InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
January 12, 1998
LAN Faxing Reaches The Net
Omtool-NetCentric add-on could boost fa x service market
FaxStorm Connector could give a boost to Internet faxing because Omtool holds the biggest share of the market for fax server software on the Windows NT platform. Companies that use the Internet for broadcast and international faxing report savings of 50% or more compared with telephone faxing, though some users are wary of the Internet's reliability.
Omtool, in Salem, N.H., boasts about 10,000 customers, including Polaroid Corp. in Cambridge, Mass., and financial services firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. FaxStorm Connector lets those companies use Fax Sr. to take advantage of
Internet faxing. But in addition to installing the add-on software, they must open a faxing account with an Internet service provider that uses NetCentric's FaxStorm, the leading Internet fax system used by ISPs.
Most ISPs are new to the fax service market, which has been dominated by fax service bureaus. Omtool's closest rival, RightFax Inc. in Tucson, Ariz., worked with a nine-year-old fax service bureau, FaxSav in Edison, N.J., to develop a gateway that links RightFax's LAN fax server to FaxSav's Internet faxing network. "We haven't seen many ISPs show an interest" in Internet faxing, says Jim Jonez, director of marketing at RightFax. "It's an infrastructure problem."
But some major ISPs are investing in fax infrastructure. ANS Communications this month will roll out a service based on NetCentric's FaxStorm. Other ISPs such as PSINet in Herndon, Va., .comfax in New York, and UltraNet Communications in Marlborough, Mass., have similar services. "The ISPs are just now learning the market," says Maury
Kauffman, managing partner at Kauffman Group, a Cherry Hill, N.J., research firm.
Wishnatzki & Nathel Inc., a national produce company in Plant City, Fla., uses .comfax's service to broadcast up to 250 faxes a day. The company has resorted to phone faxing on days when the Internet was slow, says data-processing manager Bert Garcia. But he isn't complaining. "Our [fax billing] rate is down to 10 cents a minute from 35 cents a minute," he says.
Omtool will offer FaxStorm Connector next month as an upgrade. Pricing has not been set.
mtool and NetCentric Corp. this week will introduce FaxStorm Connector, add-on software that lets Omtool's LAN fax server, Fax Sr., send faxes over the Internet.
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