Fax technology was the first solution that enabled documents to be sent via a phone line, setting the tone for email, collaboration tools and more. Indeed, the dial tone of fax machines transmitting documents was synonymous with the sound of offices in the 1980s and 1990s.
While digital advances have transformed how we work and communicate with friends, colleagues and family, fax technology remains crucial to many organizations. It continues to be one of the best ways to share documents online, enabling companies in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare providers, to securely share sensitive information. Cloud fax integrations allow companies to continue relying on fax technology in the age of email and instant messaging.
What is Fax Integration?
Online fax integration digitizes the traditional methodology, enabling individuals and businesses to send faxes without requiring a physical fax machine. As a result, people can share critical documents and sensitive data over the internet by email, in the cloud or through collaboration tools and applications.
What Types of Fax Integrations Are There?
Online fax integrations incorporate the traditional system of phone lines and fax machines into internet-based communications, including:
Software Fax Integrations
Faxing software integrations use a third-party service to integrate faxing capabilities into an existing workflow. This enables you to build faxing into desktop applications, Google programs like Google Drive and Google Sheets, mobile faxing applications and web-based applications.
These solutions save money on hardware like fax machines and phone lines. Instead, users can send faxes from their preferred email solution or business application.
Additionally, eFax makes it simple to integrate fax functionalities into Google Docs and set up eFax messenger as a printer option.
Business Application Fax Integrations
Some business applications require custom integration solutions to enable fax capabilities. They typically require application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow users to access fax protocols. Fax integrations for business applications use a fax API to create custom servers and integrate features that may not be available through service providers. These features include:
- Automated workflows: Users can receive incoming faxes and store them in designated folders for received fax messages.
- Platform integration: Users can send faxes from within their company’s customer relationship management (CRM) platform.
- Advanced audit logs: Companies can track all the faxes their employees have sent and received.
Hardware Fax Integrations
Businesses still relying on physical fax machines can integrate this hardware into their digital processes. This integration enables enterprises to convert paper documents into an electronic format and receive paper versions of online faxes.
Organizations with a multifunction device or printer, such as a scanner, copier and fax combination, can pair the machine with their online fax service. This enables them to send online faxes by scanning the document with the device and entering the fax number. When they hit send, the fax will be sent electronically through a secure fax server and can be printed from the device.
Cloud-Based Fax Integrations
Cloud-based integrations, such as eFax, are increasingly popular as they enable users to send and receive fax messages via email, mobile phones and collaboration tools like Slack. Fax messages and documents can be sent from users’ preferred email inbox to a recipient’s fax number rather than an email address.
Some cloud-based fax services use the transport layer security (TLS) encryption protocol, which provides a cryptographic level of data protection. Other critical features include automatic re-transmission, which ensures data is present if an error occurs, and error correction, which resubmits any data that may get lost due to a poor internet or phone line connection.
Tech Stack Integrations
Revolutionize Your Business Communication With Fax Integrations
Transform the way you communicate and operate with eFax Corporate’s advanced tech stack integrations for faxing. Seamlessly merge traditional fax workflows with modern applications—streamlining communication across devices.
Fax Integrations
Enhance business communication by integrating your existing applications & workflows with modern faxing technology.
Streamline Your Workflows
Faxing remains an integral part of business communication in 2024. However, traditional faxing hasn’t caught up to modern communication standards, resulting in a gap between fax and other existing communication methods.
eFax bridges the gap between traditional and modern processes by integrating seamlessly with current business applications:
Customized For Business Applications
Businesses today design solutions to address very specific needs. Often, they’re looking for applications offering custom solutions that can be integrated with their existing workflows and applications—including faxing.
eFax Corporate offers an XML-based Fax API to ensure a seamless tech stack integration. It’s like having your own production-class fax server in-house with automated workflows, platform integrations and audit logs, but without the hassle of physical machines.
Improved Document Security
Traditional fax machines aren’t very secure. For example, anyone can pick up and edit a fax which is just sitting in the tray. Online faxing solutions do reduce the risk of unauthorized access, but there’s still the risk of non-compliance with local and international data privacy & usage laws.
eFax Corporate uses highly advanced TLS 1.2 encryption to send and receive faxes via email. Faxes are sent directly to the recipient’s inbox, where it is stored using AES 256-bit encryption that is in line with HIPAA, SOX, GLBA, PCI-DSS, PIPEDA and other federal regulations.
Integrate Existing Hardware
Some businesses still depend on traditional fax machines in their day-to-day operations. However, there is an increasing likelihood that recipients won’t have the necessary infrastructure to receive faxes.
MFD Fax Direct Feature integrates your business’ physical fax infrastructure with eFax. You can send and receive faxes online while still retaining the ability to send and receive paper faxes when necessary. The best part: you can do this by leveraging your existing multi-function devices.
Safely Integrate Your Tech Stack
Faxing remains an integral part of business communication in 2024. However, traditional faxing hasn’t caught up to modern communication standards, resulting in a gap between fax and other existing communication methods.
eFax bridges the gap between traditional and modern processes by integrating seamlessly with current business applications:
Protect Your Faxes With SSL & TLS Encryption
Traditional faxing always presents the risk of faxes being misplaced or falling into the wrong hands. It is essential to ensure that your information only reaches the hands of the right people, especially when dealing with sensitive information.
eFax Corporate ensures that only authorized personnel can access the information by sending SSL-encrypted faxes directly to the inbox. Faxes are stored in the cloud using AES 256-bit encryption, meeting the high security standards for tech stack integration in the digital age.
Align With Tough Industry Regulations
Highly regulated industries are usually subject to stricter guidelines when it comes to handling sensitive information. Any non-compliance with these regulations can lead to hefty fines and even litigation.
eFax Corporate ensures your business closes every security gap while remaining compliant with industry regulations including HIPAA, GLBA and SOX.
Store Your Data Using Latest Security Protocols
eFax data centers use Tier-III secure servers managed by well-established hosting providers using current SSAE16 or SOC2 reports.
Our cloud faxing solutions offer a reliable and trustworthy data storage facility trusted by nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies. Confidently send and receive sensitive data via online fax knowing that our tech stack integrations meet ISO 27002 security standards.
Start Building With the eFax Platform
Frequently Asked Questions
The eFax app integrates seamlessly with popular cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive. This integration allows you to access fax documents stored in the cloud. Additionally, the app’s ability to import documents from email or your device’s storage adds versatility. Whether working from your phone or tablet, you can effortlessly fax documents without a traditional fax machine.
eFax is a great option for sending important documents online. Every eFax product uses TLS protocol and two-way encryption, and there are two more options that regulated industries can use for that extra layer of protection when sending online faxes: eFax Protect and eFax Corporate. eFax Protect is HIPAA-compliant and provides BAA for further compliance. eFax Corporate is HITRUST certified and scales for enterprise businesses.
You can think of an API, or Application Programming Interface, as a bridge connecting two different pieces of software. It’s a communication protocol, a set of rules that allows one piece of software to work easily with another.
Even if you didn’t know what the term meant before reading that paragraph, you’ve been using APIs for years. It is an API, for example, that allows you to cut a block of text from a Microsoft® Word® document or a plain text file and paste it into a new Gmail message.
Yes, eFax Corporate’s cloud fax solutions use SSL encryption to protect both your inbound and outbound faxes. You also have access to eFax Protect™, our HIPAA-compliant online fax storage solution that uses 256-bit AES and TLS encryption to protect your information.
Online faxing with a platform like eFax is safe. While an Internet connection can be hacked, online fax services like eFax encrypt documents so that they are kept secure and private in transit. Additional access controls, such as two-factor authentication, ensure that access is restricted to only authorized users in order to prevent misuse or compromise.
Relevant eFax Solutions
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