Please Plan Ahead

On Sunday (from around midnight - 2AM) there will be a brief service disruption as we deploy the MyFax Winter '07 update. All faxes that are received during this time will be held and delivered after the interuption.

Ending the Fax Tyranny

Here's a humorous post (End the Fax Tyranny) with a bit of a rant about the challenges of faxing - traditional faxing, that is. To summarize (without the humor): it's expensive; a waste of space and paper; and they are a pain in the ass to send. (You should read the funnier version here.)

Internet fax services like MyFax are cheaper, paperless and as easy to use as email. If you never need to communicate with a fax machine then MyFax isn't for you; but otherwise - it's a lot cheaper and easier.

MyFax Winter '07: Free webinar for customers

MyFax Winter '07 will be introduced early next week. It includes a number of great new enhancements that customers have asked for.

Want a sneak preview? Want to learn how to take advantage of the new MyFax features?

Join us tomorrow (Wednesday, December 13) for a FREE web seminar with Wendy Lowe.
Wendy will highlight what's coming, and where to find more information. You can register here.

We'll record the session so that you can in case you can't attend.

MyFax Internet Fax - Fax Internationally for Free

MyFax lets you send 100 free faxes each month with our popular $10 package. Now, you can use these free faxes when you fax internationally to any of 29 major countries. Any extra pages to these countries cost just $0.10 per page - just like faxing in the U.S.

Why the changes? We are committed to delivering 'value for money' and eliminating any surprise or hidden fees. Making international faxing easier and cheaper helps meet both goals.

All MyFax subscribers get this benefit automatically - there's no need to do anything.

Here's the current list of countries that are included in the MyFax free fax allocation. (It will continue to grow, so feel free to check here for a current list. )

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
China
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Ireland
Italy
Japan
South Korea
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom
United States

Replacing Fax Servers with MyFax

Over the last 10 years, organizations have often deployed fax servers to provide centralized, network based faxing to their employees. We are now seeing a surge of interest in replacing these fax servers with internet fax services like MyFax. Why the interest?

There are three common drivers:

First, like all systems, there are ongoing costs to supporting fax servers - for maintenance, telecommunications, and upgrades. While these costs are sometimes hidden in operating budgets, the onset of Microsoft Windows and Office upgrades, which trigger upgrades to fax server software, databases, etc., also trigger a search for cost effective fax server alternatives.

Second, fax server deployments don't provide the flexibility corporate customers require. As companies consolidate or expand data centers, acquire and divest business units, and assess redundancy and disaster recovery plans, the on-demand capacity of internet fax services is appealing.

Third, IT departments have better things to do, and faxing isn't always high on the list of sexy projects! Working with a reliable internet fax service provider eliminates headaches, frees up time, and provides better support for end users.

Ultimately, of course, costs matter. We've just completed a detailed study comparing the TCO for fax servers to MyFax. What really matters is how much you can save, and we're happy to tailor this assessment to your environment - just ask!

Welcome to MyFax Central - Online Fax

We recently introduced a new web interface called MyFax Central, responding to lots of great ideas from our customers. You can visit MyFax Central here, and check out our tours.

Why login?

Make MyFax work for you:

• add another email address to send faxes from,
• have faxes sent to additional email addresses automatically
• upload your own cover page, or customize one of the existing designs

Easy Account Administration:

• update your credit card
• check your current usage, and account statements
• add another fax number or user.

Send and Receive Faxes Online

• send from email, or login to send online
• your last 31 days of received faxes are stored in MyFax Central

Let me know what you think!

Steve

Learn about MyFax Features - Free Web Seminar

One of my colleagues is hosting a free web seminar next week (July 19) - it will highlight some of the new MyFax features. If you can't make the live seminar we'll also post a recording so you can review at your leisure. Wendy's a great speaker - you can register here.

MyFax directly from Microsoft Office

I promised that I'd highlight some of the new features recently added to MyFax. Today, let's talk about Microsoft Office Integration.

MyFax already includes a free Outlook plugin that lets you send faxes directly within Outlook. It gives you access to your Outlook Contact list, and lets you easily set cover page options for each fax. You can download the plugin here. (Of course, you can always fax directly from any email system by addressing the email to faxnumber@myfax.com .)

Now, you can also fax with MyFax from within the Microsoft Office 2003 applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). Just choose File/Send To/Recipient using Internet Fax Service and fill in the blanks! This method also allows integration with your Outlook contacts, and use of Microsoft's standard fax cover pages.

If you're already a MyFax customer, first login and activate the Microsoft Office Integration (under Send Preferences).

Free Faxing?

Seth Godin highlights the many ways in which products are marketed as 'free'...but really aren't ( "Does Free Mean Free?" ). We work really hard to make MyFax pricing clear and simple so that there aren't any surprise charges.

MyFax offers lots of free things to our (paying!) subscribers:

• You can send 100 fax pages each month, for free - there's no extra charge.
• You can receive 200 fax pages each month, for free - there's no extra charge.
• Toll-free numbers are provided at no extra charge - you don't pay extra, and people sending faxes to you aren't charged long-distance fees.
• Support is free, and 24/7, and we answer the phone promptly!

MyFax does not offer a free fax service...although our competitor efax.com does. Why not?

• We don't want the distraction. Our customers matter to us, and we're focused on providing you new features, better performance and excellent support. I don't think we could deliver the same excellent service if we also had millions of non-paying customers to deal with.
• A free fax service isn't always free, but is supported by email and fax ads. MyFax isn't in the advertising business and we don't send ads to our customers.
• MyFax has value. In fact, it's a great value!

Try MyFax today and get the first month free (really!).

Fax from Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes is frequently used in large enterprises and governments, and many of our users have wanted to be able to send and receive MyFax faxes from within Lotus Notes. (We've already provided integration with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office 2003.)

This notes integration makes it easy for users to send faxes (using information from within Notes) with tracking and bill-back capabilities for reporting and accounting.

We were fortunate to have the input of a great lead customer who worked closely with us to develop the requirements and test the early versions of our integration. We're not allowed to disclose the company name, but we've found this to be a great working relationship. Thanks Dave!

Steve

New Features In MyFax

This week we introduced a new release of MyFax internet fax service. Don't worry - it doesn't cost you anything, and you don't need to do anything to get the upgrade! There are no upgrade fees, and no extra charges, and you don't need to download any new software.

In separate posts, I'll describe some of the new capabilities, and I've provided a quick list below.

Importantly, each and every change that we've made has been in response to a customers' request. We work really hard to listen, and incorporate your ideas into MyFax - making it a better and more valuable service, without increasing the price.

Here's a quick summary of some of the new capabilities:

• Faxes are now stored online for up to 31 days - and its free.
• Fax from inside Microsoft Office 2003.
• Integrated with Lotus Notes.
• More filetypes can be faxed, so you can fax Microsoft Visio drawings, *.snp , and *.mht
• Improved quality and performance, with an SLA to back it up.

Do you have ideas for making MyFax better? Just let me know.

Steve

Internet Fax increases Privacy

Learn to Use That Fax Machine highlights a lawsuit that was triggered by a doctor that faxed confidential information to a fax machine at the patient's place of work. The information fell into the wrong hands, the patient lost his job...and the lawsuit follows.

What's the moral of this story? That people should have the decency not to read other people's faxes (and that there are too many lawsuits, but that's a different discussion). If you don't want to rely upon the kindness of strangers, then you might want to use MyFax...

MyFax provides each customer with their own, private fax number, and delivers all faxes directly into your personal email. This means that all of your received faxes remain private.

MyFax also helps make faxing more confidential. Use your Outlook address book to choose the fax number, and avoid misdialing. Double check the fax confirmation, and make sure it went to the fax number you wanted it to. Automatically add a customized fax cover page.

For secure applications, consider using encryption, or VPN connections for larger customers. That will help meet your HIPPA fax requirements.

Helping Out

We try to help out in the community where we can, both as a company, and as individuals.

When Hurricane Katrina struck, we provided free fax services to the American Red Cross to help their communications.

We also gave free faxing to MyFax customers in the affected areas, who clearly had more to worry about than their internet fax service. (But one notable customer insisted that she pay anyway, because MyFax let her continue her business even while she was uprooted.)

Closer to home, we're rallying for the fight against cancer. Cancer has touched people close to us, and inspired our team to get active fundraising. Today we sold MyFax T-shirts; next week is a barbeque. You can help too - visit the American Cancer Society or Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life .

And if you want to buy a MyFax T-shirt just drop me a note!

Three ways to avoid irritating travel charges

I was travelling last month, and was surprised to get hit by fairly large "off-net" roaming charges with my new phone. (Note to self: read the fine print).

It reminded me of all the hidden charges that add to the cost of travelling, and my Top 3 List of Ways to avoid the irritating costs of travel:

1) Use your cell phone. (Well, first get a plan that includes roaming!). Hotel charges are wildly expensive.

2) Take the hotel shuttle when you can, and avoid the taxi charges (plus tolls, tips, minimums, etc.)

3) Don't eat breakfast at the hotel. It's convenient, but you're held hostage. Walk next door - the fresh air is good for you!

Many customers choose an online fax service like MyFax when they're travelling - and the only other alternative is to pay your hotel $3 per page or more. If you can get your email, you can get your fax - or you can download your fax from our secure web site.

Road Gladiator has some more good tips.

Top 5 Tips for Job Hunting with MyFax

Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters by David Perry and Jay Levinson is a good guidebook to using guerilla tactics to get a new job. I subscribe to Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing newsletter which usually has some simple and effective ways of promoting products and services. The book applies the same approach to marketing yourself to new employers.

GM for Job Hunters recommends using MyFax to get your resume noticed. Email applications often got overlooked - and they certainly all look the same when they are sitting in a cluttered inbox. Faxes generally get hand delivered to the hiring manager.

Here's 5 tips for using MyFax effectively in your job hunting:

1. Use the fax cover page effectively. The cover page gets read - make sure it includes your best pitch.
2. Be brief. Effective resumes use white space to draw attention to key points. This is especially critical when faxing your resume - lots of dense text looks unappealing.
3. Be specific. Use the hiring manager's name and department. Remember that many fax machines are still shared, and unaddressed faxes only reach the recycling bin.
4. Don't spam. By email and by fax, spam is bad. Focus your sales pitch.
5. Follow up. Phone the day after you send the fax. Get voicemail? Draw attention to the fax.

Faxing and Regulatory Compliance (SOX, HIPPA)

There are many good reasons to use MyFax - it's 75% cheaper than regular fax machines, lets you get your faxes anywhere, simplifies your office, etc.

With increasing scrutiny on corporations - and the regulations to go with it - comes another reason for using MyFax: compliance. Sarbaanes-Oxley, HIPPA, PIPEDA etc. all drive a need to control and track the flow of information, and fax machines can be a gaping hole.

Here's a recent article on the topic, at Compliance Pipeline: Faxes: The Achilles Heel in your Compliance Armor.

Here's more information on how MyFax helps with regulatory compliance and privacy.

MyFax. No Strings Attached?

Most MyFax customers pay as they go, with no contracts or long term commitments. That means they’re free to leave us at any time if we don't meet their needs.

Believe me, that keeps us on our toes!

We have to be good - all day, every day. We have a tremendous focus on service delivery – maintaining and improving performance; ensuring continuous, reliable operations; maintaining a live Customer Care team around the clock.

We have to listen, and we have to respond. Our team meets every week to review the new ideas we hear from customers. If you’ve got a suggestion to improve MyFax, let us know!

Steve


* (Some of our bigger corporate clients have contracts, of course…but we still treat them as if they could leave at any time!)

MyFax and Your Privacy - No Spam!

We’re frequently asked about whether we ever disclose your fax number. (The concern, of course, is about becoming a recipient of unsolicited faxes.)

Our answer is very simple - no!

• We don’t disclose your fax number.
• We don't send you faxes.
• We don’t disclose your email address.
• We don’t allow advertisers to email you.

Our business relies on happy customers, and so we maintain a very strict privacy policy.

Unsolicited faxes might still reach some of our customers – mainly when an unscrupulous advertiser has identified a block of numbers that are faxes. We’ll help you switch to a new number – at no charge – if this happens to you.

MyFax for Corporate Users

Many of our new customers first hear about MyFax from other happy MyFax customers. We’re always grateful for new business referrals, and increasingly we’ve been hearing from businesses that are using MyFax throughout the organization. (You remember that commercial - first one person got MyFax; then he told two friends, and they told two friends…and now the whole company is using MyFax.)

We’ve recently added new capabilities to MyFax to help manage MyFax deployments – and they’ll help large and small customers alike. These new features include web based administration tools, so you can add new users to your account; real time reporting capabilities, so you can track usage by user and department; and some flexible pricing options. You can learn more here.

Want to tell your two friends about MyFax? Use our referral program, and earn free faxing!

MyFax - Connecting with Customers

MyFax attracts tremendous, passionate, customers, and we’re always looking for ways to talk to – and listen to – your comments. That’s why we love our 24 hour – free – support line, because we hear about what you like, and don’t like, about MyFax. Many of you have also provided feedback in our surveys, through our MyFax referral program, and just by emailing us.

This blog is another avenue for us to connect. We’ll use it to tell you more about MyFax, so you can take advantage of everything it has to offer. We’ll offer up some relevant tidbits and tell you more about the people behind MyFax. And we’ll listen!

So, tell us what you think! What topics would you like included in our blog?

Isn’t Fax Dead? No! – The Evolution of Faxing

More people think Elvis is still alive than think that faxing is a growth market! And the same people that predicted paperless offices probably think that faxing is disappearing.

Maybe traditional faxing is going the way of the dodo bird - but with internet faxing accelerating its decline.

What we see at MyFax – and hear from you - is a real shift in the market:

• Old fashioned, shared fax machines are replaced with personal MyFax accounts
• Expensive, dedicated fax lines are eliminated
• MyFax lets you do more with a fax – store it, forward it, get it on the web...

In my (not at all paperless) home office, I most appreciate the extra desk space! Why do you like MyFax?