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Traditionally, businesses used chunky fax machines and an endless supply of paper and cartridge ink to conduct business fax correspondence. Now that businesses are becoming more conscious about the environment and how certain practices negatively impact it, more business owners are looking for solutions that help them conserve. Many consumers are also changing the way they do business by inquiring about a company's philosophy on environmental conservation and basing their buying decisions on how proactive a company is towards conservation. With a virtual fax service your office can save resources and run more efficiently.

What Is an Internet Fax?

Simply put, an Internet fax is one that relies on the Internet in order to deliver and send your business fax correspondence. With a virtual service you can get rid of your traditional machines, or at least downsize to one machine if you're currently using machines in every department. With an Internet service, you can receive and send faxes anywhere in the world by simply working through the service. By sending and receiving virtual faxes you can cut down on paper and energy use and reduce your company's waste contribution. You can even include information about the technology in your business philosophy to show clients and partnering companies your efforts to go green. If you rely on your business philosophy to gain new clients, being able to show how Internet faxing is improving your business efficiency while decreasing your carbon footprint is one way to impress clients.

How Does It Work?

A computer fax is capable of both sending and receiving faxes. To receive faxes you will need a virtual fax number assigned to you. When a person faxes your office, they'll dial the number (toll free or local numbers are available) and the document will go through the system. The system converts the information to a .PDF or .TIF file and sends it to your email inbox as an attachment. You are then notified by email, text message, or phone call that you have received a new facsimile. After opening the attachment, you can save, print, take notes on, or forward the information. To send a business fax you simply log in to the control panel of the system and upload your information. Enter the phone number and the system will send the document to the recipient. If you need to actually have a document faxed to a machine, you can enter the number and the system will send a hard copy of the document to any machine.

Your business efficiency will improve since you can give every employee access to the service. Since the documents can be filed online, anyone can access archived files for reference without having to sift through mounds of paperwork. Your company will also benefit because incoming calls will never again receive a busy signal. The service supports simultaneous faxes so that every caller knows that their facsimile went through to the other party. If you haven't researched your options for Internet business fax services, it's time to see how one of these services could help improve your business and your carbon footprint.