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Notorious Fax Debacle Finds Closure

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TMCnews Featured Article


July 12, 2013

Notorious Fax Debacle Finds Closure

By Blaise McNamee, Web Editor


While IP communications is typically information that only technology professionals find interesting, Sports fans might find this short anecdote amusing, as well. As any Buffalo Sabres fan will tell you, skimping on fax technology can have far reaching consequences that last for years.


14 years ago, the Buffalo Sabres selected Mike Zigomanis, a promising NHL prospect, in the second round of the 1999 NHL draft. In professional hockey, drafting a player affords the team two years to work out a deal and sign the player.

As described by Buffalo Sabres beat columnist, John Vogl, of The Buffalo News, “They finally agreed to a deal about a half-hour before the deadline, but their initial contract exchange had a salary error. They tried to fix it and fax the deal into the NHL, but it didn't arrive before the deadline because the league's fax machines were overworked.”

A deadline is a deadline. As a result, Zigomanis was placed back into the draft, and was picked up by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2001. He went on to play for 9 other NHL and AHL teams, as well as a Swedish team overseas.

Just this week, however, on July 10, 2013, the Buffalo Sabres finally signed Zigomanis, albeit to their minor-league Rochester Americans squad. So, effectively, a small fax hiccup led to a 14-year signing delay. 

Fortunately, technology has improved since 1999, and hockey teams and other business now have access to Fax over IP (FoIP) services, which are capable of avoiding such costly errors and delays. With Fax over IP, documents are sent over the Internet, meaning they can be directed to emails addresses or virtual fax servers. Moreover, any computer printer can be used to print a faxed document, as it has arrived through an IP channel, likely in a PDF, word-processing, or image format. This also means that the document can simply be read from any computer or mobile device, without being printed whatsoever.

A digital file delivered to a computer does not need to be resent if it encounters malfunctioning or overworked printing equipment, as a copy is already stored and available electronically.

Could the Sabres have won a Stanley Cup with a FoIP solution in place? We will never know. However, it most certainly can help businesses avoid costly, decade long mistakes. 




Edited by Ryan Sartor







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