OpenText Fax & Document Distribution Group

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.

As a fax-nerd, I am pretty excited about our September 22nd webinar: Take the Mystery out of SIP Trunking. From a fax perspective and at its most basic definition, SIP trunking simply means to send a fax from one IP device to another without having to go through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

This is where the Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSP) comes to the rescue. Ultimately, there are two important “take-aways” from this upcoming session that I think are worth noting:

First, make sure you are using a Session Border Controller.

You have two methods of working with SIP Trunking: a) piggy-back on your existing internet connection and risking the performance and security issues that come with that or b) get a Session Border Controller (SBC) which will be used to manage the connection between your site and the ITSP. The choice of using a SBC should seem obvious if you are in the enterprise fax world.

Second, know your FoIP protocol choices.

In the world of Fax over IP (FoIP), there are really only two options to consider: T.38 Fax Relay (where the IP gateway agrees to “relay” the fax tones sent to/from the fax server) or Fax Pass-through (where the IP Gateway simply “passes” the fax tone samples sent to/from the fax server).  This makes T.38 Fax Relay the better choice as you do not have to encapsulate every little fax squeak and noise and then over the network between the OpenText RightFax server and the ITSP.  It is the fax tone samples that are the most sensitive to network problems and if lost or out of sync, you are most likely going to get some fax transmission errors. This means if you are using Fax Pass-through instead of T.38 Fax Relay, you may have some issues with SIP Trunking (in particular if you do not use a SBC).

If you are interested in learning more, I encourage you to register for Take the Mystery Out of SIP Trunking on September 22 at 10AM PDT. 

If you have any experiences with SIP trunk faxing, I would love to hear them. You can tweet me @JoshuaTeaches or via email at jbutcher@opentext.com

Image provided by amanderson2

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.

OpenText RightFax 10 Adds Enhanced Support for Cloud-based Office Systems

Major Release Marks 25^th Anniversary of OpenText’s Fax Server Software, Key Analyst Report Names OpenText the Industry Leader in Fax over IP

Waterloo, ON. – June 8, 2011 – OpenText™ (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC) today announced that its industry-leading fax server software now includes enhanced security for sending and receiving  faxes from cloud-based office systems including Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps with the release of OpenText RightFax 10.

As companies of all sizes look to cloud-based office application suites such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps, the ability to securely send and receive faxes through these services will be critical, while also retaining integration with other parts of the organization. Adding to its cloud support, RightFax Web Access is now included with all systems, allowing users to access their RightFax server from a Web browser.

RightFax 10 marks the kick-off of the 25^th anniversary year for RightFax and represents a significant milestone in the product’s history.  In addition to enhanced support for cloud-based office systems, the new release makes it easier, faster and more secure for customers to integrate faxing into their business processes and workflows with new features such as barcode routing, searchable PDF delivery and enhanced Microsoft Outlook 2010 and Lotus Notes 8.5 integration. It also adds optional accessibility support that meets mandates under the Americans with Disabilities Act

OpenText is the leading overall fax server supplier and the leading supplier in the fast-growing fax over IP (FoIP) market, according to a recently released report called Fax over IP Server Markets: 2010-2015 authored by Davidson Consulting, an independent fax industry analyst firm. OpenText achieved the leading position in the FoIP segment by virtue of its 46-percent revenue growth in the past year and captured 31 percent of the market.

Read the complete press release.

For more information visit: http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/rightfax-10-whats-new.aspx or www.rightfax.com.

The recession has hit countries and organizations across the globe for some time now. Each organization has created their own paths and strategies in dealing with these challenging times in an effort to sustain and grow their business; as well as maintain and motivate their employees.

In the 14^th Annual Global CEO survey report published by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Dennis M Nally, Chairman of Pricewaterhouse Coopers International, opened his foreword with the phrase “Confidence is back”. The report talked about how CEOs have applied cost discipline and patient optimism, setting their targets on immediate growth in recovering regions. CEOs in the survey also identified three focal points to drive change internationally: innovation, talent and a shared agenda with the government (you may wish to read more about this report here: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/download.jhtml).

So let’s bring this a little closer to home. What does this mean for us in the fax solutions marketplace? Frost & Sullivan estimates that, in 2010, the enterprise fax marketplace represents approximately $372m in revenues and is expected to grow to $591m globally by 2017. Which begs the question, what would our 3 focal points be to growing our business?

Here’s my take :

1. 1. Innovation

The Oxford Dictionary defines innovation as “a new method, idea, product”. While a new product could and would draw attention, it would also take considerable effort and time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we shouldn’t focus on bringing out new products; that should be part of a longer-term roadmap and strategy. But innovation could also mean evolving our existing product range and making it work more efficiently, addressing different aspects of business needs or introducing adjustments to cater to a new market segment.

1. 2. Marketing the products

Aligned with innovation is also how we sell and market the product. This needs to remain in synch with how customers buy. Taking into account cultural and regional nuances will help to put a fresh perspective on how the product and its technologies can help customers address their needs differently. Alternatively, offering prospective customers new ways of capitalizing a tried and proven technology is also important. Also, leveraging social media platforms to encourage ‘getting to know the product through end users’ could translate into a more compelling dialogue with a potential customer. Forming new alliances/partnerships with vendors supporting cloud computing could open new business opportunities is important too.

1. 3. Shared agenda with our customers

The role of selling has changed over time and has impacted the wealth and depth of information easily available online today. Some prospective customers may already have sufficient knowledge of the product and competitive alternatives prior to meeting with you. When we share a common agenda with our customers, we connect ourselves to their environment and needs. This means we can take their knowledge of our product and put it in perspective by addressing it to their requirements. Customers are buying what they need not what we can or want to sell them.

What would your 3 focal points be?

As you read through this blog, you’ll notice that some of us have pictures listed next to our bios. Some of our customers and partners even have their photos show up next to their comments. Ever wonder how that happens? No, they didn’t submit a photo for us to upload.

It’s actually done completely automatically. There was nothing I had to have done on the server for my picture to show up here. I just registered on a site called Gravatar.com using the same email address that I use right here. Then upload a photo (or a few) to Gravatar. Tell Gravatar which photo to use for each of your email addresses, and thats it.

Here is the Gravatar website showing my email addresses. For both my work address and my personal address I chose to use the photo of me in front of the OpenText logo. When I changed it on the site, it was automatically changed on every blog that I comment to. And that change happened almost instantaneously. So whether I post to Faxsolutionsblog or anywhere else on the Internets, my face follows me right away.

Sign up on Gravatar so that I can see your picture too!

If you have any comments for me or suggestions for other blog topics, leave them for me here in the comments below. Or contact me on Twitter where I go by the name technovangelist

By Jim Wieser, Senior Product Manager

Today we have announced Open Text Fax Appliance A10x, a new family of Fax Appliances designed to simplify network fax deployment and use, while providing a cost effective alternative to traditional MFP fax kits and recurring monthly charges with internet fax service providers.

Designed as a simple to deploy, maintain, and use network appliance, the new OpenText Fax Appliance addresses the needs of small businesses and departments with limited IT resources and basic faxing requirements. OpenText is the only vendor offering a complete range of fax solutions including appliances, servers, and fax gateways.

The new Fax Appliance A10x is a true network appliance. The Fax Appliance provides simplified installation and setup and incorporates all the features and capabilities you need in an affordable turnkey fax solution. Users can easily send and receive faxes from the desktop, multi-function products (MFPs), and email.

Integration of Fax Appliance with multi-function products (MFPs) allows organizations to consolidate network faxing services. MFP integration is included in all Fax Appliance models, allowing users to easily fax paper documents using an MFP or network scanner equipped with scan-to-email functionality.

Our goal from the start has been to develop a product for the global market. To that end, we support 14 languages in both user and administrator modes. Even the system audit trail is translated into 14 languages.

Click to read the complete announcement.

For more information, visit the Fax Appliance website at www.fax-appliance.com

To contact sales, please email captaris.sales@opentext.com or call 1-800-304-2727

By John Harrison, Senior Director, Business Development

Today we have announced our newest offering, Open Text Hosted Fax Services, which I am thrilled to be able to share with you. Open Text Hosted Fax Services enables organizations to simplify and meet business objectives with a rich, scalable, and fully integrated hosted Fax Server system managed by the experts at Open Text.

Open Text Hosted Fax Services extends the scope of our current Fax Server, RightFax Edition and includes a comprehensive enterprise-class service where Open Text hosts, manages and administers dedicated Fax Server environments on behalf of each of our customers.

No longer do enterprise organizations need to sacrifice flexibility, user experience or data security when outsourcing the management of their fax infrastructure. With dedicated servers for each of our customers, our new offering allows customers to take advantage of our industry leading Open Text Fax Server, Right Fax Edition. Our Hosted Fax Services enable customers to lower their total cost of ownership while maintaining the utmost levels of security and confidentiality for their mission critical data, without all of the upfront costs and maintenance.

Our goal from the start has been to develop an integrated product offering that provides the reliability, security, flexibility and trust that our enterprise customers have come to expect from Open Text. Enterprises across industries, including healthcare, financial services and government, will find our Hosted Fax Services to rapidly scale to any size while providing a fully integrated solution equivalent to traditional premises-based Fax Server systems.

Click here to read the complete announcement.

For more information, visit our website at http://faxsolutions.opentext.com/hosted-fax-services.aspx.

To contact sales, please email captaris.sales[at]opentext.com or call 1-800-304-2727.

Open Text Fax Server, RightFax Edition v 9.4 FP1 adds to its industry leading integrations by offering server virtualization support for Microsoft Hyper-V.

By Erik Enderson

Server virtualization technology has evolved into the datacenter infrastructure of choice for businesses of all sizes and complexities. In fact, the International Data Corporation expects server virtualization to be a $60 billion market in 2010. In addition, Gartner (2010) predicts that more than 50% of enterprise data center workloads will be virtualized by the close of 2012. To meet needs of this expanding market, Open Text Fax Server, RightFax edition has expanded its virtualization support to include Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2.

What are the requirements for Hyper-V virtualization?

The same as a traditional RightFax system, plus:

• Fax Server must be installed on a Hyper-V platform that meets the minimum requirements as documented by Microsoft
• Each RightFax server should be installed on a separate virtual machine
• No virtual RightFax server may contain fax board hardware
• All virtual Fax Servers must be at version 9.4 with FP1 or higher.

What components can be virtualized?

Excluding fax boards, every part of Fax Server can be virtualized: Remote Workservers, Remote Doc Transport, Web Services, etc. Virtual Fax Servers can also connect to a virtualized SQL Server, Active Directory, Exchange Server, etc (see graphic below).

Figure 1. A FoIP-based virtual Fax Server environment

Click to enlarge image.

Why Virtualize?

Because less is more. Virtualization allows you to rapidly consolidate multiple physical machines onto a single traditional server. The result is a significant reduction in expenditures (less hardware & energy costs – i.e., “green IT”); rapid ROI & lower TCO (scalable, flexible, yet simple to implement); and a centralized point of administration to help streamline server management and increase IT agility. Additional benefits include application provisioning and simplified maintenance, high availability, and disaster recovery.

Figure 2. Consolidation – the core virtue of server virtualization

Click to enlarge image.

More Information

For more information on Fax Server virtualization including a number of FoIP-based scenarios, see the newly revised whitepaper, Virtualizing Open Text Fax Server with Real-time Fax over IP and Open Text Fax Gateways.