OpenText Fax & Document Distribution Group

Are YOU on Google+? In case you haven’t seen it, Google has a new online property that’s taking the world by storm. Is it a Twitter killer? A Facebook Killer? I don’t know, perhaps its’s too early to tell, but it certainly has a lot to offer.

About a week ago, they opened Google+ to businesses, whereas before that it was just for real human beings with real names. Businesses can have pages just like on Facebook. The pages are a bit different than the Facebook variety, but all of it is so new, what I say here today may change tomorrow. All that I can say for certain is that if you are not there yet, you should be. And now that everyone can join without an invite, there is just no excuse to not join in.

The Fax & Document Distribution Group has a page on Google+ now. When you get onto plus.google.com, do a search for FDDG (the full name is OpenText FDDG Videos and Training). Or just click on this link to go right there. Then add us to one of your Circles.

Whenever we post anything to our Google+ page, you will see the message in your main Google Plus page. Go look around for your friends as well and add them to your circles. Then you will see news from everyone. On the left you can click on individual circles to filter down the news. I have circles for co-workers at OpenText, for people in FDDG, and for those in my department at the company. I also have circles for friends from when I was at Microsoft, and at other companies, and photographers I find interesting. How you create your circles is really up to you. Then when you decide to share something, you can share it with only certain circles.

One of the most exciting things for us on Google+ is the idea of a Hangout. This is like a multi-way video conference. You can have a bunch of people (for now its up to 10) join in on a hangout. We might have a hangout to just talk about RightFax or Alchemy. Or we might interview someone, maybe a partner or someone interesting inside OpenText we though you might like to meet. Who knows?

Its a new platform and the first few times we try it, it might not work. But if you would like to join us for the first experiment, add our page to one of your circles. I’ll post the link to the hangout there. At a minimum, I will be on there (this is Matt Williams posting), and Joshua Butcher is planning to be there as well. If you join you can ask us a question about anything you like. I am thinking its going to be on Tuesday at a time thats not too inconvenient for both the US and Europe. But you’ll have to watch for the announcement on Google+ for the precise details. If you aren’t one of the first 10 to join, don’t worry. I plan on streaming the hangout on Livestream.com as well, but the details for that will be on Google. You’ll also be able to post questions to Twitter.

I look forward to seeing you add us to your circles. I’ll then add you to our circles so that I can see what you are up to as well (if you choose to share any news with us). And look out for the posting on Monday or Tuesday morning at the latest. And then we will see each other on the Hangout.

See you then!

Question #8: Where can I find good FoIP technical resources?

One of the most respected names and leading authorities on FoIP is Cisco’s David Hanes. These links provide neutral information on FoIP:

• Implementing Fax over IP
• The Emergence of T.38 as the De Fact Standard for FoIP
• Facebook Forum Summary – Fax Over IP (FoIP) Basics, Design and Best Practices 

Question #9: Who is the Market Leader in FoIP?

We don’t mean to toot our own horn, but OpenText is the world leader of FoIP as well as traditional fax servers (source: Davidson Consulting).   Frost and Sullivan, in their November 2010 Enterprise Fax Market Report, announced that OpenText is the fax server market share leader by almost double its nearest competitor.

OpenText RightFax has been successfully deployed across multiple IP networks and SIP trunks. RightFax 10 (released in June of 2011), has many feature enhancements which will assist you with your FoIP deployments. RightFax is also much more than fax. Embedded as part of RightFax is a secure document delivery solution called SecureDocs that allows you to send and track almost any file type securely.

Question #9 and 1/2: Where can I go to discuss FoIP with the experts?

Don’t miss your chance to hear from two of the industry’s leading experts on FoIP: David Hanes; Gonzalo Salgueiro from Cisco – two guys who literally wrote the book on FoIP. Join David and Gonzalo on November 10^th for an educational webinar that will Explore the Roadmap of SIP Trunking for FoIP. You can also view a recording of a recent joint webinar by OpenText and Dialogic Take the Mystery out of SIP Trunking.

Matthew Brine, General Manager
Fax and Document Distribution Group
OpenText Corporation

Joshua Butcher, Senior Technical Instructor
Fax and Document Distribution Group
OpenText Corporation

Question #6: What are fax gateways used for?

You can leverage all the benefits and cost advantages of FoIP without a VoIP infrastructure with a fax gateway. A fax gateway allows for scalability and flexibility of the current state by giving an organization the control of integrating or not, into current or future network infrastructure. This may be relevant if you are planning on upgrading your existing fax server or purchasing a fax server and our planning a VoIP implementation in the future. For more information about the value of leveraging a fax gateway see the whitepapers and datasheets at http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/fax-gateway-for-foip.aspx.

Question #7: What is SIP Trunking?

Many companies have started using or are considering a SIP trunk to connect their PBX to the global telephone system infrastructure (PSTN) via the Internet. Unfortunately, not all SIP trunk providers support faxing through their SIP trunks even though many claim they do. Before making a decision to go to a SIP trunk, you will want to be sure to determine exactly which FoIP protocol is supported so that you can decide whether the solution is best for your fax traffic demands. Theblogs  below will provide more information on SIP trunking and its impact on faxing:

• SIP Trunking: Part 1 – Introduction to SIP Trunking
• SIP Trunking: Part 2 – Faxing and SIP Trunking  
• SIP Trunking: Part 3 – Faxing and SIP Trunking, a more complex scenario discussion

The final installment will be posted Wednesday, November 9th. 

UPDATE November 9, 2011 – Now with a video!

As you may know, we have offered training for the RightFax Administrator course online for quite a while. For those of you in the United States, the class was offered at a sensible time, meaning during the day when you would normally be at work. Due to some technical issues we just can’t get around, that was the only course offered. For those potential students in Europe, the online option started somewhere between 4 and 6 pm. Since these are often 8 hour sessions, you are going to be on the phone till as late as 2 in the morning. Students in Hong Kong or Sydney would be online from close to midnight all the way to when their coworkers are just waking up.

In the last 6 years, I have done upwards of a half million miles of airtravel, so I know a thing or two about changing timezones, and that kind of stuff kills you. I have heard some people give figures of it taking upwards a day to adjust to each hour in a timezone shift. The more I travel, the more accurate I think that gets. So asking our customers to do this is a tough sell.

But now we are offering online courses in whatever timezone you are in. At first, it will be in my timezone. I live in Amsterdam, so the first course will be from 9AM my time (Thats CETor Central European Time) until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon. You lot in the US should not sign up for that course.

The first of these online courses in Europe is going to be held on November 22-24 and you can sign up at this link on the website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see the RF Fundamentals course with a location of Virtual Classroom – Netherlands. These courses, like all of our courses, are open to customers and partners alike.

We will be adding some of the other courses to this system in the next few months as well, but if you need to take one today, start adjusting your sleep patterns for that US-based session.

If you would like to see a Fundamentals class in your timezone and you are in Mumbai, or Kathmandu, or Hong Kong, or Sydney, or anywhere else, contact us (best to contact your usual OpenText representative) and we can work on delivering that for you. If you want to do a more customized class, focusing only on Integrations, or end users, or anything else, contact me so I can work on getting that setup for you. I am reachable at mattheww atopentext.com or on twitter at technovangelist.

Question #4: Are all FoIP Methods Acceptable to use?

Many fax service providers use SMTP (T.37 store-and-forward) as the transport layer for sending and receiving faxes from the fax service to the fax service user.T.37 faxing, even though it is over the Internet, is not the best choice for fax traffic that demand real-time response. According to the technology analyst group Gartner, a fax service may not be suitable if fax traffic is mission critical, time sensitive or contains confidential material due to issues associated with SMTP and service provider security.

Question #5: Can FoIP actually reduce costs?

Choosing a FoIP implementation versus a traditional TDM fax server implementation can reduce costs (including lower energy usage), improve IT efficiency and reduce downtime by consolidating PSTN resources as well as being able to be implemented in virtualized environments. Learn more about the many benefits of FoIP by reading this FoIP whitepaper or visiting http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/fax-over-ip.aspx.

 Part 4 to come on Monday, November 7th.