Here at work we temporarily need a new guy in the field. He is there to monitor security, and it is important that any data delivered to him are confirmed by him and there must not be room for any hickups. The mangement therefore went a bit oldfashioned and wanted a fax the guy could confirm and fax back. We ordered an ISDN-line and then have a fax and phone. However the phone co. ****ed us over and cannot deliver as promised. So, I need, ASAP, to come up with a solution. Fax is still the way. My idea, which has been approved:
Give the guy a laptop, a vodafone card (if it is not only gprs, but also dial-up, waiting for confirmation on that), some fax app (which is best?) and a mfp so he can print the received faxes, sign them, scan them and fax back. Plus side is, even if power fails at the site, he can still operate on the battery in the laptop and fax.
My Q's are:
- What fax software is the best out there? Reliability is key.
- How good are the built-in modems in phones today? My SE w810 has a regular WMC modem built in, but never used it. I figured we could use that maybe, and skip the Vodafone subscription thing. Cheaper. Can these built-in modems function via bluetooth?
Any help would be greatly appreciated :blush:
Edit: the fax is the main thing, so that could be done on the phone, but I have just been tld that internet would be nice as well. And surfing on those built-in modems must be a pain (what are they - 44kbit/s?) so I guess I have to have the Vodafone card as well...
I just realised, that the Windows XP fax service etc. is quite good.
Quote from: delanvital;176400Here at work we temporarily need a new guy in the field. He is there to monitor security, and it is important that any data delivered to him are confirmed by him and there must not be room for any hickups. The mangement therefore went a bit oldfashioned and wanted a fax the guy could confirm and fax back. We ordered an ISDN-line and then have a fax and phone. However the phone co. ****ed us over and cannot deliver as promised. So, I need, ASAP, to come up with a solution. Fax is still the way. My idea, which has been approved:
Give the guy a laptop, a vodafone card (if it is not only gprs, but also dial-up, waiting for confirmation on that), some fax app (which is best?) and a mfp so he can print the received faxes, sign them, scan them and fax back. Plus side is, even if power fails at the site, he can still operate on the battery in the laptop and fax.
My Q's are:
- What fax software is the best out there? Reliability is key.
- How good are the built-in modems in phones today? My SE w810 has a regular WMC modem built in, but never used it. I figured we could use that maybe, and skip the Vodafone subscription thing. Cheaper. Can these built-in modems function via bluetooth?
Any help would be greatly appreciated :blush:
Edit: the fax is the main thing, so that could be done on the phone, but I have just been tld that internet would be nice as well. And surfing on those built-in modems must be a pain (what are they - 44kbit/s?) so I guess I have to have the Vodafone card as well...
There are quite a few companies which convert faxes to email - I know it's not as good maybe but it may help - //www.efax.com
As for pure fax software - I have no idea but will be watching the thread with interest as my satellite office with one person needs something similar.
PEN
I've just looked at that service. It seems really neat :) However, I don't think we would like to pass these faxes through their servers, the stuff is confidential and the company hosting the server is overseas. Maybe, if there was a well-known and reliable app for setting up such a server yourself? Also, I don't think they want to me stray too far from the conventional concept of fax...
Quote from: delanvital;176415I've just looked at that service. It seems really neat :) However, I don't think we would like to pass these faxes through their servers, the stuff is confidential and the company hosting the server is overseas. Maybe, if there was a well-known and reliable app for setting up such a server yourself? Also, I don't think they want to me stray too far from the conventional concept of fax...
why not just give him a compact scanner and printer. Email the document, he can print it out, sign it, scan it, and email you back the scanned in copy with signature. Personally I'd work out a way to confirm reception electronically negating the need for the printer&scanner (perhaps you could utilise a touch-screen pda/tablet that he could simply sign on-screen and email that back?)
Quote from: suicidal_monkey;176479why not just give him a compact scanner and printer. Email the document, he can print it out, sign it, scan it, and email you back the scanned in copy with signature. Personally I'd work out a way to confirm reception electronically negating the need for the printer&scanner (perhaps you could utilise a touch-screen pda/tablet that he could simply sign on-screen and email that back?)
I was thinking along the same lines myself. However the fax thing is sort of given. The head of the security sets the rules... so... but I will dare challenge him on that one tomorrow. It doesn't matter which way, as long as the guy has signed the thing.