Sagem-Interstar Pioneer & global leader in boardless IP fax Choosing between Traditional and FoIP/VoIP Faxing White Paper Table of Contents Inside White Paper Choosing this between Traditional and paper... FoIP/VoIP Faxing Executive Summary .................................................................................. 3 Faxing Remains Vital ................................................................................ 5 Fax Server Basics ....................................................................................... 5 Fax Server Market ..................................................................................... 6 Why Deploy a Fax Server? ........................................................................ 6 Fax Server Least Cost Routing (LCR) and FoIP Reliability ........................ 7 C Two Types of FoIP: T.38 and T.37 Protocols ............................................. 8 FoIP Servers versus Traditional Fax Servers.............................................. 9 Fax Server ROI ........................................................................................... 9 • FaxServerWhitePaper-Rev • Unified Messaging & Boardless FoIP Fax Server Software ..................... 10 anada Sagem-Interstar’s XMediusFAX ................................................................ 11 C Sagem-Interstar’s Technology Partnerships ............................................ 1 in Printed Sagem-Interstar’s Competitive Landscape .............................................. 13 VoIP/FoIP Popularity ................................................................................. 14 International VoIP Council ....................................................................... 15 All Rights Reserved © July 2007 • Sagem-Sagem-Interstar Inc. Inc. Sagem-Sagem-Interstar • 2007 July © Reserved Rights All XMediusFAX is a registered trademark of Sagem-Sagem-Interstar Inc. • All other products, services, companies, events and publications are trademarks, trademarks, are publications and events companies, services, products, other All • Inc. Sagem-Sagem-Interstar of trademark registered a is XMediusFAX registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. • • owners. respective their of marks service or trademarks registered Executive Summary The market is buzzing White Paper with vendors selling fax Choosing server solutions. between Traditional and Which one is right for you? FoIP/VoIP Faxing A traditional PSTN- or an IP-enabled fax server solution? 3 Despite the convenience of email, faxing • Traditional PSTN/PBX-based fax server Executive remains the only legally binding and software that requires fax boards; essential means of electronic messaging • T.38 or T.37 IP fax or FoIP technology for all industry sectors. (boarded or boardless) for VoIP/IP Summary PBX-based infrastructures. Today, even in VoIP-enabled organizations with IP PBXs, faxing may still lag behind as Voice over IP (VoIP) has flourished over Boardless IP fax solutions are emerging, a costly and inefficient legacy technology the last few years. It has attained massive boasting how they eliminate the hassle requiring: numerous fax machines; analog acceptance from organizations of all sizes and cost of maintaining expensive fax POTS phone lines; hefty long-distance and sectors with its promise of dramatic boards. This white paper will outline the telecom charges; expensive fax boards; cost savings, increased mobility, and pros and cons of boardless FoIP/VoIP solu- and other specialized hardware and optimized operational efficiency. tions versus fax servers that require fax supplies (e.g., toners and paper). boards. As VoIP sizzles prominently in the main- As organizations leap into VoIP, they may stream IT world, enterprises, government Whether you are already riding the VoIP be solicited to consider various network entities and service providers are swiftly bandwagon, or you are part of a forward- fax server options that are secure and adapting their workforces and realign- thinking organization with a legacy PSTN/ ing business processes to newly adopted reliable, albeit expensive at first glance. • FaxServerWhitePaper-RevC • PBX-based network, it is the opportune or soon-to-be VoIP environments. They time to explore diverse unified messaging anada Since FoIP solutions integrate easily with C are on the lookout for complementary IP and network fax server migration strate- VoIP systems they are sometimes offered communications technologies, such as Fax gies that will immediately benefit you. as a bundled VoIP offering, because they Printed in in Printed over IP (FoIP) server software that will: are compatible and easy to deploy with Faxing remains vital. Read on to gain the T.38 fax relay capabilities of leading • Scale to their requirements with a comprehensive understanding of the VoIP gateways from Cisco, Avaya, guaranteed uptime for faxing computer-based fax landscape with facts, AudioCodes and Alcatel. anywhere, anytime; trends and expert insights on topics such as: fax document security and privacy; • Further leverage their IP telephony However, the proposition of spending boarded and boardless fax server func- investments; extra IT dollars on a network fax server tionality, fax server ROI and benefits; fax solution may be daunting, particularly if • Integrate seamlessly with their VoIP workflow support; regulatory compliance it entails more hardware or a higher Total technology to significantly lower costs with laws such as HIPAA and SOX; as well Cost of Ownership (TCO) than expected. and boost workforce productivity; as faxing with networked multifunction • Accelerate ROI. printers (MFPs) and copiers. This white paper addresses two basic types of network fax server solutions: All Rights Reserved © July 2007 • Sagem-Sagem-Interstar Inc. Inc. Sagem-Sagem-Interstar • 2007 July © Reserved Rights All XMediusFAX is a registered trademark of Sagem-Sagem-Interstar Inc. • All other products, services, companies, events and publications are trademarks, trademarks, are publications and events companies, services, products, other All • Inc. Sagem-Sagem-Interstar of trademark registered a is XMediusFAX registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. • • owners. respective their of marks service or trademarks registered Choosing between Traditional and FoIP/VoIP Faxing Faxing White Paper Targeting enterprises in remains diverse industry sectors, government and vital. service providers. Small, medium or large. Despite efforts to become a paperless Then there are the costs for long distance, society, there are still more than 100 electricity, toners, paper, and labor – billion fax pages transmitted around the walking to and from the fax machine. globe on a yearly basis, according to fax- industry analyst firm Davidson Consulting. Over the course of a year, this can add up to thousands or even millions of dollars The continued popularity of faxing means spent on analog equipment and fax that every day, an organization can supplies. An average Fortune 500 company fax hundreds or thousands of invoices, may spend millions per year on faxing purchase orders, legal documents, alone, according to Pitney Bowes. financial summaries, and other confidential records and mission-critical Despite all these expenses, research business documents. The Gallup Institute firm Gartner estimates that the total and the Institute for the Future estimate market for printers, copiers, faxes and that knowledge workers handle an multifunction devices (MFDs) in the United average of 178 fax documents per week. States will grow % a year to 37 million units by 008. Traditional faxing is expensive and inefficient. For some organizations, meeting their fax demands means linking numerous fax machines, and inward and outward analog trunk lines and extensions, to the corporate PBX system. Fax retains advantages over email “Fax retains advantages over e-mail – never-think-about-it compatibility, retention of the format of complex documents, sending documents that are virtually uneditable (you 4 don’t want recipients editing the invoices and contracts you transmit to them), and ease of electronically sending paper documents.” – Davidson Consulting, fax-industry analyst firm Fax Is Legally Binding, Email Is Not. Faxes are popular because they are “real,” White Paper substantive documents Choosing that are legally binding. between Traditional and A signature on a fax FoIP/VoIP Faxing is legal, but not if it is on an email-delivered attachment. 5 Fax servers are most commonly integrated data being left on public fax machines. with corporate email systems, thereby Fax servers have become a popular tool Fax Server allowing for email-based faxing from for helping organizations comply with a users’ desktops. Incoming faxes arrive variety of regulations involving the secu- u u u directly and securely in email inboxes, so rity and protection of data. Basics that sensitive information is no longer left in the open for unsolicited viewing. Fax servers can also connect to all-in-one mul- tifunction printers (MFPs) with printing, Organizations in both the private and scanning, faxing, and copying functions public sectors are deploying fax servers combined in one device. Connecting to How does a to increase employee productivity by as MFPs provides for intelligent routing and much as 90%, and to reduce telecommu- handling of faxes, as well as additional fax server work? nications costs by at least 40%. features such as default cover pages and A fax server functions