The majority of these services are consumer oriented and are not equipped to handle large volumes or provide the level of support that businesses require. A new breed of service bureaus is emerging to deliver fax messages through a network of access points much like an Internet Service Provider. Outsourcing can meet this need. The continual supply of new fax technologies means that businesses have many alternatives from which to choose. In evaluating and selecting a system, businesses need to consider several important criteria to build an effective business fax solution.
Most businesses have diverse needs that fall into more than one fax market segment.
Fax servers on a workgroup, departmental and company-wide level are a common requirement. Enterprise fax servers that connect through a LAN, WAN or the Internet for load balancing and least-cost routing are important in larger organizations. Many companies also need production fax capabilities for automating the delivery of business-critical documents like invoices, purchase orders and statements. Others need high-volume broadcasting on an occasional or periodic basis. Tying together individual solutions from multiple vendors to satisfy a company's diverse needs results in an implementation and management nightmare.