Email - to - Fax Translation for Quotations Dpmt 1

[TheOfficeSlave]

Does anyone have any suggestions for solutions you have used in the past for an Email-to-Fax & Fax-to-Email translation that is also organized and efficient, whcih will work with or along with Outlook?



History:
we are trying to move to paperless filing, but we currently use hardcopy/handwriten Material Requestitions(MR)'s that we send out via fax, then get back quotes, via fax and then send back the accepted/initiated quote for order. After all of this, it then goes to our accounting department where they cross check the invoices with the MR(with the stapled best quote). Finally it is all filed in a large filing cabinet to be then stored off-site.

Here is the Problem:
There is just too much paper transfer and the time it takes up to pull information amoung the tons of information we try to organize is extremely inefficient.

Here is the WANT:
i want to design a template for writing our MRs faster and utilize Outlook to auto-send these MRs to our multiple vendors.

- I think the first step is to figure out if Email-to-Fax and Fax-to-Email is even possible and someone has attempted this in conjunction with Outlook.
- Starting with an electronic document from the beginning is probably the best way.
- We want to allow our quotations department and our accounting department to be able to easily send/recieve/track/file and process.


Thanks,
TheOfficeSlave

 

[Scott24x7]

There's really only 1 solution in my opinion for what you are looking for, and that is RightFax. Very robust, been around for years, and is used by many companies big and small. It's also reasonably priced.

Best of luck.



Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[Scott24x7]

Oh, forgot to mention, yes, it does integrate with Outlook, and does all the things you are talking about. The companies focus is on streamlining this kind of process.



Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[TheOfficeSlave]

Do you have personnel experience with this product?

Have you ever looked at Fax4Outlook?

- check it out:

http://fax4outlook.4team.biz/?pcode=5082601353awwnf

Does this do the same thing as RightFax?

- is it based from the basic fax fuction that was separated in...i think Windows 2000, when it came out and so on to newer versions of windows....this brings them back together.
Is this similar?

What is the Pro/Con of using RightFax vs. Fax4Outlook?

 

[Scott24x7]

I have used RightFax in many commercial applicaitons. There are LOTS of products that support it natively, and a lot of products written specifically for the RightFax solution as well.

I have not had specific experience with Fax4Outlook, so can't comment much on the "Pros/Cons". I would say by the product name however, that Fax4Outlook would at least have the limitation of being tied to Outlook specifically, so of your process migrates, or Outlook is droped as the mail client, you could be in trouble. RightFax is product independent. I'm sure there are other solutions, but RightFax is an industry standard, and has proved itself over and over again as a commercial sustainable product. You'll have to do some reasearch (Heck, even write the two companies and ask them to do a comparison of their product to the other), and see what they have to say.


Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[zkent]

Check out eFax as well. I haven't used them in a long time so I cannot comment on thier meeting your needs/expectations.