Cloud Fax Service
HIPAA compliant Fax Service Built for Healthcare Business and Corporate Users
Cloud Fax Service: HIPAA-Compliant Fax Built for Healthcare Businesses and Corporate Users
Ever since Gmail launched in 2004, email has revolutionized the way people do business. It’s made work environments more productive with faster communication and a user-friendly interface. It’s incredible that so many companies in the healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and education sectors, alongside government agencies, still rely on older technology — the fax, dating back to the mid-19th century.
Other aspects of companies’ IT infrastructures have undergone major advancements. Even in these highly regulated industries, services like data access and storage have migrated to the cloud. However, the fax machine is often left alone. Businesses keep sending faxes using legacy equipment without much thought on how to better streamline the process.
Faxing is still critical in the email age. In fact, its usage is on the rise. A recent survey indicates 43% of businesses have increased their fax usage while another 39% have continued faxing at a steady pace. Why? Because it’s a legal, secure form of sending and receiving vital documents like healthcare records, loan applications and time-sensitive contracts.
Fax logs are recognized as a legal form of proof that information was either sent or received. Still, there are also some glaring slips of logic and economics when relying on traditional fax technology.
Traditional fax machines require ink, toner, paper and loads of monitoring and maintenance. This combination creates significant ongoing costs that most businesses simply accept because they haven’t looked at an alternative. It’s worth taking a careful look at cloud-based fax services. This more contemporary form of faxing can forever change the playing field for companies that want to continue faxing while simultaneously improving the process.
What Is Cloud Faxing?
Cloud-based fax solutions — like the one from Softlinx — are incredibly reliable and can save businesses time and money. Cloud faxing is a new faxing method that relies on a cloud-based service in place of legacy fax machines to transmit documents digitally.
Just like you have digital options for how you access your company’s data, you also have options for how you carry out your cloud faxing. “Cloud faxing” is an umbrella term that includes faxing options via:
- Multi-function printer (MFP)
- Web portal
- Print-to-fax Windows client
- Business software API
- Network folder
Think of it as a comprehensive evolution in faxing technology. Now, with the freedom to send and receive faxes from other companies’ traditional fax machines, you can enjoy a truly 21st-century process that brings secure faxing capabilities to practically every connected device. Our Softlinx solution allows you to send, receive and read faxes with our easy-to-use software and mobile application. You can now fax documents with the same ease and convenience as emailing.
How to Use Online Cloud Faxing
The key differentiation with online cloud faxing is the ease with which users can send, receive and access fax transmissions once cumbersome fax machines have been removed from the equation. Now, with cloud faxing, when you want to send a fax, it’s as easy as attaching a document or sending an email.
In much the same way you use a webmail service, faxing online is as simple as selecting the documents you want to fax and uploading them via Softlinx. From there, your documents are encrypted and transmitted so your intended fax recipients can receive your faxes — even over phone lines supporting legacy fax machines. It’s simple, economical and above all, secure.
The Security of Cloud Faxing
If you or another decision-maker is asking, “Why would we want to switch to cloud faxing?” consider that it offers a secure, compliant faxing solution.
When you switch from an outdated fax system, you gain access to secure cloud faxing that’s only possible through modern data encryption. It protects your data better than physical hardware, which is subject to human error, theft and hackers.
It also improves security over a regular email since our faxing solution is HIPAA-compliant. Email messages are vulnerable on both the sender’s and recipient’s devices — when stored in the email server and while the message is in transit. Cloud faxing, even when accessed via email, is encrypted in storage and transit. It’s also password protected. When a fax arrives, the viewer must log in to access it, adding another security layer.
When sending secure cloud faxes using Softlinx, you have protection from both ends of the process. Besides offering encryption, our networks also monitor for viruses. When your fax arrives with your recipient, we authenticate their email address and give you both a delivery notification. We also notify you when the recipient accesses the fax.
Softlinx makes it simple to send a secure fax online. With our intuitive cloud-based fax solution, you can submit outgoing faxes online using any format you like, including:
- Directly from your business applications using Softlinx fax APIs
- Web portal
- Windows desktop print-to-fax client
Our solution also lets you fax paper-based documents from an MFP. Using your chosen format, you’ll submit your faxes over a secure, encrypted communication link directly to the Softlinx secure fax service.
Inbound faxes are processed and encrypted in the cloud fax server before delivery. Softlinx delivers your incoming faxes directly to your business applications using Softlinx fax APIs, email inboxes or shared network folders behind your firewall. You may also log in to a Windows fax client or web portal.
With the Softlinx secure business fax solution, your faxes are protected, no matter how you send or accept them.
How Does Cloud Faxing Work?
Depending on your business needs, you’ll set up one or more virtual fax numbers that can be specific to certain aspects, personnel and departments within your organization. Of course, the option to set up virtual fax numbers is scalable, so you can add numbers and related services as your business grows.
Once you’ve created your online faxing account, you can send a fax following these steps:
- Attaching documents: As a sender, you can send a fax by attaching the documents in question to an email with a message. The documents can be scanned pieces of paper or digitally created files.
- Obtaining the fax number: Next, you address the fax message with your intended recipient’s fax number alongside the name of an online fax service, if they employ any.
- Submitting documents: Once you’ve submitted your fax for online transmission, Softlinx translates the documents so any fax machine at the intended destination can read them.
- Sending documents: The fax is then sent over the transmission line of choice for the recipient.
- Receiving the fax: Finally, the recipient’s fax technology — whether an automated service or legacy machine — receives and decodes the documents you sent.
Receiving a fax online from another automated fax service or traditional fax machine follows these steps:
- Assigning the fax number: A sender — regardless of their faxing technology — assigns your virtual fax number to the fax they want to send.
- Transforming the data: The sender’s fax transforms the data into a fax transmission over either phone lines or via online methods.
- Receiving the data: Once Softlinx receives it, your incoming fax is translated into an image file, which is then sent securely to your email address.
- Opening the message: When you’re ready, you can open the email message with your incoming fax attached and ready to be viewed, shared and stored as any secure file would be.
Outsource to Online Faxing Service for Productivity and Immediate Savings
Softlinx Cloud Fax Service offers a secure and reliable online faxing alternative. You can send faxes directly from your business software, via email or using the Softlinx web portals. Meanwhile, your inbound faxes will arrive in your shared network folders, email inbox or system. With the Softlinx cloud-based fax service, you can benefit from a streamlined document workflow process and save costs.
To learn more about how simple it is to switch to our cost-effective, secure cloud-based fax service, contact us online today to schedule your live demo. Or, for answers to all your online faxing questions, call us directly at 800-899-7724.
