cloud faxing service can do for you!