Is your business facing a forest of paper faxes? If so, then you're familiar with the cost, clutter and loss of productivity associated with traditional faxing. Now for the good news: there are plenty of ways to tackle the problem easily, and without spending big bucks. Thanks to new technology, getting or sending a fax can be as simple as the click of a mouse. After all, you wouldn't expect your employees to go to the printer to get their emails. Why should they wait for a fax?

Contrary to popular opinion, faxing continues to be an important aspect of conducting daily business. Usage still remains high in a variety of industries, such as financial and legal services, that rely on the quick exchange of documents and authorization retrieval. And, the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act have driven up the need for documents to be created and saved.

How can you find an alternative fax method? Look for what is generally referred to as a desktop, digital or virtual faxing solution. Available as either an in-house solution or through an outsourced ASP, these services offer far more features and capabilities than traditional faxing.

A significant benefit of desktop faxing is that employees can send and receive faxes by email. Whether you're waiting for a legal session to begin, holding a PDA while you're talking with a colleague, at a law library doing research, traveling, or sitting in your office, "virtual faxing" lets you access material from any desktop, laptop or wireless device connected to the Internet.

It's little wonder that businesses are increasingly recognizing the convenience that desktop faxing offers, not to mention the productivity gained by employees no longer having to constantly make trips to their fax machines. Furthermore, desktop faxing can put an organization one step closer to having the "paperless office" that management strategists have touted for years. It won't single-handedly eliminate all your paperwork, but it can slash paper costs, eliminate clutter, and reduce the headaches that can come from losing, misrouting or misplacing paper faxes.

Another boon: every employee can get his or her own dedicated fax number. Depending on the provider, a choice of local or even toll free numbers is often available. However, a desktop faxing solution not only eliminates the need for a dedicated fax phone line, but also saves you the costs of hardware and fax supplies. Firms can control their costs even more by monitoring individual usage. And productivity often increases because employees no longer have to spend time maintaining machines or waiting endlessly for a paper fax transmission.

Speaking of dedicated fax numbers, providing employees their own numbers helps organizations protect their customers' privacy. Desktop fax transmissions, which are encrypted in accordance with GLB standards, offer unparalleled privacy, while traditional faxes often arrive in full view of anyone who happens to be near the fax machine.

So which solution is best for your organization? The chart below can help you decide.

Over the years, some organizations have installed their own, in-house systems. But, as they check out various options, managers are discovering outsourcing is an attractive alternative. After all, in-house solutions require significant IT resources and hardware investments as opposed to outsourced solutions, which are simple to deploy.

Marc Sobul is the Director of Corporate Marketing for eFax Corporate at j2 Global Communications in Hollywood, CA and may be reached at 323-860-9446, email: marc.sobul@j2global.com; web: www.efaxcorporate.com.