Inside MyFax

Fax machines move up the list of endangered technologies

2009-11-19T09:19:00.001-08:00

It’s not exactly a “save the whales” or American Bald Eagle alarm. But in an article in the Telegraph earlier this month Pixmania, the largest electronics retailer in Europe, released its top 10 list of endangered technologies. And guess what? The fax machine was number two on the list. (The DVD player was number one, by the way, so get ready to repurchase your video collection yet again.)

Now, notice they didn’t say “faxes.” Faxing itself is going stronger than ever. They said fax machines. They’re essentially looking at which products they don’t think they’re going to be selling anymore in their stores. In that context fax machines certainly make sense.

As the Telegraph article points out, there are better ways to send and receive faxes these days – smart phones being chief among them. If you’re reading this blog, you know that you can set MyFax to forward your faxes to any Internet-enabled device so you can send or receive faxes anywhere you can get an Internet connection. That sure beats having to run back to the office just to discover that your fax machine ran out of toner halfway through an important fax.

There were a couple of other interesting technologies on that list too. GPS devices made the list. Again, since you can now download maps to and get directions on your smart phone, who needs a whole separate device just to get from here to there?

So what do you think? Do you agree those technologies will be disappearing quickly? And more importantly, which technologies make your top ten list?

And so long, DVDs. We hardly knew ye.

Expanding the definition of “office”

2009-11-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

Being as involved as we are in the world of small business, we hear about a lot of non-traditional offices. People convert their kids’ playroom at home into an office; they work completely out of their cars; some regularly hang out at restaurants with free wi-fi connections or rent a little space in the back of a store. But this story tops them all. One of the women profiled in it actually runs two online businesses out of a tent in Kenya.

That’s really taking anywhere, anytime to the extreme. But it does point out how having the right technologies at your disposal means you can operate your business how you want, when you want, and even where you want.

Toward the end of the article, they mention that one of the technologies that’s making things easier for small businesses is “cloud computing.” With cloud computing you don’t have to buy and maintain expensive software or hardware. You sign up for a service, then log in over the Internet (aka the “cloud”) to use it. All you need is a laptop or a smart phone and an Internet connection, which sure beats trying to find space for and maintaining a room full of servers. Especially if you’re working out of a tent in Kenya.

MyFax and my1voice are examples of cloud computing, by the way. Bet you didn’t realize you were right on top of a technology trend!

Small businesses are using the cloud for lots of things, including file storage, accounting, email, calendars, contact management and even desktop applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. How about you? What applications have you moved to the cloud?

Putting 400,000 subscribers into perspective

2009-11-06T12:30:00.000-08:00

The other day, we celebrated the fact that MyFax now has surpassed the 400,000 subscriber mark. That means that a lot of people have recycled their fax machine, improved document management and now fax from their smartphones! Sometimes big numbers like that can be a little tough to comprehend, so I thought I would put it into a bit of context for you.

If you look at cities around the world, there are more MyFax subscribers than there are people in Manchester, UK; Bologna, Italy; Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Israel; and Sevastopol, Ukraine. Not to mention Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; and Honolulu, Hawaii. So basically, every man, woman and child in those cities could have a MyFax account and there would still be some unaccounted for.

Or what about years? If you go back 400,000 years in history, scientists believe Neanderthals were the highest evolved human ancestors. They didn’t have a written language, of course, so no need for faxes even if they could figure out the technology side.

Convert that 400,000 to miles, and you can circle the circumference of the earth more than 16 times. Of course, the view would get pretty boring after about the fifth time around.

In terms of dollars, with 400,000 of them you could pay cash for a nice Porsche Carrera GT. That car has a top speed of 205 mph and can go from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds.

Achieving this milestone is a great accomplishment, and we certainly wouldn’t have reached this level without valuable feedback from our customers. Rest assured we remember those accounts belong to 400,000 individuals, and we will continue to provide customer service as if each customer was the only one.

MyFax Enhancement: Fax from Windows Business Applications

2009-10-30T15:17:00.001-07:00

We’re constantly reviewing customer feedback, looking for ways to improve MyFax, my1voice and Campaigner, so this week we were excited to announce the ability to fax from Windows business applications! The new, free feature is aPrint-to-Fax option included in the print menu of Windows XP, Vista and 7 applications. So now there’s no need to exit the application you’re working in to fax a document.

Our own VP of marketing, Steve Adams, recently commented that MyFax customers love the faxing option within Microsoft Office and MyFax users requested the feature be extended across all applications.

MyFax customers can download the print driver from MyFaxCentral. From there, faxes can be sent to multiple recipients. The option to add recipients directly from Outlook, and billing codes, are also available.

This is just another way we’re making MyFax a tool you can use with just a few clicks. Hope you like the new feature!

Social networks coming up small for small businesses

2009-10-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

Are you using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote your small business? If not, apparently you’re not as far behind the curve as the so-called social media gurus would have you believe.

At least not according to the results of a new Citibank/GfK Roper survey. The owners of 500 businesses with 100 or fewer employees were interviewed regarding their use of social media, and the results were anything but a glowing endorsement. In fact, three-quarters of those interviewed said they haven’t found social media helpful for generating new business leads or expanding their businesses, and 86 percent said they haven’t used social networking sites for information or business advice.

That’s a pretty stark contrast to what we’re hearing in the media, where we’re often led to believe if you’re not taking advantage of social networking you’re hopelessly behind the times.

One point of speculation regarding the lack of success with social networking sites is that the small businesses may not have the manpower or the time to take advantage of them. Maybe. But it could also be that that’s not where their customers are.

Like any other form of advertising, social networking sites are tools. You have to use them intelligently in order for them to work. You don’t see a lot of ads for laundry detergent during football games, and you don’t see a lot of beer commercials on Lifetime.

So what has your experience been with social networks? Are you using Twitter, Facebook, etc.? And have they helped you either generate new business or increase business with current customers?

D’oh! Simpsons show one of the problems with fax machines

2009-10-16T14:22:00.001-07:00

So there I am last week, watching The Simpsons 20th season premiere episode, when I hear Homer call out one of the problems with fax machines. After the movie company he’s working for (long story behind that) asks him if he got the changes to the script they sent over, he says “No! My stupid fax machine ran out of ink!”

That is definitely one of the problems with a fax machine. It can run out of ink, or toner, or paper. If that happens, you won’t receive the fax (or your fax to someone else won’t go through) until the problem is taken care of. It’s sort of the “for the want of a nail” scenario. You have an important document that has to get where it’s going right now, but because someone didn’t check on the machine it’s stuck in the nether world between sender and receiver.

That doesn’t happen with MyFax, because there’s no ink, toner or paper involved. Documents are sent and received electronically, so there’s nothing to be out of. About the only thing that can hold it up is if you have the wrong fax number – which is certainly a “D’oh!” moment. Even then, though, you receive a notification that it didn’t go through so you can fix the situation. Ah, if only Homer had known about MyFax.

What’s your fax horror story? Ever had a fax fail to come or go through because of something simple like a lack of toner or paper?

Tips to Help Small Businesses Run In a More Organized and Productive Environment

2009-10-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

Susan Ward, of About.com recently wrote about the need for small businesses to be more organized and productive. Her post caught my eye because we often hear from small businesses that there aren’t enough hours in the day!

She says “Do you spend your day in a frenzy of activity and then wonder why you haven't accomplished much? Time management skills are especially important for small business people, who often find themselves performing many different jobs during the course of a single day.”

Some of her good tips include:

1) Realize that time management is a myth.
2) Find out where you're wasting time.
3) Create time management goals.
4) Implement a time management plan.
5) Use time management tools.
6) Prioritize ruthlessly.
7) Learn to delegate and/or outsource.

It seems like we could all use a few more organization and time management tricks up our sleeve. What daily business practices do you employ to keep your head on straight?

Small Businesses Jump on Green Technology Bandwagon

2009-10-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

I was perusing the small business conversations on Twitter recently (@MyFax_) when I came across CDW’s new findings on green IT adoption. It looks like small to medium sized businesses will lead the pack in the next six months!According to the findings, 31 percent of small business IT decision makers say their companies plan to implement green IT initiatives in the next two years—more than any other corporate or government sector.

The nice thing about greening your small business technology is that you don’t need a CIO, or even an IT department, to make eco-friendly changes in the office. Are you surprised that small businesses are greening their technology faster than any other sector? What green changes has your business made?

Pro Bono gets the fax straight for non-profit legal professionals

2009-09-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce that we’re now a sponsor of Pro Bono Net, a nonprofit organization that offers online tools to legal aid and pro bono attorneys.

Since transmitting confidential documents is a daily occurrence for legal professionals, we look forward to working with Pro Bono’s members in the legal profession. We hear from lawyers all the time about how internet faxing boosts efficiency, streamlines workflow, improves productivity and saves money with a secure and reliable alternative to fax machines and fax servers.

Non-profits in search of faxing capabilities can visit: http://www.myfax.com/probono/ or http://www.myfax.com/techsoup/.

Need to keep private info private? Use MyFax Central

2009-09-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I was re-reading the case study we did on MyFax customer Ruby Moon Investigations. It’s a private detective agency in Aurora, Colorado that performs a variety of investigations. Some are just interviewing witnesses to crimes on behalf of a lawyer, or tracking down a long-lost relative.

One of the reasons owner and chief investigator Tan Smyth says she uses MyFax to deliver the results is that it’s more secure than email. At first I was a bit confused since most people have their faxes delivered to their email, which means if someone else can view your email they can also view your faxes. Then it hit me – MyFaxCentral!

MyFaxCentral is the online component to the MyFax service. You can send, receive, view and store faxes there for a year without them ever hitting your email inbox. And since there’s no software to download, you can take advantage of MyFaxCentral without anyone else knowing you have an account.

So if you’re expecting some private information and want to be sure it stays private, having it faxed to your MyFax account and viewing it at MyFaxCentral is the way to do it.

What other types of businesses require transmission of sensitive documents?

Small businesses using online tools to boost the bottom line

2009-09-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

USA Today’s Byron Acohido wrote an article this week about small businesses turning to online subscription software (also known as software-as-a-service or SaaS) to improve office efficiencies.

Acohido writes, “Scarce credit and soft consumer spending are compelling small-business owners to look more closely at using the Internet to improve the bottom line. AMI-Partners' survey of 3,600 small and midsize business in 11 countries found 44% of U.S. firms were interested in renting software-as-a-service in the second quarter of 2009, double a year earlier.”

Geoffrey Bock, senior analyst at the Gilbane Group, likens the awakening of small business to these online services to the embrace of the telephone as an essential work tool in the 1920s.

The MyFax customer base is made up of these entrepreneurs and small businesses who already value tools accessible online. More than 15,000 new customers subscribe to MyFax each month. Kudos to MyFax users for being ahead of the curve!

What innovative strategies are you considering or using to cut expenses and increase profitability?

Make your small biz appear big

2009-09-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

We were pleased to see Lisa Sims’ recent Atlanta Small Business Examiner article “Four Ways to Make Your Small Business Appear Big”. She points out some easy ways SMB’s can avoid looking like a small fish in a big pond.

We advocate the same thing here at Protus. Simple technology modifications can go a long way in making a small business appear like a big player. Forget smudgy faxes and a phone system that doesn’t route calls to the appropriate person. Tools like MyFax and my1voice assure the communications you’re sending and receiving are just as professional and reliable as corporations with IT departments.

What gives you a big company impression on a small company budget?

How SMB’s Can Look Larger Than Life

2009-08-26T06:20:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when you’re a small company it can feel like the whole world is against you. Prospects are unsure of you, vendors treat you like yesterday’s cat litter, and potential employees look at you with a wary eye.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Karen Post at Oddpodz recently posted four suggestions on how to deal with being small, and turn disadvantages into advantages. The only thing I’d add is remember that business communications technology like MyFax, my1voice and Campaigner can also help you get past the “too small” syndrome by making you look larger than life. Since they’re services instead of technology you install, they can also save you hours of frustration by removing the need to manage them.

MyFax Podcast #2: Giving Office Technology a “Green” Makeover

2009-08-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

“Going green” often has a costly connotation associated with it. But when it comes to examining everyday technology in the office, going green can be easy, and positively impact the bottom line by saving money.

In our second podcast, MyFax Product Marketing Director Luc Vezina chats with GREENandSAVE.com president Charlie Szoradi about simple ways businesses can “green” their office technology. Lowering power consumption and paper reduction are easier than you might think!

What simple modifications have you made to green your office operations?

100 Free Customizable Fax Cover Sheets Now Available for Download

2009-08-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

This week we announced a new free resource: 100 free fax cover sheets available at http://www.myfax.com/free-fax-cover-sheets.

Cover pages distinguish who you are and to whom you are sending a fax. It’s also a good way to brand yourself with your company logo, website and contact information. This is an easy and free way to add value to your brand without hiring a graphics department or using valuable company letterhead.

The cover pages are available in Microsoft Word format and can be edited and customized. The formats run the gamut - from business to urgent and even fun. There are also cover pages for industries including accounting, bookkeeping, construction, education, finance, legal, medical, nonprofit and real estate. If you are looking for something else, let us know here and we’ll see what we can whip up!

In case you’re on Jeopardy! and the topic is “faxing”…

2009-08-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

Came across this site today as I was doing some competitive research for MyFax and just had to share. It’s a cartoon called “The secret life of the fax machine” that shows both the history and mechanics of faxing. It’s chock full of trivia and explanations about aspects of how fax machines work that you probably never knew. I know I didn’t.

Here’s a good example. Ask most people when the fax machine was invented and they’ll probably tell you “sometime in the 1980s.” ANNNGGGHH! That answer is incorrect. According to the cartoon, the first fax machine was patented in 1843, and the first commercial use was in 1865, going between Paris and Lyon, France. (That venture failed, by the way, as no one at that time seemed to have any business that required that type of urgency.)

The “modern” information is a little outdated since it focuses on the mechanics of old thermal paper fax machines and doesn’t mention the option of Internet faxing at all. Still, if you like watching the History or Discovery channels it’s worth a look. Especially on the off-chance you are ever a contestant on Jeopardy! and one of the topics is faxing.

Anyone care to speculate what information was being sent on those early faxes?

Secure Your Mortgage Rate and Your Personal Information

2009-07-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

According to Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, “Newly released housing indicators contain positive signs that the worst may be behind us.” And the National Association of Realtors just announced sales of existing homes rose more than expected in June, so the race to secure a great rate is on, but how secure is the financial information you’re providing?

Remember to securely submit sensitive financial information when applying for your loan. Consider MyFax if you’re sending personal information and signed documents.

MyFax, the world’s fastest-growing Internet fax service, protects against prying eyes around a common area fax machine. When users send a document to a fax machine, it sits there until the person it’s intended for picks it up, or the document is delivered. In the meantime, anyone walking by can see what’s in it. With MyFax, the documents are sent directly to the email of the receiver, maintaining the ultimate level of privacy for financial information.

For those who only occasionally fax, MyFax also offers a free service. MyFax Free allows users to transmit two faxes per day of up to 10 pages without going through the fuss of setting up an account or providing a credit card number. Good luck securely obtaining those rates!

What’s your “can’t live without” technology?

2009-07-21T07:13:00.001-07:00

I recently found a new blog: Small Business Center which has a section dedicated to technology. The author writes, “For many professionals, work is a place to go. However for a growing number of professionals work is really what you DO. Not where you are or where you go. When I think of my backpack - it has just about everything I need to be “at work” - wherever I am.” His list includes a laptop with a video camera, wireless broadband and a flip video camera. I wonder if Internet faxing is on his mobile device.

What technology do you always have with you while working?

Best Industries (and Tools!) for Starting a New Business

2009-07-15T05:52:00.001-07:00

I came across Inc. Magazine’s “The Best Industries for Starting a New Business Right Now” slide show the other day and was happy to see a handful of industries like healthcare, consulting, accounting and green construction on the list. We’ve found those industries are among those that rely heavily on faxing.

Even MyFax’s industry is included on the list: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Since MyFax is available online and doesn’t require any software downloads, it falls under the SaaS category. According to Inc., “Although software spending is expected to increase just 5 percent through 2013, the software-as-a-service niche is forecast to expand by nearly 20 percent annually over the same period, as companies continue to see the benefits of on-demand, flexible applications, according to Gartner, a market-research firm.”

We hope your business is weathering the economic storm. What industry are you in and what Web-based tool helped you start your business?

Business Communications: Back to the Basics

2009-07-13T05:09:00.001-07:00

I just learned that Freedom from Fear of Public Speaking Week was July 1-7. Stress and wellness specialist Beverly Beuermann-King has some good public speaking tips: keep it to a few good points, don’t expect perfection and keep the caffeine to a minimum as it’s an additional stressor. If you want people to know about your business, you have to communicate. Speaking is a very effective way to promote your business. Promoting your expertise is a way to build trust and long-term relationships.

Protus, the provider of MyFax, my1voice and Campaigner is all about small business communications. Whether face-to-face or via technologies like phones, faxing and email marketing, one of our goals is to work with small businesses to grow and prosper. What are some of the unique ways you communicate with your customers and clients? What works? What doesn’t?

Our First Podcast! Real Estate Pro Uses MyFax to Gain Edge in Tough Economy

2009-07-09T04:56:00.000-07:00

We’re so excited to share the first of many podcasts we’ll be conducting with our Director, Product Marketing and various customers. We hope to inform, educate and give you a peek inside MyFax.

Our first podcast features how Chris Prescott of Coldwell Banker, who uses MyFax to streamline his real estate business operations.

Listen, and let us know what you think of our first run at a podcast, and what topics you’d like to see covered in the future!

The Heart of MyFax

2009-07-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

Typically we use this blog to share tips and tricks about MyFax and small business communications. Today I’d like to do something a bit different and give you a personal look at all of us at MyFax and at our company Protus.

I am really proud of the people I work with. We provide great products. We all get great satisfaction from hearing this from our customers. But at MyFax, this isn’t all we live for. Our company has chosen to work with the Canadian Cancer Society and its Relay for Life program. We’ve been involved for the past five years, donating time, money and as of this year, sponsorships. This year we raised over $30,500 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

We began fundraising several weeks prior to the annual 12-hour relay at the Nepean Sportsplex on June 12, 2009. The company raffled off retreats with executives. We paid to throw pies at our bosses and watch the accounting department shave their heads. We had a lot of fun voting with loose change on daily opinion polls that often pitted one department against another. And we held silent auctions, a garage sale, cook-offs and all sorts of other food-related fundraising. As a result, Protus raised the most funds as a team, totaling nearly $150 per employee. In fact my co-worker Pat Risdon raised the most money by an individual for the Ottawa-Nepean community.

Personally, something really struck me this year as we celebrated our efforts at our picnic. Protus has retained its personal approach and commitment to this annual event. This effort started from humble beginnings based on a very personal journey of one employee. Despite our growing size, everyone still embraces the company’s charity of choice as their own. I am really honored to be a part of this professional family. There truly is a heart behind the company.

Relay For Life is a celebration of survival, a tribute to the lives of loved ones and an opportunity to fight back in the battle against cancer. Teams of 10 take turns running, walking or strolling around the track in this non-competitive 12-hour relay. Taking part in this heart-warming event creates a strong community of people striving to reach a common goal – to beat cancer. The Canadian Cancer Society is the largest charitable funder of cancer research in Canada. The funds raised by Relay For Life are used to support life-saving research, provide information on cancer prevention and to offer support services to those living with cancer.

Want to reach your doctor? Try faxing!

2009-06-10T05:09:00.000-07:00

I originally heard this fact from a customer of ours, but since then I’ve heard it from other sources as well: doctors don’t like to give out their email addresses. They don’t like to give them to hospitals. And they don’t like to give them to patients.

The reason is they’re afraid their inboxes would be inundated with email on a wide variety of subjects – most of which are of no interest to them. For example, it may be good to know that the hospital they’re associated with now has healthier choices in the cafeteria, but they don’t want to see it in their inbox. Same with the change in their pharmaceutical representative – they’ll find that out during the next sales call.

But what happens if they need to receive information on a patient being referred to them? It’s certainly important to know the patient’s history, any medications they’re already taking, any preliminary diagnoses, etc.

Most likely they’re going to receive that information via fax. It’s just the way many doctors prefer to work.

What that means to you is that doctors (or their office staff) check faxes more frequently, and with more interest, than they check email. So if you need to get some information to your doctor, or you want to make sure a message gets the attention it deserves, forget email and instead send a fax. Otherwise your message may do what most of us often do at the doctor’s office – sit around waiting forever.

Have any of you tried contacting your doctor via fax? And if you’re a doctor, has this been your experience too?

The most popular ways for businesses to grow green

2009-04-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Saw this post today while poking around the Internet doing a little research. It quotes a survey performed by CareerBuilder.com looking at what the most popular environmentally-related jobs are. While surveying, they also asked the companies surveyed what green programs they have been latching onto in the last year. A whopping 70 % of those polled said they had taken some measures to go green in the last 12 months.

The top 2 green initiatives had to do with paper use. First was recycling. Of the companies surveyed, 50% said they were now recycling. Right behind that was using less paper, at 45 %.

Now, there’s no doubt that using less paper is a better measure than recycling. After all, there is an environmental “cost” to the recycling process. Put into simple terms, it’s better not to have to print a fax (as with MyFax) than to print it on a fax machine and then recycle the paper. But either is preferable to your faxes winding up in a landfill.

Number 4on the list, by the way, was powering down computers at the end of the day, which 30% of the companies said they’d started doing. That’s one of those cases where convenience and environmental responsibility kind of fight each other.

The reason a lot of people leave their computers on at the end of the day is they don’t want to wait for them to boot up the next morning. We as a society don’t have much patience, and waiting a minute or more for a computer to come seems like an eternity. Yet energy is being wasted every second a computer is running with no one in front of it. All you really need to do to help the planet is get into work one minute earlier, let the computer boot up, and get a cup of coffee or say hi to your co-workers. Is that really so hard?

Of course, anyone who’s even considering turning off their computers at the end of the day to save energy really ought to be looking at replacing their fax machines too. Because they have to be ready to receive at any time, fax machines are always drawing power – 24/7/365. It may not be a lot at a given minute, but over time it adds up.

A MyFax account allows you to eliminate the machine entirely. You send and receive faxes through another device that’s already on – such as that computer you’re powering down at night. As a bonus you also won’t be tossing another machine (and its toxic materials) into the waste stream.

When you really think about it, a MyFax account allows you to comply with 3 of the top 4 most popular green measures. That’s a pretty good deal. Sorry, you’ll have to figure out the lights on your own.

Faxing is still a core technology in healthcare

2009-04-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

Here’s something that may surprise you: Despite the impression we’re often given by Hollywood, most doctors and hospitals aren’t using ultra-sophisticated electronic systems with really cool, colorful images to document, manage and share patient information. They’re still using handwritten notes, the phone and faxes.

That’s a fact that is reinforced in this post from The Health Care Blog. In it, author Margarlit Gur-Arie says that doctors currently transfer data everyday using common tools like the phone and fax. While there has been a lot of talk about moving to electronic health records (EHR), so far there’s more talk than movement in a lot of quarters. And a lot of skepticism.

The extensive use of faxing is certainly a reality at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Medical Center. According to MyFax customer Sujit Kar, IT manager for business development and marketing at MUSC, the Medical Center processes 50,000 inbound fax pages and another 10,000 outbound fax pages each month. When you do the math, it adds up to nearly three quarters of a million faxed pages each year!

That’s a lot of information to manage, especially given the stringent requirements of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Mishandling just one of those faxed pages could put MUSC Medical Center at risk of a HIPAA violation, which wouldn’t be good for anyone. In fact, reducing HIPAA violations is one of the major reasons MUSC Medical Center got rid of its fax machines and switched to MyFax. You can read more about it here.

Perhaps someday reality will measure up to Hollywood. Until that time, it’s good to know there are alternatives like MyFax that can protect your information and make the whole process more efficient.