SPECIAL FOCUS - Integr8 Group

Integr8 FAXStickingto thefaxIntegr8 FAX’sFaxM8 servicethrows thehumble faxa life-line byoffering acorporategrade,free faxto-e-mailservicewith zeroinstallation,subscription,training andsupport cost.WORDS Carel AlbertsFax-to-e-mail (and back again) allows for thesending and receiving of faxes as e-mail attachments.This technology has become an increasingly popularoffice communications method, for obvious reasons.For starters, it integrates an old-schoolcommunications channel (fax) into a futureproofone (e-mail), giving it a new lease on lifeand broadening the accessibility of businesscommunication. In a country undergoingwholesale upliftment of previously disadvantagedbusinesses, your trading partners may well rely onthe humble fax; lowering the barriers for them todeal with you can only benefit your transformationscore and enrich your trading ecosystem.It is also hugely convenient and cost-effective. Withinternet everywhere you care to look these days – atwork, at home and on the run almost anywhere inthe world – e-mail follows you wherever you are,on your Blackberry, smartphone or laptop. Lastly,you contribute to another very important cause.While fax-to-e-mail doesn’t herald the dawn of thepaperless office just yet, it is one answer to the callfor green IT, which is getting louder every day.It makes sense, then, that the Integr8 Groupincorporated a company dealing exclusively with thistechnology into its portfolio of IT-associated businesses.Integr8 Fax ensures that its, and the Integr8 Group’s,clients have access to the best possible solutions.Cost benefitIntegr8 Fax’s FaxM8 service is one of thesevitally important “green” facilities, launched inMay 2007 in a bid to improve the efficiencyof office communications. CEO Walter Bredellsays the service is free to use when receivingfaxes, but attracts a fee when sending.“Receiving FaxM8 faxes as e-mail attachmentsdoesn’t cost a cent – no setup, no monthlysubscription, no installation cost, and no training orsupport costs. FaxM8 is freely available to anyonewith an e-mail address, by application to support@integr8fax.com. It will remain free, and there is nolimit to the number and size of faxes received.”Walter Bredell, CEO, Integr8 FaxThe service is licensed with Telkom, which offersIntegr8 FAX a rebate on calls placed to 086 numbers.Bredell says this revenue is enough to allow thecompany to offer free receipt of faxes, while stilloffering a corporate-grade service. Rates for sendingfaxes are lower than normal fax-sending rates.Fax as a serviceWith much experience in offering IT as a servicethrough its Nerve Centre, an intelligent data centreand communications backbone, Integr8 Fax serversare hosted in a highly scaled, secure and powerprotectedenvironment, offering a fast, reliableand secure service. Faxes sent to a 086 numberpass through the fax server, are converted to animage file (TIFF) or non-editable .pdf, and routedto the e-mail client of the 086 number holder.Faxes are sent from e-mail in the same way inreverse – as an e-mail attachment in a numberof popular formats, converted by an off-sitefax server, and routed to any fax number, 086-prefixed or otherwise. Bredell says conversionfrom attachment to fax, and back to attachment, isdone up to 70 percent faster than the ponderousfax-receiving or -sending process of old. The 086number can be faxed from anywhere in the world,by simply prefixing the (0)86 number with 27.There’s a kind of touching justice in allowing anold technology a re-entry into a brave new world.As it is, Africa cannot afford to chuck out too muchof the old while getting on with the new. So for thesake of business efficiency and support of a socialand green cause, it makes sense to join the new faxrevolution: No more klunky, on-premise hardware,no more get up and wait, no more away-from-myfaxdelays, and a whole new vista of trade partners. B12