Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME

CHALLENGES

Due to an increasing number of issues that were affecting the daily work flow as a result of a high volume of mandatory paperwork which consisted of accreditation forms, disclosures and signed contracts processed on a daily basis, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME realized that a fax server solution was not a cost-effective or practical investment.

Business continuity was a major concern when utilizing fax machines. The length of time involved in manually printing, scanning and faxing documents decreased productivity by reducing the amount of time employees spent on generating new business or servicing existing customers. Manual processes also involved a high error rate as many documents would require multiple attempts at faxing. Moreover, fax machines also created a security concern because confidential faxes were sometimes left out in the open or misplaced. If the recipient was out of the office, delays in processing could occur.

In addition, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME needed a reliable centralized fax infrastructure that would provide them with high availability and pandemic planning capabilities which are not available with fax machines. "The majority of our business requires documents to be faxed. If for some reason we were not able to go into the office to work, fax machines would not allow the option of telecommuting, so there would be no way to work from outside of the office," stated Lorraine Spencer, IT Manager at John Hopkins University School of Medicine CME.

SOLUTION

After evaluating several solutions, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME chose Concord Fax Online, a hosted IP fax, over a fax machine, namely due to its ease of deployment, cost, reliability, network capabilities and easy usability. IP fax was also a logical solution due to speed of implementation, real-time failover for both inbound and outbound communications and fully-secured data centers that are encrypted, guaranteeing secure communications which meet the most stringent requirements.

RESULTS

IP fax enables employees to securely process accreditation forms, contracts and disclosures and keeps a paper trail for all processing – important given the ever increasing regulations of the industry. Concord Fax Online features a fully redundant IP fax platform that supports multiple secure methods for customers to connect. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME utilizes Concord's enforced TLS feature which are vital assets to the company's business need for security.

In addition, Concord Fax Online features Fax to Email (F2E) and Email to Fax (E2F) where you receive faxes by simply attaching one or multiple files to an email message. When the email is sent to the Concord network, the attachments are processed and transformed into a format suitable for delivery to fax machines. The fax is then delivered to its destination fax machine anywhere in the world. The fax transmission is completed within moments. Delivery status is returned to the sender in the form of an email message. These features provide Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME employees with the added security benefit of having all faxes safely stored and eliminate the risk of misplacing important documents with confidential information.

Concord Fax Online also proved to be more cost effective for Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME as it drastically decreased printing and supplies costs. "Concord Fax Online solutions is saving us 60% over our previous process. I am very happy with the service they provide. From an IT perspective, it's really easy to support," stated Spencer. Employees are more productive, service their clients faster and have the electronic tools at their fingertips to securely process mandatory paperwork for accreditation, contracts and disclosures.

Using an IP Fax has enabled corporations to operate, collaborate, and transfer data, efficiently and inexpensively on a global basis. Concord Fax Online provides a reliable centralized IT infrastructure with high availability and pandemic planning capabilities to maintain business continuity. The integration of Concord Fax Online enables Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME employees to communicate more efficiently by sharing and exchanging files in a secure, real-time environment which helps in speeding up the decision making process.

Case Study: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine CME [PDF]

People's Trust Homeowners Insurance

CHALLENGES

As a rapidly growing company, People's Trust Homeowners Insurance has had its share of challenges. To offer its customers superior service, People's Trust made a strategic decision that all company representatives would become employees, versus outsourced freelance agents, as is frequently the case in the industry. This involved creating -- in rapid turnaround time -- a call center with the technological capabilities to support their needs. At the time, the call center was equipped with All-in-One workstations where agents could scan, fax and copy. These workstations rapidly became money pits – in more ways than one. Employees would print, fax and then throw away all work documents as their workspaces could not handle the paper volume. Beside the printing and supplies costs, productivity and security were the primary concerns. The time involved in manually printing, scanning and faxing were alarming. This was time that could be employed in generating new business or servicing existing customers. Manual processes also involved a high error rate as many documents not faxed or faxed to the wrong customers. Moreover, it also created a security concern because confidential faxes were left out in the open, errors were commonplace and no paper trail or confirmations were left behind.

SOLUTION

As People's Trust evaluated their options, IP fax was chosen over a fax server solution because of ease of deployment, cost and reliability. IP fax was also a logical solution due to speed of implementation. This proved to be crucial as People's Trust had a short window for all employees to be fully operational. After a careful selection of IP fax vendors, Concord was chosen for reliability, network capabilities and cost. Concord was also able to meet People's Trust stringent timeline for implementation. User management features such as the Account Administration Center (AAC), where new users can be created and assigned numbers online. Bulk user creation, via uploading user lists and creating accounts, is another key feature of the AAC.

Today, all sixty People's Trust agents are equipped with outgoing fax numbers to send quotes and claim forms to customers. Key Concord features such as template-based notifications and confirmations of fax delivery are vital assets to the company's business.

RESULTS

IP fax enables agents to follow up on quotes, generate new sales and keep a paper trail for all claims processing – important given the ever increasing regulations of the industry. Agents are more productive, service their clients faster and have the electronic tools at their fingertips to generate more sales.

Other AAC capabilities such as managing policies (making cover pages optional or mandatory, instituting standard cover pages, selecting documents formats – TIFF vs. PDF, and selecting types of fax notifications) have helped both user s and management become more productive. The company envisions using IP fax as long as faxes are a part of business.

Case Study: People's Trust Homeowners Insurance [PDF]

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

CHALLENGES

Concord Technologies provides hosted fax solutions for businesses of every size. The company offers customers the benefits of feature-rich fax communications without the cost, effort, and maintenance issues associated with conventional fax systems and alternative fax technologies.

"We provide a level of service that is not physically possible for a regular company to achieve with in-house fax equipment," says Ralph Musgrove, Executive Vice President of Market Development at Concord. "Our service is completely in the cloud, so our customers have the benefit of virtually unlimited capacity. Plus, our fax network is geographically independent, so if there is a catastrophic event in one region, a different Concord data center takes over and the service can continue uninterrupted." The company also provides communications safeguards that meet the most stringent corporate and industry standards for security.

A Microsoft® Certified Partner, Concord has used Microsoft Exchange Server technologies to create hosted, integrated fax solutions since 2003. The company is committed to providing the best solutions for its customers and staying competitive. To do this, Concord works closely with Microsoft for new software that can enhance or expand its line of Concord Fax Online solution offerings and help customers increase efficiencies in fax communications.

SOLUTION

The company worked with Microsoft to integrate Exchange Server 2010 with the Concord Fax Online platform and create a new solution—Concord Fax Online for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. When a call is routed to Exchange Server 2010, it detects whether the transmission is a voice call or fax call. If it is a voice call, Exchange Server 2010 routes the voice mail to the recipient's inbox using its Unified Messaging feature. If it is a fax call, Exchange Server 2010 routes the call over an IP network to a Concord Fax Online data center. The Concord data center then converts the call into a fax document and sends it back through Exchange Server 2010 as an e-mail attachment to the intended recipient.

The company introduced the new solution at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in July 2009. The integration provides a full set of features for both sending and receiving faxes through Exchange Server 2010, and it complies with the requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The solution supports faxing through media gateways or IP phone systems at the customer premises and directly through fax numbers on the Concord global fax network. It also supports routing calls to Exchange Server 2010 through Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 using the G.711 standard. Concord Fax Online works with e-mail clients including the Microsoft Outlook® 2010, Microsoft Outlook Web App, and Microsoft Outlook Mobile 2010 messaging and collaboration clients.

RESULTS

By integrating Concord Fax Online with Exchange Server 2010, Concord was able to create an online fax solution that offers customers greater cost savings, increased uptime, and easier usability.

Greater cost savings. Musgrove anticipates that Concord Fax Online for Exchange Server 2010 will provide significant cost savings for customers that are migrating from Exchange Server 2007. "According to input from customers and our experience, cost savings could be an average of 15–25 percent with the new solution and could be significantly more if fax machines are eliminated," he says. Customers will have the advantage of online faxing without the cost of third-party software or the equipment to run it. They won't need maintenance agreements either, which also will save money. Concord runs and operates the entire system. Customers don't have to worry about upgrade costs, IT maintenance, or service contracts.

Increased uptime. Another key advantage of the new Concord solution, Musgrove notes, is less downtime. "Fax tends to be a mission-critical technology for companies," he says. "An exciting improvement in Exchange Server 2010 is the focus on high availability." Exchange Server 2010 offers new features, such as database availability groups, that make it easier to extend data replication between data centers to achieve automatic failover. So with Concord Fax Online for Exchange Server 2010, customers gain the benefit of a combined solution that increases uptime. "Concord Fax Online for Exchange Server 2010 nicely ties together a high-availability unified messaging system with a high-availability online fax solution," says Musgrove.

Easier usability. The integration with Exchange Server 2010 allows Concord to offer customers a feature set that the company doesn't provide with any other e-mail server. Exchange Server 2010 includes a new archiving feature that makes it possible for users to archive e-mail messages, including faxes, on the e-mail server for corporate and legal compliance. Additionally, with Exchange Server 2010, Concord is able to adapt dynamically to whatever equipment a customer is using, select the optimal settings, and route in a way that delivers faxes as reliably and efficiently as possible.

Another advantage of Concord Fax Online for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is that Concord customers can use the solution to share a phone number or extension for voice mail and for the fax feature. "With other solutions, customers have fax numbers and voice numbers," says Musgrove. "Now they can have a single number that can be used for both voice and fax at the same time."

Case Study: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 [PDF]

Gristedes Supermarket

CHALLENGES

Gristedes Supermarkets is a union organization that utilized fax machines and a phone system integrated with faxing capabilities for daily correspondence with their 35 stores, due to legal compliance requirements. After upgrading their phone system, Gristedes faced the challenge of unifying the fax infrastructure, since their new IP based phone system no longer supported analog fax. As a result, Gristedes realized that a cohesive fax solution that was cost effective and efficient would better fit their business needs, as it would enhance daily operations and reduce operating costs.

SOLUTION

Gristedes evaluated five fax solutions including on-premises fax server hardware to find a reliable fax solution with a centralized infrastructure. Concord Fax Online, an IP fax service, was chosen based on their ease of deployment, cost-effectiveness, reliability, network capabilities and functionality.

Concord Fax Online was a logical choice due to speed of implementation and real-time failover for both inbound and outbound communication, as well as high availability. "We've come to depend on things like email, internet, faxing and telephony and when it's a multi-billion dollar business they have to be up and running," stated Christopher McCrae, Chief Information Officer at Gristedes Supermarkets.

RESULTS

Gristedes integrated Concord Fax Online with their email system and received a comprehensive solution which included operational support of fax without any capital investment. Gristedes also received responsive customer service by a knowledgeable support staff that is always ready to help when needed.

Presently, Gristedes utilizes Concord Fax Online's Fax to Email (F2E) and Email to Fax (E2F) features. When the email is sent to the Concord network, the attachments are processed and transformed into a format suitable for delivery to fax machines. The fax is then delivered to its destination fax machine anywhere in the world and the delivery status is returned to the sender in the form of an email message.

With the Concord Fax Online integration Gristedes is able to operate, collaborate, and transfer data, efficiently and inexpensively with their stores. "Concord Fax Online has done a good job with making their service easy, affordable and very intuitive. IT now email employees their fax numbers with directions on how to use the service without any type of training," stated McCrae.

Case Study: Gristedes Supermarket [PDF]

Perez Trading Company

CHALLENGES

For 10 years Perez Trading has been using a fax server for their day to day communication with clients who exclusively use faxing for order confirmations, shipping manifests and quotes. During this period, Perez Trading faced an increasing number of issues that came along with their fax server vendor.

Business was interrupted when their fax server went down and their vendor was unable to respond to the situation in a timely manner. They experienced poor customer service with no support and maintenance required a lengthy amount of time which continued to affect the daily work flow.

In addition, the cost for maintenance doubled within the past year and recovery planning capabilities for natural or man-made disasters such as hurricanes, floods and fires were not available with their fax server. Consequently, Perez Trading came to the conclusion that a fax server solution was not cost-effective or efficient for their business needs.

SOLUTION

Faced with the challenge of a failed fax server and no support from their fax server vendor, Perez Trading had to work fast at resolving this issue. They evaluated several options during the decision-making process.

Concord Fax Online, an IP fax service, was chosen based on its ease of deployment, cost effectiveness, reliability, network capabilities and functionality. Perez Trading contacted Concord Fax Online within hours of their system going down and received a comprehensive solution which included operational support of fax without any capital investment and their system was up and running instantly.

Concord's IP fax solution was a logical choice due to speed of implementation and real-time failover for both inbound and outbound communications. Concord Fax Online offered Perez Trading timely response and unmatched customer service support that was consistent, accessible and with high availability that would enhance daily operations and lower operational costs.

RESULTS

Concord Fax Online provides Perez Trading unmatched customer service support with a knowledgeable support staff to resolve any technical support issues. Concord Fax Online also manages an online support library that provides resources for reference and self-help information. "It's been a pleasure working with Concord Fax Online. They are quite honestly the best thing I've ever seen, as far as fax solutions. Their support is very personable and there have been no implementation problems," stated Jim Schwantes, IT Manager at Perez Trading.

Furthermore, Concord Fax Online features Fax to Email (F2E) and Email to Fax (E2F) where you receive faxes by simply attaching one or multiple files to an email message. When the email is sent to the Concord network, the attachments are processed and transformed into a format suitable for delivery to fax machines. The fax is then delivered to its destination fax machine anywhere in the world and the delivery status is returned to the sender in the form of an email message. These features provide Perez Trading employees and clients with the added security benefit of having all faxes such as order confirmations, shipping manifests and quotes safely stored while keeping a paper trail for all processing.

Perez Trading received a comprehensive, reliable solution that eliminated the expenses associated with software and maintenance which allowed them to efficiently and inexpensively operate, collaborate, and transfer data with their vendors.

Case Study: Perez Trading Company [PDF]

APS Workflow

CHALLENGES

APS Workflow utilized a traditional fax service for sending and receiving medical requests and medical records on a day to day basis. Progressively, they became displeased with the occasional service interruptions caused by outages with their previous fax service provider which also directly affected their clients. APS Workflow realized their dependency on a fax service that utilized conventional, non-redundant technology was not cost-effective and failed to meet their business needs.

SOLUTION

Charged with the challenge of finding a fax solution to better fit their business needs, APS Workflow was excited to discover Concord Fax Online, an IP fax service based on state of the art technology providing exceptional high-availability. APS Workflow felt a hosted fax solution was the most efficient way to meet their needs and Concord Fax Online was chosen based on ease of deployment, cost-effectiveness, reliability, network capabilities and functionality. "Our experience with Concord Fax Online is better than any other fax service provider we've worked with in the past. We've had no outages and they provide a cost-effective, quality service." stated Tom Neveau, Vice President of Information Technology.

RESULTS

By integrating Concord Fax Online, APS Workflow received a comprehensive solution which included operational support of fax without any capital investment, along with revolutionary network architecture which provides high-availability through real-time failover for both inbound and outbound communications, which means no more of the outages APS Workflow experienced with their previous provider.

Additionally, Concord Fax Online provided APS Workflow with Service Utilities that allow them to manage and route their incoming fax communications based on pre-configured rules. Concord's FaxAssist is integrated with a program created by APS Workflow, which pulls Meta data from the faxes received and the images are saved in a location where a review program can manage the information. APS Workflow also utilizes Concord's Web Services which integrate faxing within their internal applications and enables high-volume, low-cost and real-time electronic delivery of application-generated documents.

HIPPA compliance is important to any company in the medical field. Since Concord supports both SSL encryption and VPNs, organizations with HIPAA compliant email systems, such as APS Workflow, instantly gain significant advantages with Concord Internet Fax Services, enabling them to communicate more efficiently and securely in a cost-effective manner.

Case Study: APS Workflow [PDF]

Princess House

CHALLENGES

Princess House has been using a fax server for their day to day communication with consultants who exclusively use faxing for processing order forms. As the business grew, Princess House decided that they needed to update their fax server to keep up with the workload, along with a system to better track receipt of the order forms. Princess House had specific needs, such as a header for all incoming faxes to reflect the date and time they were received at the Princess House headquarters, since many offers are only valid for very limited times. In addition to flexibility, Princess House needed a fax solution that provided high availability and high capacity for maintaining the workflow, mainly because the majority of their faxes are received during very short periods of time at the end of promotional periods, often exceeding 4000-5000 order forms.

After looking into upgrading their fax server, Princess House realized the update would be costly due to the cost of additional hardware and software as well as software maintenance and communication infrastructure such as two T1s. Consequently, Princess House came to the conclusion that a fax server was not cost-effective and lacked the flexibility needed to meet the demands of their growing business.

SOLUTION

Princess House evaluated several options during the decision making process. Concord Fax Online, an internet fax service, was chosen based on the ease of deployment, cost-effectiveness, reliability, network capabilities and functionality. Concord's hosted fax solution was a logical choice due to speedy implementation and real-time failover for both inbound and outbound communication, as well as virtually unlimited fax capacity. This capability is critical to Princess House, as they are able to efficiently manage 4000-5000 faxes that come in on the last day of the period. Concord provided a comprehensive solution which included operational support of fax without any capital investment along with an auto printing feature through Concord's FaxAssist service utility, which met Princess House's business need of tracking receipt of their order forms by creating a header for all incoming faxes to reflect the date and time they were received at Princess House.

RESULTS

Concord Fax Online provides Princess House with a comprehensive, reliable solution that eliminated the expenses associated with owning and operating a fax server. Of the many features available in Concord fax Online, Princess House mainly utilizes Fax to Email (F2E) and Email to Fax (E2F). When the email is sent to the Concord network, the attachments are processed and transformed into a format suitable for delivery to fax machines. The fax is then delivered to its destination fax machine anywhere in the world and the delivery status is returned to the sender in the form of an email message.

For incoming faxes, Princess House also utilizes Concord's FaxAssist feature which manages and routes selected incoming fax communications. Concord enhanced FaxAssist to include a fax header for all incoming faxes to reflect the time they were received at Princess House headquarters, so orders can be processed based on met deadlines. The auto printing feature provided by Concord's FaxAssist was an important component for maintaining the workflow along with tracking receipt of the faxes. These features allow Princess House to efficiently collaborate with their consultants in a timely and cost-effective manner. "Concord Fax Online eliminated the costs associated with an in-house solution and they were also able to make a specialized adjustment that catered to our business needs. Their system was easy to deploy and it was up and running instantly," stated Glenys Botelho, Desktop Support Analyst at Princess House.

Case Study: Princess House [PDF]