The concept of “mobility” gets a lot of press these days. Often, the term is used to refer to cell phones and other handheld devices that come with applications for checking e-mail, sending text messages, conducting instant message (IM) sessions and surfing the Web. With so much focus on handheld devices, sometimes people forget that laptop computers equipped with wireless capabilities also offer the freedoms and benefits of mobility.
Take an ordinary business task like sending or receiving a fax, for example. In the past, using fax meant being tied to the fax machine in the office. This might mean that a sales person who plans to spend the day attending on-site client meeting has to stop by the office for a couple hours in the morning to send and receive faxes before hitting the road.
Even worse, if an important contract is due via fax partway through the day, this sales person might have to return to the office again to receive the contract sign it, and fax back to the recipient. This is not a very efficient way to work, but until recently there was no alternative.
Now, imagine this alternative: the sales person has an online RingCentral (News - Alert) Fax subscription, and travels with a laptop equipped with a wireless card. When the contract is faxed in, the sales person receives the document on his or her laptop, signs the document electronically, and sends it back to the recipient—all in a few minutes between client meetings without having to return to the office.
Alan Karls, marketing communications manager at RingCentral, told TMCnet that this scenario illustrates the benefits of online fax coupled with mobile computing: it’s more efficient, saves money, and provides clearer fax imaging.
“If you’re untethered, it changes your business mode,” Karls said. “You don’t have to come in for two hours every day to do faxing and e-mailing.”
This newfound freedom may be especially useful for sales people, real estate agents and legal professionals. It also tends to be appealing to the young professionals crowd, who are used to working online in a mobile way and appreciate the ways in which online fax used on a wireless-equipped laptop can free them not only to work more efficiently but also to engage in more leisure activities.
For example, let’s say a real estate agent has a hot date and is also waiting for an important contract to be faxed in. Rather than being tied to the fax machine at the office, this person can go on his or her date and bring along a laptop. When the fax comes in (alerts can be sent to a cell phone), this person takes five minutes to sign the contract electronically and send it back, without having to sacrifice the rest of the date.
“If you have a wireless card in your laptop, you can take your faxes with you,” Karls said.
Mobility in the form of a wireless-enable laptop and a RingCentral Fax account can, in other words, free users to do more—whether that is more work or getting to go to the big game rather than hanging around the office waiting for a fax to come in.
To learn more about fax, please visit RingCentral’s TMCnet.com channel, Fax.
To learn even more about online fax, check TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP
communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents free to registered users.
Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles, please visit Mae Kowalke’s columnist page. Also check out her Wireless Mobility blog.
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