How Installing a Fax Server Can Help an Organization Go Green

Studies show that year-on-year around 210 billion sheets of paper are used for manual faxing in US organizations – this is the equivalent of 17 million trees being cut down every year to supply the same organizations with fax paper. And it doesn’t stop at paper; a large amount of ink and electricity is also wasted to print and send out faxes. For businesses aiming to reduce their costs and carbon footprint, a greener alternative to manual faxing is needed. Deploying integrated network faxing to your organization not only makes it eco-friendly, but also to saves you expenses while increasing efficiency.

So how do fax servers work?

To recognize why installing a fax server is the greener solution, it is important to first understand how it works. A fax server allows users to send, receive and manage faxes efficiently right at their desktop. Your employees can simply compose faxes in Word, for example, or create a new message in their email client. Fax numbers can then be selected from the mail clients’ address list or entered manually. Traffic is controlled via the Exchange/SMTP mail server which can both receive and route faxes.

Going Green

Because staff can therefore manage faxes simply through their desktop, deploying a fax server saves physical material, such as paper and ink, which is wasted when using manual faxing.  Besides being an eco-friendly option, integrated network faxing also saves time and money – hence increasing productivity – as employees do not need to leave their desk to take the printed sheet, go to the fax machine, input the fax number, and send it. You are also saving money in communication costs and the need for numerous dedicated phone lines.  Integrated network faxing is so effective that it has become an alternative not only to manual faxing, but even to the traditional mailing out of business critical documents such as invoices, purchase orders and financial reports, as well as of brochures and other promotional material. Rather than printing out the document, enclosing it in an envelope, and mailing it out (add the carbon footprint to deliver the document from one destination to another), businesses can apply integrated network faxing which requires none of these resources and delivers the message in a short time.

Integrated network faxing is a greener, faster, safer and more cost-effective method of communication for any organization.

About the Author: Christina Goggi

Christina is Web Marketing Content Specialist at GFI Software. She is a keen blogger and has contributed content to several IT sites, besides working as an editor and regular contributor to Talk Tech to Me. Christina also writes for various publications including the Times of Malta and its technology supplement.