Well, as someone working in the finance industry, you’re probably aware that sending and receiving documents with a community fax machine can be wasteful, inefficient and costly.
Scanning and emailing documents is cheap, and so much more convenient than fax and faster than postal mail. But there are those items that really should never be emailed for security reasons, especially if they contain customer-confidential financial and account information or signatures.
Every day there seems to be a new scandal erupting over some big-wigs hacked emails. CEOs have been forced to resign and high government officials are finding themselves, and their wide web of associates, in hot water from the latest data-dump of hacked email accounts.
While traditional faxing is inherently more secure than email, but…there’s still the time it takes to send a single fax, waiting in line, dealing with a busy signal, waiting for it to retransmit and more waiting for that “Fax Sent OK” acknowledgment, not to mention stocking paper and toner cartridges.
Even fax servers have their problems which require maintaining a well-trained IT staff to deal with technical issues…you know the drill.
With so many drawbacks to sending documents using 50-year old technology, and the rising risks of unsecured email, financial institutions, in particular, would be wise to explore cloud faxing solutions as a safe and secure means for sending and receiving confidential correspondence.
Benefits of Cloud Faxing Include
• Gaining the trust and confidence of consumers
• Guarding against dangerous security threats
• Avoiding fines and lawsuits due to non-compliance with state and federal data
privacy laws, such as Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA)
So let’s explore the ins and outs of cloud faxing, which combine the convenience of modern email with the reliability of the old telephone network, with additional security layered on in the form of enhanced encryption technology to keep faxes safe from prying eyes.
To date, half of the Fortune 500 have made critical investments in cloud faxing from eFax Corporate, including media conglomerates, as well as the largest banks, insurance companies and top-10 accounting firms.
Many more enterprises are expected to switch from analog to digital as the security benefits of encrypted Cloud faxing expands into new, more competitive areas, such as high volume faxing. And when you see how cloud faxing can improve the way banking is done today, it’s no wonder why.
Online faxing streamlines the daily conduct of business, significantly reducing routine wait times and minimizing the use of valuable resources, such as paper, toner and ink, and telecom lines. With cloud faxing, banks can reduce the time it takes to approve loan applications, as well as send and receive internal and external transaction records – not to mention meet increasing regulatory requirements.
Because digital faxes are immediately converted into easy-to-open files, banking professionals can carry out the normal conduct of business without the need for additional printing or scanning. There’s no waiting for faxes to arrive or wasting toner and paper printing duplicate copies of the same multi-page fax.
How it works: A Three-step process:
1) Send or Receive faxes on any PC, phone, tablet, or Web-enabled device
2) View or download the attached PDF file instantly by clicking on it
3) Respond instantly without the need for printing or scanning
1. No Scan Fax Solutions
One way financial companies can ensure their ongoing competitiveness is by staying on top of how timely they process paperwork. The faster they can process internal data to meet the needs of consumers, the better they will fare when it comes to overall consumer satisfaction.
‘No scan’ faxing solutions permit financial firms to transmit most file types—including Web pages and screenshots—as secure e-mail attachments. As long as a file is saved to a computer or other Web-enabled device, it can be transmitted as a secure e-mail attachment directly to a recipient fax machine.
Sample files include:
• legal forms
• tax documents
• consumer credit reports
• articles of incorporation
• confidential business documents
• Mortgage docs
• Signed documents
Files never lose their original appearance or become distorted during the conversion process—i.e., PDF attachments won’t be converted from color to black and white. Once a file is transmitted, it is ready to view, print or download. Advanced faxing applications make it easy for users to view, zoom, rotate and print files directly from the end user’s computer, cell phone or tablet.
2. Receiving Faxes
Thanks to advanced fax protection, banks can safely send and securely receive faxes via e-mail without risk of a dangerous security threat,
One of the top disadvantages to using a traditional analog fax machine, and on-prem fax servers for that matter, is the inability to safely and securely store old faxes in one trusted location for easy retrieval later on down the line.
Cloud faxing is different, however. Users can store incoming faxes securely in the cloud, and if a fax needs to be resent, the process can be done in just a few clicks using a range of Web-enabled devices.
Best of all, there’s no additional scanning or printing required. Faxes remain in the cloud 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year – or until the authorized user deletes them.
And if the company’s security policy does not permit off-site storage, that feature can simply be turned off. The customer has complete control over what gets stored.
3. Sending Faxes
With new regulations putting the pressure on banks to prevent high-profile data breaches, it’s no wonder more financial institutions than ever before are turning to the cloud for their faxing needs.
From small, private credit unions to large, multinational banks, financial institutions of all sizes can send faxes using the highest standard in encryption technology.
Documents are attached to an email message addressed with the recipients fax number. The email and document are encrypted while in transit, and then delivered to the recipient’s fax machine.
eFax Corporate® uses only the strongest version of Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption for transmission of digital faxes and AES 256-bit encryption for digital faxes stored in a user’s email inbox. These are the encryption standards recommended by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
4. Administrator Controls
Using the eFax Corporate® Administrator Portal, managers can add new virtual fax numbers, assign new users, and perform audits of inbound and outbound faxes for specific periods of time. If a fax does not transmit properly, the administrator can quickly and easily pinpoint the problem based on the results of the verification report.
No more standing around wondering why the office fax machine isn’t working or second guessing whether a fax has been transmitted. With eFax Corporate®, the account administrator can track, manage and control everything from one access point.
5. No More Busy Signals
Unlike an analog fax machine, internet faxing never produces a busy signal. If the recipient’s fax number is engaged, the system automatically resends the fax until it transmits.
• No lines
• No waiting
• No re-sending anything
If transmission is interrupted for whatever reason or stops due to a persistent busy signal, the sender receives a status alert or verification report via email. In the event of a human error—i.e., the secretary picks up the telephone before the fax is successfully transmitted—the system continues to re-transmit the fax.
6. Cost Savings
Stop the endless cycle of replacing toner, ink and paper. Break from expensive telco lines, unreliable fax cards and complicated fax servers and software maintenance fees. Ban unproductivity and instead, move your fax processes to the cloud. And disconnect those legacy telephone lines while you are at it.
When it comes to digital faxing, the cost savings extends beyond dollars and cents. It also includes putting an end to IT headaches and fax maintenance.
Think of all the paper that could be saved by no longer having to print incoming faxes, let alone duplicate copies of faxes that did not properly transmit the first time around.
Maintaining office fax machines and servers is costly. Through digital faxing, however, your enterprise can put an end to those routine costs and save your staff and customers valuable time in the process.
Faxing in the 21st Century: the Secure Cloud
Private documents are easily compromised with an analog fax machine. Anyone walking past the machine can simply swipe a document, or snap a photograph of something that should otherwise be kept confidential.
Cloud faxing is radically different. Not only are faxes encrypted, but your financial institution can maintain a clear view of who has access to what and when. You can change privileges as you go, or offer specific instructions on how to store your documents in the cloud until you need them again.
Keep files on hand for the life of the account or delete what’s no longer important. The choice is up to your business and its administrator(s).
eFax Corporate
Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, eFax Corporate offers a flexible cloud fax service that allows you to increase productivity, lower faxing costs, and maintain compliance with state and federal data security regulations.
You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to use us; however, banks of any size can quickly, privately and securely share documents with consumers or other financial institutions using just a single fax account.
If your organization currently uses existing fax numbers, then simply port then over to your new eFax account. Everything is done online, so you won’t need to buy new hardware or install new software. Simply, sign in to your email account and enjoy a digital, paperless environment.
With cloud faxing, you are able to send and receive faxes anywhere you receive email. Having such unprecedented access to a cloud fax solution means you are able to reduce delays in response time, without compromising on privacy.
Don’t allow your organization to be left behind. Instead, call eFax Corporate today to access the cloud via your very own portal and begin faxing today, knowing that your enterprise is SOX, GLBA, PCI-DSS and HIPAA compliant.
