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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Choosing a
Fax Solution
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Introduction
When looking for a fax solution, one of the most important considerations is the method of deployment. There are four basic models for deploying fax solutions: on premise, hosted, hybrid, and fax as a service. Each model has its own unique characteristics – whether those characteristics are strengths or
weaknesses will depend upon your requirements for functionality, the availability of IT staff, and how critical fax is to your business.
Let’s consider each of the four models briefly.
On Premise
On-premise fax solutions –fax servers – require light-to-heavy IT management depending on the particular solution and amount of faxing done by the organization. The on-premise model requires purchase and management of servers, software and requisite telephony infrastructure. The key strength of on-premise solutions is the ability to integrate with existing software applications and multi-function printers (MFPs). Advanced on-premise solutions support configurations for high availability – including virtualization and redundancy.
Hosted
Hosted fax solutions move deployment of a dedicated fax server from on-premise to a service provider’s data center. The software is the same, and features like integration remain available. The strength of hosted solutions is that the IT infrastructure is managed at the data centers of the service provider, keeping customer data isolated and protected. The customer is simply responsible for managing
configuration, user setup and preferences within the fax software. In order to enable the integrations and facilitate access to the organization, this model typically requires a VPN connection between your network and the dedicated server instance at the service provider’s site.
Hybrid
In hybrid models, some portion of the software resides at your site (on-premise) and some portion is provided as a service (hosted/in the cloud). Where the division occurs can vary from vendor to vendor. The key strength of hybrid solutions is that the service portion includes managing the connection to the telephone network–often the most complex and confusing part of deploying fax solutions–removing this responsibility from your IT staff. Because some of the software is residing on-premise, integration with MFPs and other software applications remains an option.
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
email box. The strength of pure service solutions is that all management of infrastructure is provided by the service provider. Your IT staff can manage users, configurations and fax numbers via a browser-based interface from the service provider. Because no fax software resides at your site, integration with MFPs and other software applications may be limited or unavailable.Mapping Deployment Models to
OpenText Solutions
OpenText, the leading provider of fax solutions worldwide, offers fax solutions for each of the above deployment models. No other vendor offers the range of deployment options and capabilities that OpenText provides. No matter the size of your organization or your volume of fax traffic, we have a solution for you–in your office or in the cloud.
On-premise Solutions
RightFax, the market-leading network fax server solution, automates time-intensive manual,
paper-driven processes by integrating them into your business applications and systems.
Fax Appliance is designed to provide all employees of SMBs electronic faxing from the desktop,
via an all-in-one, plug-and-play, hardware-based fax solution.
Hybrid Solutions
RightFax + RightFax Connect is a hybrid fax solution with outsourced telephony for your RightFax
server. This is the perfect option for those organizations that need the enterprise-class
capabilities of RightFax and want to remove the complexity of integrating a telephony network
with their fax server software.
Hosted Solutions
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Fax as a Service Solutions
EasyLink Fax Services provide you with a cloud-based fax-to-email/email-to-fax service.
Eliminate the cost, complexity, and hardware footprint associated with supporting fax machines,
servers, and enterprise fax infrastructure.
Comparing OpenText Solutions
OpenText RightFax
RightFax is OpenText’s flagship on-premise fax solution for large enterprises and mid-sized companies with strong integration requirements and high fax traffic. RightFax is ideal for organizations seeking a long-term, strategic fax solution with resources to support more complex deployments.
OpenText RightFax Connect
RightFax Connect is a cloud service that eliminates the need for fax channels and telephone lines for RightFax. It removes the need for IT departments to manage fax telephony in their data center or at various locations where faxing is needed.
OpenText Fax Appliance
Fax Appliance is an on-premise, hardware-based fax solution for small to medium-sized businesses. Fax Appliance is ideal for customers seeking a small IT foot print and simple deployment model.
OpenText RightFax OnDemand
RightFax OnDemand is a hosted fax solution that offers all the robust features, individual configuration, and integration of RightFax. It is designed for large enterprises and mid-sized companies with strong integration requirements and higher faxing levels. RightFax OnDemand is ideal for organizations seeking a medium to long-term fax solution and wish to avoid managing a formal deployment.
OpenText EasyLink
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
General Characteristics
The following chart describes some high-level characteristics of OpenText’s fax solutions. While all of these solutions share multiple advantages over traditional fax machines and multifunction printers (MFPs) with fax boards – each has a unique set of values. When looking for a fax solution, it is important to analyze the value of each characteristic and capability to your organization. Use this chart to see how each solution matches your highest priorities. (See a key for the chart below).
Product RightFax Fax Appliance RightFax
OnDemand EasyLink Deployment Location On-Premise Hybrid On-Premise Hosted Cloud KEY CHARACTERISTICS
CapEx Reduction None Good None Best Best
Breadth of Capabilities Best Best Good Best Good
MFP/Software Systems
Integration Best Best Good Best Good
Deployment timeline Good Good Better Better Best
Reduction in IT Fax Support Good Better Better Better Best
Vendor Management
Solution NO NO NO YES YES
Hosted Server Backups NO NO NO YES YES
System Up Time Service
Level Agreement NO NO NO YES YES
Transparency of Data
Sovereignty/Ownership Best Best Best Better Good
CapEx reduction – Some solutions are purchased software licenses, and are typically capital expenses
(CapEx); organizations which prefer operating expenses (OpEx) will prefer solutions that reduce CapEx.
Breadth of capabilities – Each of our solutions have different feature sets – organizations with more
complex faxing requirements will likely need a greater breadth of capabilities.
MFP/Software systems integration – Will your organization require integration with MFPs or specific
software systems? Some of our offerings provide simple integration with these via SMTP, but others provide deeper integrations with MFPs from specific manufacturers and specific software packages.
Deployment timeline – Some solutions take longer to deploy than others. Cloud solutions tend to take the least amount of time, but appliances are also fast to deploy because of their all-in-one nature.
Reduction in IT fax support – All of our solutions reduce IT fax support when compared to traditional fax
machines and MFPs with fax boards, but some will reduce IT participation even more.
Vendor management solution – Will OpenText manage the fax solution for you? This can be very attractive to organizations with limited or strained IT resources.
Hosted server backups – Some of our solutions include automated backups in the cloud. When
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
System uptime service level agreement – In some deployments, OpenText will provide service level
agreements regarding system up time.
Transparency of data sovereignty/ownership – In some locales, where your data resides is an
important factor. How well can you control the data and its storage location?
Deployment Characteristics
Many organizations are beginning to choose IT solutions based on preferred method of deployment. Some organizations want all IT system to reside in-house or on-premise. Others are beginning to outsource non-critical applications/functions while keeping business-critical systems on premise. And more and more organizations are seeking to outsource all (or as many as possible) IT activities. An increasingly popular alternative is hybrid solutions, in which part of a software system resides on-premise, but some components are outsourced for efficiency.
Product RightFax Fax Appliance RightFax
OnDemand Easylink Deployment Location On-Premise Hybrid On-premise Hosted Cloud Solution Components
Fax Software YES YES NO NO NO
Hardware Appliance (hardware
+ software) NO NO YES NO NO
Implementation
Time to Production Weeks to Months
Weeks to
Months Days Weeks
Days¹ to Months² Ease of Deployment Complex Moderate
/Complex Moderate Simple Simple
Customization Flexibility High High Limited High Limited
1.
If OpenText provides phone numbers 2. If transferring existing numbers from current phone provider
Fax software – Some solutions provide only software that will run on-premise – requiring you provide
server hardware to support it.
Hardware appliance – This deployment option provides both the software and the hardware it runs on. It also includes fax hardware to allow the use of analog phone lines.
Time to production – The various deployment models will differ in how long it takes to go from vendor
selection to live implementation. If you are porting phone numbers, even the fastest deployment models will takes 30 – 60 days to have the numbers ported. This isn’t a function of the model, but of the
telephone company’s procedures for porting numbers.
Ease of deployment – On-premise solutions are more complex to deploy because you typically will
customize the deployment to match your specific needs. Cloud services tend to offer fewer options, but are more likely to be user ready.
Customization flexibility – Some of our fax solutions provide more customizable deployments than
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Scalability Characteristics
Product RightFax Fax Appliance
RightFax
OnDemand Easylink Deployment Location On-Premise Hybrid On-premise Hosted Cloud Scalability
Cost to Scale
Hardware High High High N/A N/A
Software High High N/A N/A N/A
Professional Services High High N/A N/A N/A
Page Volume Very Low High N/A High High
Other
Ability to Manage Unplanned
Traffic Spikes Moderate Best Limited Good Best
Cost to scale – Different deployment models grow in cost differently as you scale the capacity of your fax
solution. On-premise solution costs come from adding hardware and software, but the per-page cost grows more slowly than with cloud solutions, which require no additional hardware or software but typically charge per user, per fax number and/or per page of fax.
Cost to scale: hardware – How much will adding hardware cost to help increase the scale of your
implementation?
Cost to scale: software – How much will additional software add to your costs when seeking to increase
the scale of your implementation?
Cost to scale: Professional Services – How much will adding customizations to the implementation add
to the cost of the implementation?
Cost to scale: Page volume – How will increasing the number of fax pages sent each month affect the
cost of your implementation?
Ability to manage unplanned traffic spikes – Solutions that outsource the telephony portion of a fax
solution tend to handle unplanned traffic spikes better than on-premise solutions that require you to plan for changes in traffic and capacity yourself.
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Telephony Characteristics
Product RightFax Fax Appliance
RightFax
OnDemand Easylink Deployment Location On-Premise Hybrid On-premise Hosted Cloud
Telephony For Fax Managed By Customer OpenText Customer OpenText OpenText Telephony Service Level
Agreement NO YES NO YES YES
Analog Telephony Supported? YES N/A YES N/A N/A
Digital Telephony Supported? YES N/A NO N/A N/A
IP Telephony Supported? YES N/A NO N/A N/A
VPN Supported? YES YES YES YES YES
VPN Required? NO NO NO YES NO
SIP Trunking Supported? YES N/A NO N/A N/A
Max Simultaneous Connections 1024 N/A 4 N/A N/A
Telephony Redundancy Optional.
Expensive Included N/A Included Included
Telephony for fax managed by – Who will manage the telephone infrastructure for your fax needs? Telephony Service Level Agreement – Will your provider provide service level agreements for phone
service?
Analog telephony Supported? – Can you use analog phone lines for faxing?
Digital telephony Supported? – Can you use digital phone lines such as T1 or T3 for faxing? IP telephony Supported? – Do you have an IP phone switch that the fax solution will need to
interoperate with? Are you seeking to move to VoIP?
VPN supported? – Does the solution support use of VPN for transmissions that use the internet?
VPN required? – Does the solution require use of VPN?
SIP Trunking supported? – Does the solution support SIP trunking if I have completely eliminated
phone lines in favor of VoIP via my internet service provider?
Max simultaneous connections – how many maximum simultaneous phone connections can I make
with this solution? Note: outsourcing telephony removes these limitations.
Telephony redundancy – Can I configure the implementation with telephony redundancy in case my
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Security Characteristics
Each solution provided by OpenText has a unique set of security characteristics, but all remove many of the risks associated with paper-based faxing such as:
Risk of viewing or removal of incoming faxes by unintended recipients (a violation of law in
some industries and jurisdictions).
Risk that one or more pages of a fax will be picked up with another fax and never get delivered
to the right person.
Risk that the paper fax will be routed to the wrong person.
Risk that time-sensitive faxes will not be delivered to the recipient in a timely manner.
Security RightFax Fax Appliance RF OnDemand Easylink
Level of security High High High High
Audit of fax transactions/usage High High High High
Third-party audit of vendor
infrastructure N/A N/A YES YES
Data Sovereignty/Ownership High High High Moderate
Level of security – All OpenText fax solutions route faxes directly to intended recipients via secure fax
inbox or corporate mailbox – eliminating the risks listed above.
Audit of fax transactions/usage – Some organizations, industries, and jurisdictions have deeper, more
intensive audit requirements.
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Features
Capability RightFax Fax Appliance RF OnDemand Fax2Mail
Desktop faxing YES YES YES YES
Production faxing YES NO YES YES
Secure delivery of non-fax
documents YES NO YES NO
Fax archiving YES YES YES NO
SMS YES NO YES NO
Peer-to-peer fax transfer YES NO YES NO
Least-cost routing YES NO N/A N/A
Web access YES YES YES YES
Monitors and alerts YES NO YES YES
Send/receive PDF documents YES YES YES YES
Send Searchable PDF documents YES YES YES YES
Receive Searchable PDF
documents YES NO YES YES
Bar code routing YES NO YES NO
XML generation YES YES YES YES
Print-to-fax YES YES YES YES
Compliance filter YES NO YES YES
Desktop faxing – Can you fax from a computer desktop? Can you see your faxing history?
Production faxing – Does the fax solution integration with production software so that faxes can be
generated by the production software and sent without human intervention?
Secure delivery of non-fax documents – Is there an option for securely delivering sensitive documents
in their original format that includes the ability to verify receipt?
Fax archiving – Is there a method for archiving faxes that allows for saved faxes to be searched for
based on metadata?
SMS – Would you like to receive SMS notifications that faxes have been received or delivered? Peer-to-peer fax transfer – Could you save money if you could send faxes directly to a known partner
without the use of phone lines?
Least-cost routing – If you have more than one fax server, can you create rules to send a fax via the
one with the lowest cost based on location?
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Send/receive PDF documents – Can I convert a PDF to an outbound fax? An inbound fax to a PDF? Send SEARCHABLE PDF documents – Do I need to create text searchable versions of inbound faxes?
Do I need to store/archive faxes with searchable content to quickly find faxes with desktop searches based on keywords, invoice numbers or other strings of text?
Receive SEARCHABLE PDF documents - Can I create a searchable (OCR’d) PDF of a received fax? Bar code routing – Can I establish bar codes that will tie faxes together and allow me to route inbound
faxes based on the bar code?
XML generation – Can the system generate XML metadata about each fax and pass that information to other systems?
Print-to-fax – Is there a print driver for faxing that allows me to fax any document I can print? Compliance filter - Is it possible to scan documents before they are sent to ensure content is in
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Integrations
Another key element in choosing a fax solution is determining what software applications and hardware devices you would like to send and receive faxes with. OpenText offers a wide range of built and pre-tested integrations. Integrations to specific MFPs are certified by the MFP manufacturers, as are our SAP and Oracle integrations.
Capability RightFax Fax Appliance RF OnDemand Fax2Mail
SAP integration YES NO YES NO
ORACLE integration YES NO YES NO
FileNet integration YES NO YES NO
OpenText Content Management
Server YES NO YES NO
OpenText eDOCS YES NO YES NO
Microsoft SharePoint Server YES NO YES NO
Microsoft Exchange Server YES NO YES NO
Microsoft Office YES NO YES YES
Cloud Services (Microsoft Office
365, Google Apps, etc.) YES YES YES YES
Lotus Notes YES NO YES NO
Integrations with MFP Devices
Xerox MFP integration YES NO YES NO
HP MFP integration YES NO YES NO
Konica Minolta MFP integration YES NO YES NO
Ricoh MFP integration YES NO YES NO
via SMTP YES YES YES YES
Integration Models
Drop directory YES YES YES YES
API YES YES YES YES
Web Services YES YES YES YES
Command Line Fax Utilities YES YES YES NO
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Pricing Models
OpenText fax solutions are priced based on deployment model. If your organization prefers OpEX to CapEx, you will benefit most from the hosted and cloud solutions.
COST and PRICING RightFax Fax Appliance
RF
OnDemand EasyLink Deployment Location On-Premise Hybrid On-premise Hosted Cloud Capital Expense
Fax server software YES YES N/A NO NO
Fax server boards or "soft"
boards YES NO N/A NO NO
Fax appliance N/A N/A YES N/A N/A
Hardware/software connectors YES YES NO OpEX NO
Operating Expense
Fixed contract NO YES NO YES NO
Monthly fee NO NO NO YES YES
Per-user charges NO NO NO NO YES
Volume-based charges NO YES NO YES YES
License support and maintenance YES YES/lower YES NO NO
Fax server software – Does the solution require purchase of a software license?
Fax server board or “soft” boards – Does the solution require purchase of hardware fax boards or
software licenses for connecting to your telephone equipment?
Fax appliance – Is the solution an all-in-one appliance that includes both hardware and software? Hardware/software connectors – Are there optional licensed components that provide integration to
specific hardware (MFPs) or software?
Fixed contract – Is there a fixed price contract for services?
Monthly fee – Does the service contract include any fixed monthly fees?
Per-user charges – Does the service contract include any fixed monthly per-user charges?
Volume-based charges – Does the service charge for fax volume?
http://faxsolutions.opentext.com or www.easylink.com
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Choosing a Fax Solution Deployment Model
Conclusion:
We’ll work with you to find the right deployment
solution
OpenText offers a wide range of fax solutions to meet the needs of your organization. This white paper is designed to help you choose the solution that best matches your requirements.
Let us help you choose. OpenText can provide you with expert advice and guidance regarding your solutions. They will take the time to understand your current environment, requirements, and needs. You can also reach out to any one of the extensive network of partners that sell Open Text products to help you choose the right solution.
About OpenText
OpenText provides Enterprise Information Management software that enables companies of all sizes and industries to manage, secure and leverage their unstructured business information, either in their data center or in the cloud. Over 50,000 companies already use OpenText solutions to unleash the power of their information. To learn more about OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX; TSX: OTC), please
visit www.opentext.com.
