all communications can be internet-accessible.
by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless
i’ve mentioned that firms should strive to capture all data in a digital format at its “root” source. this goes for services such as the firm’s fax and voicemail systems as well.
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traditional inbound faxes are usually printed from a fax machine and then hand-delivered to the recipient’s desk. in some cases, this image is actually rescanned and emailed to the recipient.
while this is a step toward digital delivery, today’s digital fax systems deliver a digital image to the recipient via email so they can access them within their email. higher-end copier/duplicators have integrated fax cards that will deliver the image to a designated administrative person who can update the subject and forward the fax to the intended recipient. for after-hours delivery of faxes, these systems can publish the fax to a public folder in outlook or on a network drive that all authorized firm members can access (the same as a printed fax in the fax machine). if the firm’s equipment does not have an integrated fax card, this feature can be outsourced to a hosted service provider such as nextiva or efax.
firms should also consider the benefits of delivering voice messages through the email system, rather than having a separate system. most of today’s phone systems have the ability to transform a voicemail message into a .wav file that can be listened to on the recipient’s computer, forwarded to others and even saved in the firm’s client files. the advantage to this is that end users consolidate all firm communications (email, fax, voicemail) in one place that can be made accessible through the internet from any web-connected device.
digital communications within firms is expanding to also incorporate video calling, screen sharing, file sharing and integrated instant messaging, which are known as collaboration suites. the 2017 cpafma survey found that 39 percent had implemented a collaboration tool with instant messaging and 47 percent had implemented video calling.
microsoft’s free skype service is the most prevalent individual video calling system used by firms and it is recommended that every firm have at least one video calling account set up and personnel trained on using it for when a client asks. in 2014, microsoft rebranded its lync/office communicators tool as “skype for business,” which is now part of the overall microsoft office suite that cpa firms utilize.
unified messaging will bring all firm communications to one platform so it is important to highlight that proper access security and awareness must be in place. by having all firm communications in one location it will be easier for your it personnel (or a cloud provider) to do comprehensive backups and provide better security for all firm communications.
recommended actions:
- capture faxes and voice mail digitally at the root source and make available securely in outlook via the internet.
- implement collaboration tools and train personnel on use.