11 Questions to Help Find Your Ideal Solution

CLOUD FAX SERVICES

FAQ Guide

FAQ GUIDE

INTRODUCTION

Looking to modernize your company’s fax communications? There’s never been a better time to explore options. But with so many vendors and different solutions on the market, what questions should you be asking to find the appropriate tool for your company’s unique process and ERP infrastructure?

Esker has developed 11 essential questions to ask any potential cloud fax services provider — and the answers youshould expect — to make your decision-making process easier and help maximize the success of your project.

WHY CLOUD FAXING IS NECESSARYOrganizations are continually looking for ways to operate more time efficiently and cost-effectively. By moving faxing to the cloud, the headaches and hassles of a traditional fax machine and/or fax server setup can be avoided.

With cloud fax services, you no longer have to choose between efficiency, cost and functionality. The benefits of cloud automation are easily accessible, including low up-front investment, no hidden costs for hardware maintenance or operation, unlimited capacity, and 24/7/365 service availability.

Symptoms of poor fax performance: ¡ Limited control of Telco expenses¡ Inability to see or find fax statuses¡ Time-consuming system management¡ Unsecure architecture due to multiple instances¡ Training needed for multiple interface learning¡ Customer dissatisfaction

PURPOSE OF THIS FAQ GUIDE

11 QUESTIONS TO HELP DETERMINE YOUR IDEAL

CLOUD FAX SERVICES SOLUTION

01EFFICIENCY & AFFORDABILITY

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a secure delivery model that is centrally hosted in the cloud (i.e., on-demand) and accessed via an Internet web browser. With no software or hardware to install, a SaaS solution allows companies to benefit from electronic faxing quickly without mobilizing IT resources and investing in a large on-premises IT project.

Operating a cloud-based fax solution is also highly cost-effective, as additional investments in IT infrastructure and staff are not needed to handle increasing fax volumes. Choose a solution with a flexible payment model that enables you to pay only for what you use and uses competitive faxing rates and optimized sending routes.

WHY ESKER?Esker Cloud Fax Services requires little up-front investment and offers pay-per-use pricing flexibility. With no hardware to maintain or software to install, the solution can be implemented rapidly. Esker Cloud Fax Services is completely scalable and capable of managing increases in fax volumes, even at peak times such as monthly invoicing.

Esker offers a low fixed fax rate regardless of the time of day for both inbound and outbound faxes. Esker’s strategically placed network of worldwide fax facilities enable customers to further reduce telecommunications costs by routing faxes to the facility nearest the recipient.

“WE CAN’T AFFORD TO INVEST A LOT OF IT RESOURCES OR BUDGET INTO A SOLUTION. WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS TO CONTROL COSTS BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER IMPLEMENTATION?”

02ERP INTEGRATION

Implementing an automation solution should not require additional costs for custom development. If your fax solution does not work with your ERP system, the payoff will take longer, coupled with a higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Ideally, you want a solution that’s compatible with virtually any ERP system, is configured to address the unique needs of any business, and easily integrates with your current infrastructure.

WHY ESKER?As a cloud-based solution, Esker’s workflow functions are ERP-independent which provides flexible integration options should you need to connect with several applications used by different subsidiaries or departments within the company. Esker is compatible with a wide range of ERP applications, including: SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and more.

Esker offers a unique value to businesses running SAP applications. With SAP-certified technology, Esker solutions are entirely integrated with SAP, allowing the solution to work seamlessly with your system and be compatible with upgrades.

“WILL YOUR SOLUTION INTEGRATE WITH OUR ERP SYSTEM?”

03USABILITY

WHY ESKER?Esker’s secure, easy-to-use web interface offers a comprehensive administrative tool that enables companies to manage their account, schedule individual and batch jobs, customize the appearance of their faxes, and safely and securely archive data.

“WE NEED TO EASILY MANAGE AND CONTROL OUR FAXING. WHAT TOOLS DO YOU HAVE TO HELP US ACCOMPLISH THIS?”

Best-in-class cloud fax services solutions should always feature a convenient and practical tool to help manage your account and send faxes as quickly, easily and cost-efficiently as possible. In other words, the solution should adjust to your company’s unique needs and exceptions — not the other way around.

04REAL-TIME VISIBILITY

Viewing and tracking the status of your fax transmissions and generating reports in real time should be an essential component to your fax solution. Ideally, you will have full control and oversight over every phase of fax communications.

WHY ESKER?Esker Cloud Fax Services provides real-time tracking and reporting throughout the sending and receiving process, with immediate fax status notifications and extensive reporting capabilities within the ERP application. With clear visibility, users can more easily balance their workloads, identify process bottlenecks and prevent lost faxes.

“HOW EASY IS IT TO TRACK TRANSMISSIONS AND GENERATE REPORTS?”

05INFORMATION SECURITY & INTEGRITY

SSAE 16, which mirrors and complies with the international reporting standard ISAE 3402, is the current standard for analyzing a service organization’s control over information technology and related processes. A successful audit completion indicates that processes, procedures and controls have been formally reviewed.

In addition, EU–U.S. Privacy Shield provides a set of robust and enforceable protections for the personal data of EU individuals. Compliant companies must certify to the U.S. Department of Commerce that they adhere to the EU–U.S. Privacy Shield Principles of notice, choice, accountability of onward transfer, recourse, enforcement and liability.

WHY ESKER?Esker has earned SSAE 16 & ISAE 3402 Type 1 and Type 2 compliance for its on-demand automation solutions (following an audit conducted by A-lign™ Security and Compliance Services). Additionally, Esker’s processes, procedures and controls for handling electronic protected health information (ePHI) have been formally evaluated and tested by an independent auditing firm, and are in compliance with the requirements of both HIPAA and the HITECH Act.

Esker complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from the European Union member countries.

“HOW CAN WE BE CONFIDENT THAT OUR BUSINESS DOCUMENTS WILL BE SECURELY HANDLED AND STORED?”

SOCaicpa.org/soc

Formerly SAS 70 Reports

AIC

PA S

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e Organization Control Reports

S E R V I C E O R G A N I Z AT I O N S

06FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS

For businesses that don’t want to settle for one faxing solution, a hybrid fax solution is available that provides all the advantages of an on-site fax server with the added benefits of a cloud-based fax service. By implementing an on-premises fax server in combination with an on-demand fax service that provides information backup, companies can benefit from around-the-clock business faxing.

A hybrid solution allows organizations to reduce overhead and operational expenses, improve scalability to accommodate their changing needs, and easily integrate with existing business application interfaces.

WHY ESKER?Esker easily adapts to your needs by providing on-premises, on-demand or hybrid fax solutions. Esker’s hybrid option offers flexibility to businesses (with access to fax services on an as-needed basis) without a commitment. Fax jobs can be distributed among on-site fax boards, or reallocated to fax services in case of overflow for improved handling of fax peaks. The hybrid solution allows for continuity in case of on-site fax board issues and protects against costly downtime.

“DO I NEED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN AN ON-PREMISES AND AN ON-DEMAND FAX SOLUTION?”

07BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Ideally, solution implementation should not disrupt daily business activities for long periods of time. Integration should be seamless and involve as little downtime as possible, with crucial business functions and industry-sensitive documentation being available to customers and suppliers at all times via a secure, always-on and backed up infrastructure.

WHY ESKER?With initial setup time only taking a few hours, Esker provides fast, simple and painless solution implementation without disrupting your existing systems. An Internet connection and a web browser are the only requirements needed to connect.

Featuring security measures such as data transfer by SSL, secure server bays, temperature, humidity and pressure controls, and 24/7 monitoring, Esker production centers are designed to safeguard document processing, protect sensitive information and support compliance for privacy regulations. As a result, Esker is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of healthcare organizations seeking to improve data privacy, access control and business continuity.

Each Esker server platform in North America, Europe and Australia back one another up, providingsecure, redundant, uninterrupted service 24/7 year-round.

“WE CAN’T RISK LOSING CRITICAL INFORMATION OR PUT OUR BUSINESS ON HOLD WHILE A NEW SOLUTION IS INTEGRATED. CAN YOU PROVIDE UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE?”

08GLOBAL PRESENCE

In today’s global marketplace, companies need an international solution provider who can support their automation needs across a worldwide network of offices, offer multi-language capabilities, including support for languages that contain a large number of unique characters and symbols (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, etc.) and have proven, cross-border deployment success.

WHY ESKER?With offices around the world, Esker has an impressive track record of success for its many worldwide implementations. The Esker web user interface is available in numerous languages, and local language support is available in many countries. Esker’s on-demand platform allows for a rapid solution rollout to various countries without the need to plan for multiple instances or larger, more complex infrastructure.

“CAN YOU SUPPORT OUR MULTIPLE OFFICES AND MULTI-LANGUAGE NEEDS? AS A GLOBAL COMPANY, WE NEED TO BE SURE YOUR FAX SOLUTION CAN BE SCALED OUT.”

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MALAYSIASPAIN

09ELECTRONIC ARCHIVING

Your faxes should be electronically archived automatically, eliminating the need for manual storage and time-consumingfiling and document retrieval. Additionally, faxes should be securely backed up by your solution provider’s infrastructure and always accessible to authorized personnel from any location for as long as you choose.

WHY ESKER?Esker Cloud Fax Services allows your documents and data to be safely and automatically archived and easily accessible from anywhere for as long as you need them. With Esker’s multi-criteria search engine, you only need to enter one or more search terms in the Esker web interface and your fax will quickly be identified. A backup of your archive is always available and you can also request a copy on digital media.

“WE WANT OUR FAXES ELECTRONICALLY ARCHIVED SO WE DON’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH PHYSICAL STORAGE. WILL WE BE ABLE TO EASILY ACCESS OUR DOCUMENTS?”

10EXPERT CONSULTANCY & PROJECT METHODOLOGY

To get the greatest amount of business value in the shortest amount of time, you should be afforded a high level of involvement early in the planning and throughout the project. A skilled solution provider with years of solution implementation experience understands the importance of respecting timelines and budgets.

WHY ESKER?Esker’s use of Agile methodology creates an adaptive environment of self-service and enhanced process insight so that customers, business partners and their key stakeholders are actively involved throughout and achieve maximum value in every phase of solution delivery.

As opposed to the traditional “waterfall” approach, Agile methodology enables decisions to be made with context, invests resources in the most value-added features, and allows solution features to be tested and used in a short amount of time.

“HOW DO YOU DELIVER A SOLUTION THAT'S IMPLEMENTED ON TIME AND WITHIN BUDGET?”

11EXPANDING TO OTHER BUSINESS PROCESSES

Because most companies also need to send business documents by postal mail or email, your solution provider should be able to offer these additional document delivery services without the need to invest in separate hardware, software or maintenance. Additionally, your solution provider should provide all the technology and support needed to respond to your expanding needs. That means having the capability to address every aspect of the cash conversion cycle to automate other document processes — from purchasing and accounts payable to order processing, accounts receivable and collections management.

WHY ESKER?Esker offers one platform for multiple business needs, providing document delivery via fax, email, SMS or postal mail in the same interface. Esker can transform electronic documents into postal mail without the need for in-house mailroom equipment. Highly calibrated email servers allow email messages to be delivered in a timely manner, and communication via SMS messagesis available directly from a desktop.

Esker also allows you to go beyond document delivery, as well. Whether you want to automate and capture any inbound documents (sales orders, vendor invoices) or electronically deliver any outbound documents (customer invoices, purchase orders), Esker allows you to automate as needed using a shared group of technologies.

“ASIDE FROM FAX, WHAT OTHER DOCUMENT DELIVERY AND DOCUMENT PROCESS AUTOMATION SERVICES DOES YOUR SOLUTION OFFER?”

HOW ESKER CLOUD FAX SERVICES WORKS

Esker Cloud Fax Services works with a wide range of ERP applications, allowing users to simply create a message, attach files to be faxed and select fax numbers from the recipient list. Every fax processed by Esker is tracked with a unique identifier and the real-time status of each fax is visible directly within business applications.

(1) Documents are transmitted from your business applications to an Esker production facility. (2) They are then received by a multitenant Esker server platform through an authenticated, encrypted and secured connection. (3) Once the fax is delivered, a fax status is fed into your business application, and is (4) updated in real-time and visible to users.

ERPAPPLICATIONS

Data Center

ENTERPRISE ESKER PRODUCTIONFACILITY

MEDIA

E-mail

Fax

SMS

Customers

Suppliers

Partners

RECIPIENT

Mail

6 WAYS YOU BENEFIT FROM ESKER CLOUD FAX SERVICES

With over 20 years of experience developing fax software, Esker is regarded as a leading provider of enterprise fax software solutions and a pioneer in cloud services for fax and document processing. Companies using Esker Cloud Fax Services benefit from their ability to:

Send faxes from

virtually any ERP.

Achieve cost predictability with pay-per-use

pricing.

Leverage Esker-hosted and

maintained infrastructure.

Track your faxes

in real time.

Save money with least-

cost routing.

Handle any fax volume

with virtually unlimited capacity.

GET TO KNOW ESKERAs a worldwide leader in cloud-based document process automation software, Esker offers companies integrated solutions for improving order-to-cash, purchase-to-pay and document delivery performance. Founded in 1985, Esker operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France, and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

Visit www.esker.com to learn more about Esker's solutions and join the conversation on our blog at blog.esker.com.

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