Have you ever felt like throwing fax machine out window? Well you may not know it but you can, but not literally please.

There have been services available for some time which allow you to take your fax needs online and save yourself hassle of wrestling with fax machine.

Any provider should be able to supply you with a basic fax-to-email service. You are usually assigned your own fax number and any faxes sent to this number are then attached as an image file to an email. That is then delivered to your email account. You will need to keep your fax machine for sending faxes but you can set it to not answer phone and keep it on your main business line.

Most but not all fax services also provide a facility to send faxes by email, web or straight from desktop. This feature can be utilised to send invoices or forms to customers without first needing print and then fax document. Fax-to-email allows you to compose an email to faxnumber@provider.com and attach each document you want to be faxed. You are then notified by email when your fax is complete.

Traditionally to enable your business to fax has meant ordering a separate phone line and number and purchasing a fax machine or fax software for each user. Which is an expensive proposition for a communications channel that is still essential but often rarely used these days. With online fax services these costs are all rolled in to a single monthly fee which is paid to your fax provider. Often this fee is just a fraction of cost of phone line rental alone. Add savings in paper and ink and using an online fax service starts to make a lot of sense.

If your customers fax through a lot of forms that you need to process and archive you’ll know how tedious it can be to flick through a whole binder just to find a specific fax. With an online fax service your fax correspondence can be filed along with all your electronic correspondence.

Points to consider when choosing a provider:

• Do you receive your own dedicated number? Some virtual office providers for example will place you on a shared number and your faxes may be seen by anyone.
• File formats: Make sure provider can email you in a format that suits you. Most will send in a common format like PDF but others may use obscure formats that require special software to read.
• Do they have a method of sending faxes that suits you? Some will offer you a choice of methods; ranging from basic email-to-fax through to desktop clients which will allow you to “print” directly to a fax.
• Is there an area code that will be local for your customers? Even if you are a regional business you may want to consider a metropolitan fax number if your customers are located there. Remember, you now have choice.

The domestic markets in both U.S. and Canada are exploding with this new technology, and 20 International markets are expected to open throughout 2005. Tapping into worldwide expansion with this marketplace is a win-win situation.