Faxing has come a long way since the first commercialised version of the fax came out in the 1960s. Since then, fax machines have become a standard piece of equipment that every business or organisation must have. However, fewer and fewer businesses and organisations such as law firms use those big, old fax machines that do nothing but collect more dust and eat up important office space. This is because, with the help of the internet, law firms, most offices, and businesses changed the way they do everything, especially when it comes to sending and receiving faxes. Online fax services have replaced physical fax machines, allowing law firms to work paperless and in a more secure way. To help law firms decide which online fax service to choose, we’ve created a list of ways online faxing can help attorneys and lawyers.
1. Increased Productivity
Embracing online fax means you’re going paperless from now on. This means that ink, paper, and all other things required to run fax machines are no longer needed. By doing so, you’ll be able to cut down on expenses and also help the environment. Furthermore, fax machines can’t beat online fax services when it comes to productivity. A good online fax service is capable of sending and receiving faxes using five different email accounts. Not to mention that it also comes with amazing additional features that you and your team can use. There’s no need to compress large files anymore as you’d do with emails. Online fax also allows you to attach large files such as high-resolution documents or videos. Some online fax services are even capable of faxing more than 20 recipients at a time, which is a great feature to have for law firms to increase productivity even more.
2. Secure Faxing
Perhaps the most important factor attorneys and lawyers should consider when it comes to faxing is the privacy and security of the documents they’re going to fax. With traditional faxes, legal documents that contain sensitive information are left unattended for hours and are thus at risk of being seen or collected by the wrong person. However, with online faxing, all the legal documents that are going to be faxed are encrypted during the transmission and can only be opened by its recipient using their personal credentials. Most online fax services provide password protection and SSL encryption, which is essential for law firms. Some online fax services also come with extra security features such as secure log-in prompt and two-factor authorisation.
3. Send Documents Easily
Faxing is an important part of everyday operations at a law firm. Attorneys and lawyers should be able to send and receive important legal documents quickly. This is because clients, courts, insurance companies, and other legal professionals often require them to send and receive faxes quickly. The timestamps and dates found on faxes can also become key evidence when it comes to legal disputes, as it allows attorneys to study when the document was sent or received. Online faxing allows legal professionals to save a great amount of time when sending or receiving important legal documents. Since legal teams are often struggling to handle their busy schedules, along with dealing with multiple clients, they must make the most out of their billable hours by becoming more productive.
4. Cost Efficient
Maintaining hardware equipment such as fax machines can be very costly, not to mention that you still have to purchase ink cartridges and papers. However, using online fax services can help your law firm save a significant sum annually, which can make a big difference, especially for smaller firms. Aside from buying printing supplies and paying for the energy consumption of fax machines, you also have to think about additional expenses such as repairs, maintenance, long-distance charges, and telephone line services. Online faxing, however, is extremely cost efficient. It allows you to pay for the services that you only use without paying for any additional or unnecessary expenses.
Faxing is still one of the most secure and reliable ways of exchanging important documents. However, the idea of using traditional fax machines today is somewhat dated. This is not to say that the fax machines of today are redundant. There are still many businesses and organisations using fax machines. However, they aren’t as reliable as online faxing, particularly for those who work in the legal field. Find a good online fax service that works for your law firm so you can reap its benefits.