OpenText Fax & Document Distribution Group

A couple days ago I asked for your ideas about how to figure out which fax image corresponds to a fax. I am sure you all had an idea about this but were just waiting for me to post the first answer. So here it is.

One of the easiest ways to figure out which image belongs to a fax is built in to the FaxUtil client. Just press the keyboard shortcut Alt-F10 (Press and hold the Alt key on your keyboard, then press the F10 function key at the top of the keyboard). I’ve just pressed Alt-F10 for one of my faxes in FaxUtil and this is the dialog I get:

As you can see, there is a lot of information in this dialog. In fact, it’s a key dialog used in the troubleshooting of any fax server issues. Right in the middle of this screen shot is the property Fax Filename. The value is 0000004A. Although that sounds pretty cryptic, check out the Image directory where ever you installed RightFax to. This is probably one of the following two directories:

c:\Program Files\RightFax\Image

c:\Program Files (x86)\RightFax\Image)

Here is my Image directory. There you can see 3 files with a 0000004A filename, but with three different extensions: .301, .302, and .303. The .301 file is the first page of the fax body. .302, .303, etc are each page after that.

Can we tell anything from this information about whether this is an incoming or outgoing fax? Yes. we can. The fax file name starts with a number rather than a letter pair. That tells us it is an outgoing fax. Perhaps I’ll go into that topic a bit more in a future post.

But there are a few other ways to figure out which image corresponds to a fax. Can you think of one of those way? Leave a comment here on the blog. I’ll post another answer on Monday and hopefully before then you will have posted your answer as well.

These are some of the topics that we cover in our in-depth RightFax courses, held both in a classroom and online. Join us for one and become a RightFax Expert! For information on our courses, visit the FaxSolutions Learning Services web page.

I have posted the second part of the answer as well.

One of the questions that sometimes comes up in my RightFax classes is in regards to figuring out which faxes are in the images directory. There are a lot of related questions. “I have a fax in FaxUtil, where is the image file?” or “I have an image file, which fax does it correspond to?” or “who are most of these faxes for?” or “when did these faxes come in?”. There are probably a lot more questions that could be asked about the same topic.

So my question is how do you come up with that answer? In the coming days, I’ll post a few of the answers that I know about, but I hope you come up with a few I hadn’t thought of. All of my answers will only use software included on the installation media, but if you have a custom app you have built, tell us about it here.

Here is my first answer, but don’t let that stop you from posting your own answers.

1. Answer #1: A Built-in Keyboard Shortcut
2. Answer #2: From the Command Line

Just before the Global Fax Summit, I drove over to Amstelveen in the Netherlands where I live to visit with HP at their offices. My purpose was to collect footage of a person using an HP MFP to send a fax. What with GFS, getting sick, and other projects, I only just recently had a chance to edit it down to a nice video. So here it is.

What you’ll see in this video is a simple scenario of walking up to the MFP, scanning in a document, and pressing send. Regardless of whether I have a single MFP or hundreds, configuration in RightFax is incredibly simple and the EDC Monitor allows the admin to watch the entire process of sending the fax.

When the user walks up to the MFP, they can be logged in automatically as a generic “WALKUP” user, enter in their credentials using the number pad or touchscreen, or use the SafeCom system which requires them to simply swipe their access card. SafeCom makes the process of sending a fax even easier than before. Its pretty cool.

Watch the video and let me know what you think of it here in the comments.

UPDATE: I posted a video about this topic here: http://faxsolutionsblog.opentext.com/2011/09/02/faxing-from-outlook-web-access-video-edition/

This afternoon a colleague asked if I had a working virtual machine with RightFax and the Exchange integration already installed. I did. It’s a new VM I am uploading to our new training-in-the-cloud vendor (more on that soon). He wanted some screenshots showing the process of sending a fax from Outlook Web Access. So I booted up the machines and logged in to OWA for the first time on that VM.

He told me to create an email and send a fax. And I had to pause for a few seconds. Even though I made those videos about addressing a fax, I forgot the proper addressing scheme to use to send an email as a fax. He could tell I was confused so walked me through the process: Open contacts, then add a new contact, and enter the fax number. Save. Now send an email to that contact with the fax number.

He obviously saw that I went from confused to very confused and highly doubtful. Well, thats not going to work (I continued the sentence in my head with the phrase “fool“). He offered to put a wager on whether this would work and while I was confident it would not, I had a feeling he knew something I did not.

I clicked send and flipped over to FaxUtil, getting ready to say, “I told you so”. The fact that I am writing this should probably clue you in to the fact that my expected outcome didn’t come true. The fax worked. It really worked. He told me I had to write a blog about it and let everyone know what a genius he is. I don’t know if I will go that far, but Jaap Jan Pepping does surprise me from time to time.

So why does this work? Well when you send a message and choose to use the fax number, OWA inserts a FAX: at the beginning of the fax number. Our Exchange Connector watches out for addresses that start with RFAX or FAX and forwards them to the RightFax Server. It makes total sense, but I was still amazed that it was so simple to send a fax, even from OWA.

Did you know this? Am I the only one who missed it? Well, I am still excited that this was so easy.

Although this blog is mostly a place for us to talk about RightFax and Alchemy, its also a way for you to learn more about the people who make up the Fax & Document Distribution Group at OpenText. Some of us total geeks (like me) and others are little bit closer to normal. But together we make up a company that is excited to bring you products that we think are insanely great.

Before the Global Fax Summit a few weeks ago, we had a global sales meeting to get the troops revved up for the new year and to celebrate the successes of the previous year. The winners of the awards for best sales in the different regions were given iPads along with the instruction to figure out how to do their job better with the tablet in mind.

Some of us are just starting to figure out what the tablet is good for, but I have had a good amount of time with the iPad already. When I bought the iPad1 I thought it would be a toy to play with for a few weeks then get tired of. It didn’t turn out that way and I now use the iPad2 every single day. Now my manager might be scared about that comment if it weren’t for the fact that 95% of the time I am using the iPad is for work.

I use it to gather my thoughts, brainstorm on new projects, figure out my day’s task, read documentation and books, write my video scripts, and record my days activities. I haven’t used it as a replacement to the activities I did on my laptop, but to supplement my laptop with brand new activities I never did before. Its a truly amazing device that I don’t think I could do without anymore.

A few days ago, I responded to a post made by an OpenText colleague about the iPad apps he thought were most useful. The response post on my personal site shows the apps I use every day to get my job done. I limited myself to 13 that I use almost every day. Thats a small subset of the apps I have installed. I think at last count I had about 150 apps installed, but these 13 are the best of the best.

This post is for my colleagues and for all of you just getting started with the iPad. Its not a official OpenText recommendation, but just a list of what I personally find incredibly useful for my job. I figured that since there is increased interest internally in the Fax & Document Distribution Group with regards to the iPad, that warranted the cross-post from my personal site. So go ahead and read the recommendations. Then let me know if you have any recommendations of your own. These are my favorite 13 right now, but I am sure you have one that I haven’t discovered yet.

OmniFocus – I have had such a hard time finding a good way to manage tasks. It was easier to do before when I was able to rely on Outlook. Tasks in Outlook worked pretty well most of the time. Sure, they weren’t perfect, but they were good enough. And then I got this Mac. And I use the Mac all the time. Now Outlook 2011 syncs tasks, but due to the version of Exchange used here, I have to stick with Entourage 2008 which does not sync tasks. Thats really the only issue I have with Entourage. So I started looking around for a better tasks app. I looked at all sorts of stuff, even online alternatives. I finally settled on OmniFocus. It may seem costly at first, but it would be a bargain at double the cost. Having the app on my iPad and my iPhone as well makes having a single list of tasks so much easier than ever before. Now if you are thinking you don’t want to go that route because you are on a Blackberry, then let me tell you this. I didn’t buy OmniFocus because I had an iPhone, I bought the iPhone because OmniFocus was helping so much and it didn’t exist on Blackberry. The iPad version offers some features that aren’t available elsewhere, making the 3 apps work really well together.

iThoughtsHD – I thought a mind-mapping app would be worthless on the iPad. While mind-mapping is great on a Tablet PC, the lack of a serious pen interface would be limiting (and don’t even try to convince yourself that the styluses available provide a decent pen interface). After I spent a few minutes with iThoughtsHD, that opinion completely changed. Although its still better on a real tablet, the iPad interface for mind-mapping in iThoughtsHD is genius. I have been able to fill out so many ideas and lists using this app that have helped me on a wide range of projects at work.

Reeder – I have been a big fan of news readers for a very long time, having been a paying customer for NewsGator when they still had paid customers. Reeder is the best of the news readers I have seen on the iPad for going through my top feeds. It doesn’t present it in a newspaper or magazine format, but when I want that I use Zite which is also pretty amazing.

Instapaper – I often find stuff online that I want to read, but don’t have time for right now. So I save it for later with Instapaper. Having this app on the iPad means I have that list of reading material where ever I am.

Teleprompt+ - This is a pretty specialized app, but when I record my videos, its truly invaluable. I no longer have to edit out the sound of rustling paper when I read from my script. I keep meaning to build a teleprompter mount, but even without, this is still magically useful

Notesy – I started with SimpleNote, but have moved on to Notesy. I can’t remember why. It probably was something I heard Merlin Mann say. But I use Notesy, synched with DropBox for all my ongoing notes. I use the same app on the iPhone, plus Notational Velocity on the Mac, all looking at the same list of text files. I keep notes on things I said to people, books I read, gifts I bought, measurements of furniture I need to buy, future blog posts, translations of Dutch articles I am working on, instructions for apps, scripts I am working on, and more. Notesy handles it all without a problem.

LastPass Tab - I tried using 1Password to manage passwords, but since the app on iPad is so pathetically useless, I switched to LastPass. LastPass Tab is a tabbed browser for iPad that has access to my LastPass password store as well. I find I use it almost as much as Safari on the iPad

Squarespace – My personal blog is hosted at Squarespace. The Squarespace iPad app (and the iPhone app) means I have the quick ability to respond to comments, report spam, and see visitor stats.

WordPress – This blog is hosted by OpenText and uses WordPress. Everything I said for the Squarespace app applies to this WordPress app as well.

Tweet Library – I have used Twitter for a long time. Well, for a long time in Twitter years. Tweet Library makes it easier for me to maintain a library of my tweets going back to almost the beginning. Because occasionally I say something good, and 6 months later I need to find that. Tweet Library makes it easy to find those little gems.

Tweetings – Tweetings is the ultimate iPad Twitter app for me. I have tried plenty of others, but I keep returning to Tweetings. It does the basics, like my timeline, mentions, and DMs. I can create buttons for my favorite searches (right now they are FCPX, Blender 3D, and Timelapse). The best part is the window for creating a new tweet, with quick access to recent hashtags, url shrink utils, scheduled tweets, lists of contacts, and more.

Goodreader – This was the first PDF reader I found on the iPad and I see no reason to change. It syncs easily with specific subfolders on dropbox so I always have whats important and not the rest of the stuff I share in Dropbox. Goodreader has great features for annotations too.

DayOne – I have blogged now for a little over 15 years. It wasn’t called blogging then and the tools were terrible, but its still the same idea. Ever since the beginning, I blogged because I wanted to record something that I would have forgotten otherwise. If others want to read it, great, but thats not really my goal. I have always known that everything on the Internet is NOT private, no matter what you do to secure it, so sharing more…um….intimate things was always off limits for blogging. DayOne is kind of a private blog for me, stored on my machine. It syncs to my Mac and my iPhone so I can always record what I did that day, who I met, etc. Its a beautiful app I really enjoy working with.

So what do you think of those. Are you using them already? Is there another app you use every single day that I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments below.

Trick question: In FaxUtil, what does the status message: “In FCS Conversion” really mean??? Well the answer appears to be obvious. If you look inside the Program Files/RightFax directory, you’ll see a FCS directory. Inside that directory, we store all the Fax Cover Sheets. So it would make sense that In FCS Conversion means that the Fax Server is converting a cover sheet. It would make sense, but you would be wrong. In FCS Conversion actually means that we are converting the attachments for that fax. There is another status message: “In Conversion” that tells you that the fax cover sheets are being converted.

How about In Phone Expansion? Any idea what that status message means? Well the answer becomes a bit more obvious when you figure out what happens when a fax is sent. When you type in the fax number, name, and other info onto the Fax Information Dialog, you can enter in a group from your phonebook. At this point, the ‘fax’ is still a single object. That group could represent one person or 50 people.

One of the first things that RightFax does when you click Send is figure out who you are trying to send a fax to and split it out to however many faxes are needed. So Phone Expansion can probably best be thought of as In Phone BOOK Expansion. The system is looking in the Address Book for your account to figure out if it needs to expand the one fax to 5 or 500 actual faxes.

I think all of the other status messages are a bit more obvious, but these always confuse everyone. These are some of the things that you learn when you take the Fax Flow course where we teach you what really happens behind the scenes on the RightFax Server. If you are interested in learning more about RightFax and how it really works, join us for one of our classes.

Just go to faxsolutions.opentext.com, click the Support and Services menu item and choose Learning Services. Then click Courses, then RightFax. Now choose the actual course you want to take. Looks like we are calling the course RightFax Architecture these days. Also, I just noticed that the URL is far simpler now: http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/open-text-fax-server-rightfax-edition.aspx but I prefer telling people how to find it in case that URL changes.

By

Chris Myers, OpenText Regional Sales Director- Eastern Region

During my tenure at OpenText we have had a variety of ways to fax enable branch office settings.  Recently, I have seen customers really start to understand the concept that RightFax can help address fax costs across a wide variety of branch office settings.  Given the multiple ways RightFax and supporting technology can be deployed, it is no wonder that one of these options resonates with so many customers. 

The first scenario I see gaining traction is fax enabling an MFP at the branch office by adding the MFP Connector to the MFP device.  This allows the MFP to communicate with a centralized RightFax server.  This is a low cost, moderately-high functionality configuration.  One thing to be aware of is how the “print” jobs transferred over the network from the branch office MFP to a centralized RightFax server will affect bandwidth between sites. 

The second scenario getting attention, when traffic warrants it, is leveraging an existing branch office IP infrastructure and its data connection and converting the inbound faxes to t.38 packets and transferring those packets to a centralized RightFax server typically housed in the data center.  This scenario is more acceptable when the branch office has IT staff to maintain the gateway and the branch fax volume justifies the investment.  This configuration has minimal impact on the bandwidth requirement as the gateway converts the images to t.38 upon receipt. 

Another scenario, receiving a very receptive response from customers and prospects, is the idea of installing RightFax Branch Office Server.  The RightFax Branch Office Server gives a branch office its own scaled down RightFax server that works in conjunction with a larger, centralized RightFax server at HQ.  This is the preferred, and recommended, configuration for organizations that have branch offices with larger fax volumes and the IT staff to support this architecture. 

Having multiple options allows our channel partners to help customers and prospects maximize their usage of software to comply with the many technical and business requirements faced by organizations today.  For questions and additional information, email captaris.sales@opentext.com.

At the 2011 Open Text Global Fax Summit, I sat in on the Introduction to Hosted Fax Services and Leveraging Fax Technology thought Google, Microsoft, SAP, and FileNET session. The session, as you can see by the name, covered several topics but the focus was really on two new offerings now available with RightFax.

The Hosted services is a cloud based fax offering that allows customer to have a fax environment without having to dedicate the resources and rack space to manage it. Why is the Open Text hosted services model better than other solutions? Well, this is not your store-and-forward-mass-fax offerings where faxes from all clients sit on a common server to be sent out. With the Open Text model each customer has their own dedicated RightFax server environment that can operate as an on-premise RightFax server.  This means you can connect MFPs, Exchange, Various Integrations, and RightFax Clients and allows the Hosted customers a feature-rich private fax environment that is robust, secure, and has virtually no system maintenance. It is also offered in two flavors. You can move your current RightFax environment to the hosted solution or, if you are a new customer, you can “rent” the software in the hosted environment. The Hosted offering also has three service levels from Standard, Enterprise, to Premium with increasing SLAs for each. This offers another great benefit in having a solution that has a very high SLA for those customers where fax is considered mission critical.

The second offering the session covered was a new feature available in RightFax 10 that allows users of Microsoft Office365 and Google Apps to integrate with fax. For those of you that don’t know what Office365 and Google Apps are, they are cloud based office suites that include mail and applications for creating documents, spreadsheets, etc. So how does that work? RightFax 10 now offers a secure connection using SMTP/POP3 with SSL that allows both suites to connect to the RightFax server just as if everything was on-premise.

Why is this important? Because Microsoft is committing quite a bit of resources to grow the Office365 subscription service and Google now has 30 million clients or 3 million businesses subscribed,  there are quite a number of people that can now take advantage of this new feature. Also since they are RightFax then can maintain their company faxes for compliancy where needed.

I found the session very informative about both solutions as the speakers went into great detail on each subject. The hosted offering offers a new way for customers to manage, increase their SLA, or get started with a fax server environment. With Open Text’s eleven years of hosting enterprise applications you can defiantly sleep well at night knowing that the experts will be managing your fax environment.  Also, the many users of Office365 and Google Apps now have the industry leading  enterprise fax server at their finger tips with the new integration abilities of RightFax 10.

Hopefully you may be able to use one of these technologies in your business to help expand, manage, or start a new fax server environment. If any of you have had experience with these new offerings please post and let everyone know how it worked for you.

At this year’s OpenText Global Fax Summit, Senior Product Manager Geoff Anderson and Senior Director of R&D, Treber Rebert, presented “The OpenText Fax Solutions Roadmap” to a room packed full of customers, partners and OTFDDG employees.  They focused on the future without forgetting the past: not only have we improved our long standing flagship product (23 releases in 25 years) but, perhaps for the first time in our history, are well on the way to paving the road to providing new products and new features only one month after a major release.  Despite releasing RightFax 10 a little over a month ago we already have an SR near ready to be released and new features able to be demonstrated. 

A few key highlight are: support for IE 9 (due out in RF 10 SR1 in the coming days), a cleanup of the RF Certified Delivery web UI, demonstration of image enhancement features (using the world class OCR technology included in RightFax from the Open Text Document Capture group) along with a new hierarchical file structure for image storage. 

The highlight of the product demonstration was a new cutting edge transfer technology that will allow registered RightFax customers to transfer files at 10 to 100 times their current faxing speed.  Imagine a world where secure traceable file transfer is as ubiquitous and easy to use as current day fax—that world is not far off.  Though there was clapping and positive comments for a variety of the features that Geoff presented it was this feature, code named ORCA, that really brought down the house and generated question after question.  Proof that the OpenText Fax and Document Distribution group continues to bring “Fax Goodness” to our customers current and future. 

 For more information on RightFax 10 visit the OpenText Fax and Document Distribution web site at: http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/rightfax-10-whats-new.aspx