Faxing From The Cloud - Ferrari electronic

Whitepaper 

November 2009 

Faxing from the cloud – how 

BPOS and OfficeMaster for 

Exchange from Ferrari electronic 

work together

Copyright and Legal Notice 

Copyright © 2009 Ferrari electronic AG. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, in any 

way, without written approval from Ferrari electronic AG. All trademarks mentioned are registered 

trademarks of the particular trademark holder. The information contained in this document has been 

gathered with greatest care. However the possibility of incorrect details cannot be completely excluded. 

Ferrari electronic AG does not accept liability for any errors and their consequences.

1 Table of contents 

Ferrari electronic AG 

Faxing from the cloud Page 1 

1 Table of contents .......................................................................................................... 1 

2 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 2 

3 The solution .................................................................................................................. 2 

4 Differences from the integrated solution ....................................................................... 4 

5 Migration: Support of local and hosted mailboxes ........................................................ 5 

6 Fax server hosting ........................................................................................................ 6 

7 Outlook ......................................................................................................................... 6 

Copyright © 2009 Ferrari electronic AG Author: Dr. Hartmut Fetzer

Page 2 Faxing from the cloud 

2 Introduction 


Microsoft is currently devoting intense publicity to their hosted server applications 

Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communications Server. These systems are of most 

benefit to smaller companies, as these no longer need to invest in their own hardware, or 

to maintain complex systems. The host—be it a Microsoft partner or Microsoft itself with 

their Business Productivity Online Standard suite (BPOS)—ensures that the applications 

are constantly updated. Virus software and spam filters for the Exchange mail server are 

provided by the host, along with archiving if this is a statutory requirement. 

Many companies that work with Exchange have supplemented their communications 

platforms with unified messaging. The integration of fax transmission and reception is 

frequently regarded as the most important function. Users are accustomed to receiving fax 

and email in their mailbox, to sending faxes, and to having the status reports sent to their 

inboxes. They also send fax from ERP applications such as SAP or Dynamics, and they 

receive the corresponding status messages in their mailbox. 

OfficeMaster for Exchange is a powerful unified messaging solution, which seamlessly 

integrates into local Exchange environments. It employs Active Directory for user 

management, and it sets up special connections to the local Exchange server. 

These interfaces and options are not yet available for Exchange servers located "in the 

cloud", which prevents the existing fax solution from being operated in this way. 

3 The solution 

The unified messaging solution from Ferrari electronic has an extensive range of functions, 

including an operating mode which offers user convenience by combining the functions of 

Outlook, the fax server, and the remote Exchange server. 

A standard component of the OfficeMaster for Exchange product is 'fsrv', which is a 

complete fax server with integrated user management. 

The fax server uses the component 'ferrariFAX MAPI Transport' to communicate with the 

user's Outlook. The client software containing this component is installed on the different 

users' computers (e.g. by software distribution) along with the fax-printer driver. This 

transport provider, which automatically handles processes with the address type "FAX", is 

added to each user's Outlook profile. 

When a document is printed, the fax-printer driver automatically opens a new Outlook 

email with the document attached to it in fax format. 

The user enters the fax address either from the Outlook contacts under 'Business fax', or 

the fax number can be entered manually with the syntax '[FAX:03328455960]'. An Outlook 

Author: Dr. Hartmut Fetzer Copyright © 2009 Ferrari electronic AG



add-in, which is distributed with the client installation, simplifies the input: All you have to 

do is enter the fax number into the "To" field; the add-in automatically generates the 

correct syntax. 

When the email is sent, the fax server is instructed to send the fax. The sent mail 

simultaneously appears in the "Sent objects" folder and is located in the message store on 

the hosted Exchange server. 

After transmitting the fax (successfully or unsuccessfully) the fax server sends the user a 

status report, which is generated in the Outlook inbox by the MAPI transport provider, and 

which is also mirrored on the Exchange server's message store. 

When a fax is received, the fax server queries its user data to find the fax extension 

number and identify the user. The fax server sends the user an email with the fax attached 

(generally as a PDF, although the format is selectable). The MAPI transport provider 

delivers this message along with the status report to the user's mailbox in the form of an 

email. 

By using the Microsoft Online Services Logon Client, users open their local Outlook client 

with a profile that connects them to their mailbox located on the hosted Exchange Server. 




The user finds received messages in the inbox along with status reports for any sent 

faxes. The email used to transmit the fax is located in the "Sent objects" folder. 

Broadcast and bulk faxes (with the mail-merge/form letter function in Word) are easy to 

generate. An SMS service is available in addition to the fax service. 

4 Differences from the integrated solution 

The solution using the MAPI transport provider differs in a number of ways from our 

integrated solution 'OfficeMaster for Exchange', which is currently operating on several 

thousand installations in combination with Exchange servers operated by our clients on 

their premises. 

Property MAPI transport provider OfficeMaster for Exchange 

User management Local on the fax server Active Directory 

Max. no. of users 250 Unrestricted 

Central conversion Not supported Supported 


Fax options, such as 

ECM 

Faxing of graphics 

embedded in mail body 

Preview of received 

faxes in the Outlook 

preview window 

Summarized status 

reports for broadcast 

faxes 

Integrated management 

in the Exchange 

management console 


Not supported 

Not supported Supported 





Via the Property page in 

Outlook 

The most obvious difference is the need for redundant user management. However, where 

the number of users is small (e.g. up to 50 hosted mailboxes), the work involved is 

probably of an acceptable level. 

5 Migration: Support of local and hosted mailboxes 

OfficeMaster for Exchange includes the 'fsrv' component and an Exchange connector, 

both of which can be used at the same time. This makes this solution ideal for step-by-step 

migration of local mailboxes to BPOS. Users with mailboxes still located on the local 

server are managed by Active Directory, and they work with the Exchange connector. 

Users with outsourced mailboxes are managed locally, and the MAPI transport provider is 

added to their profiles. 

About licensing: OfficeMaster for Exchange is available for 10 (item no. 47123), 25 (item 

no. 47133), and for an unlimited number of users (item no. 47283). The versions 

supporting 10 or 25 users also support an additional 10 or 25 local users (respectively) 

working with the MAPI transport provider. Consequently, an existing solution can be used 

to migrate all users to BPOS, without modification. 

The OfficeMaster for Exchange version for an unlimited number of users, on the other 

hand, is restricted in that the integrated 'fsrv' fax server supports 5 users only. By 

subsequently licensing the product 'OfficeMaster Extention Gateway for SMTP' (item no. 

49813), this number can be increased to 250. 



6 Fax server hosting 


The solution described here assumes that the fax server is operated by the organization 

which outsources its mailboxes as BPOS users. The advantage of this is that the fax 

numbers, which are known to business partners, printed on letterheads, and published on 

the Internet, can be retained. 

Another possibility is for the fax server to be operated by a host for several clients. 

OfficeMaster offers a number of scenarios for this: 

• The host operates a fax server with a large number of ISDN lines (S2M, primary 

rate interface). If this connection should allow individual clients to receive faxes, 

then they are given new fax numbers, e.g. as '0180' service numbers in Germany. 

• The host operates a fax server which communicates via VPN with decentralized fax 

controllers operating in the client's PBX system. With 'OfficeMaster Gate', Ferrari 

electronic has the ideal hardware product for this situation. The telephone numbers 

for fax reception can be retained and the connection charges are borne by the 

client. 

It is also possible to combine these two scenarios. Please observe that the fax server itself 

is not designed to support multitenancy, although structures of this type can be organized. 

With a smaller number of clients, one option would be to run a separate fax-server 

instance for each client. 

7 Outlook 

An advantage of this solution which integrates fax into BPOS scenarios is that it is 

available now as a standard product. The main disadvantage is that user management is 

not handled with Active Directory. However, this issue will be solved by future 

developments relying on the new BPOS interfaces which are currently in planning.

Faxing From The Cloud - Ferrari electronic

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