How Digital Fax Saves Money and Provides Flexible Options

Have you ever considered whether it's better to use POTS or PANS? If you think I am talking about cooking, then you might want to continue reading on.

I am actually talking about faxing, ATM machines, alarm systems - really anything using an analog phone line. If you haven’t already, you will notice that the cost of your POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services) analog lines has increased. This is because the FCC recently stipulated that on Aug 2, 2022, businesses who utilize POTS line service should seriously consider shifting to PANS (Pretty Amazing New Stuff) or more specifically, digital faxing. If you don’t, the FCC Order could cause your fax provider to increase fees in an effort to do away with this outdated technology. Some of our customers have seen 3 or even 4X increases!

Based on this, many of our clients are asking for solutions. If you’re not sure how to address this, let me share the top three steps businesses are taking to mitigate these potential costs.

1. They are investigating a digital solution which would eliminate the need for analog lines.

2. They are determining whether they want a cloud-based solution or an on-premise server-based solution

3. They are selecting the correct application allowing them to enable the chosen solution for the technology that best meets their needs

Konica Minolta provides modern day fax solutions that allow you to get rid of expensive analog telephone lines. Cutting the copper allows you to reap the benefits digital fax and overcome challenges from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Order 19-72A1. This order stipulates that customers who utilize POTS line services must shift to an alternative service. If your fax lines are still working, that’s great news. The challenge is predicting how long they will work, and how much the price will increase in the meantime.

Cost savings and greater flexibility over a traditional facsimile device is just one key benefit that digital fax provides. For your convenience, incoming faxes can be received as an email, stored to a network directory, or automatically put into a secure queue to be released at any time. Outgoing faxes may be sent as an email from your desktop, directly from the MFP-embedded application, or web portal. Imagine what you can do when you Rethink Fax!

Additional benefits include:

• Send/Receive from anywhere: Office; home; desktop; or mobile device

• High availability with redundancy and uptime enhancements

• No added software or telephony hardware

• No inbound/outbound conflict, availability, and busy signals

• No monthly telecommunications bills

• Annual page volume options to meet your needs

• Greater security including enhanced encryption and “Delete Fax After Completion”

• HIPAA and PCI DSS compliant - No confidential or proprietary documents left unattended on the output tray

If you aren't sure where to begin, or want more information, we would be happy to share ideas based on your specific environment. Reach out today and you will be connected with one of the best cooks we have who can teach you all about using PANS vs. POTS.