TMCnews Featured Article
November 12, 2010
FaxCore Enables Sheriff's Department to Integrate Fax Over IP into VoIP Environment
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
Companies and organizations across a full range of industries continue to rely heavily on fax communications to drive effective document transfer and workflows. The challenge for many is that a move to an all-IP environment and supporting multiple locations over one network makes the analog fax an outdated technology that negates the efficiency benefits promoted by the all-IP environment. The obvious solution in such situations is to move the fax technology to the network through fax over IP.
The Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office set out to do just that. The department serves a population of roughly 173,000, operates as the primary investigative agency for vehicular accidents that span 565 miles of state and county roads, and manages 512 inmates in a state-of-the-art facility that spans 150,000 square feet.
The sheriff’s department relies heavily on fax communications are part of its standard workflow. Standalone fax machines would be used to send and receive critical paperwork between the county court, attorneys and other law enforcement agents at both the state and federal levels. Before investigating a change, the department was operating 15 standalone fax machines.
According to Greg Selby manager of information systems for the department, the uptime of fax communications is extremely critical to ensure all administrative operations are running smoothly. If a fax happens to go down, the department is unable to process inmate release forms, which can impact many elements of the department’s business.
The department had already installed a Cisco (News - Alert) VoIP system to streamline voice communications. The next step included finding a way to reduce fax consumables cost, boost productivity through automating an error-prone and inefficient manual fax process and avoid the cost of dedicated analog fax circuits. To accomplish these things, the department needed to integrate their fax communications into the Cisco VoIP system.Selby selected the FaxCore (News - Alert) Web-based IP-enabled system.
TransOptions Messaging Inc. (TMI) was chosen as its implementation partner and in November of 2005, the department began deploying FaxCore to leverage the capability it could integrate seamlessly with the Cisco VoIP system. FaxCore provided a Web-based solution to centralize, control and manage all types of fax communications, while also streamlining business processes. With an intuitive, browser-based interface, users can send and receive faxes with the same convenience as sending an e-mail.
“We are at the cutting edge of technology and knew an integrated FoIP and VoIP system would allow us to streamline our operations and reduce costs,” explained Eric Williams, chief deputy of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office.
“This system will allow us to optimize the workflow of faxes throughout our department and gives us the flexibility to grow.”With the FaxCore solution in place, there are now 50 users optimizing the solution who constantly send faxes through a Webb browser or from within their e-mail application. The department sends and receives hundreds of faxes a month and this number is expected to expand with the new system in place. And, according to Selby, there are more than 200 personnel who can benefit from the FaxCore solution.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Erin Harrison
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