The fax machine is an integral part of our past, but it still has a place in today’s world. Global statistics show that billions around the globe are sent every year, and many Millennials can’t think when they’ve ever needed to send one themselves! So why do we have this ancient device?

Security

Technology has always been a vulnerable target for hackers and cybercriminals. The Internet was not designed with security, meaning anyone can be hacked anytime – even if you think your account is secure!

What’s worse than having personal data compromised? Not knowing it until after the fact when there’s little chance of recovery or reversing those damages done because no one ever told us how much trouble our negligence caused others

Faxes are a popular method of communication for many reasons, including their ability to remain secure when compared with other methods. For these privacy-conscious individuals who have learned about hacking in the media and want nothing else can happen – they will continue using faxes even though there’s an easier way because, at least this way, their message gets delivered.

Reliability

Fax technology pre-dates the turn of the century and has not been completely replaced. Furthermore, in 1964, Xerox Corporation introduced LDX (Long Distance Xerography), an invention considered the first “commercial” version of today’s fax machine.

Signatures

The fax machine is still prevalent in countries where electronic or digital signatures aren’t yet recognised as legal. When physical signatures are needed, you can quickly receive a document via fax and sign it before scanning your signature onto the screen for sending back to whoever sent out this vital information! Businesses don’t just use faxes- they’re also employed within most industries that require authorisations such as finance (signing cheques), education (teaching courses) and more – that’s a lot of signatures needed per year.

The convenience of a fax machine is unparalleled in these places where people often need documents signed.

Internet access

The fax machine is a great way to communicate and share essential documents in areas where it would otherwise be extremely difficult or time consuming. The reliance on the telephone rather than Internet allows people who cannot access an online connection, such as those living off-the grid with no electricity supply for their home computers at all times of day (or night), can still get business done by relying upon this old technology that has been around since 1857.

Online faxing

Internet faxing has made it possible for people who want the security and convenience of a traditional office-based fax machine, but don’t live in an area surrounded by them or have access to one at all times. The same concept behind this old technology is utilised through online sending/receiving which allows you send or receive documents from your computer browser anywhere with internet connection.

The Bottom Line

Never have there been more options available to businesses to communicate internally and externally with stakeholders.

BNS’ msXfax Enterprise fax server is a virtual machine fax server with Cloud Connectors to allow it to connect to Exchange on-premises, Exchange Online (Office 365 email) or another email system, effectively managing outbound and inbound fax calls, delivering them efficiently to the correct destination.

It is an ideal solution for large enterprise customers or even small-sized businesses who understand the importance of maintaining privacy in fax communications with their customers and trading partners.

SMS, or text messaging, has been used mostly for personal conversations up until recently. A2P, or application-to-person messaging, is for business purposes to send texts from software directly to mobile users. It allows brands to send many automated business messages at once to customers. Smartphone usage is increasing steadily lately, and businesses have started to notice SMS’s scope and importance in their marketing strategy.

SMS marketing is one of the most straightforward ways to communicate with consumers. However, it has yet to be fully utilised. Furthermore, SMS may not only be used to interact with existing clients but also to target new consumers. The ability of Transactional Messaging to deliver timely information is also useful.

The benefits of text messaging for businesses are too good to be ignored.

The major advantage of text marketing is that it is constantly present in our lives, thanks to the widespread use of mobile phones. As a result, sending a message to the device nearest to the individual is simply a matter of convenience.

The low price of bulk text messaging and the wide reachability of the right audience are two of its advantages. Furthermore, you may employ SMS short codes and long codes for a variety of marketing goals.

• Almost 60% of users reply to a text message within 1-2 minutes
• 45% of prospects choose a brand after getting an SMS.
• 67% of users prefer texting with a business about scheduling an appointment to email or phone communication.

Why use SMS in business?

High open rates

Bulk SMS messaging is greatly beneficial because text messages have higher open rates in comparison to phone calls or emails. For example, 98% of the messages sent are opened, making SMS services a fantastic asset to any enterprise needing quick and effective customer service.

Better conversion rate

Many people think that SMS is outdated because of the high usage of instant messaging apps, but there are plenty of advantages to using SMS in business. For example, SMS has a better conversion rate than all its new-age counterparts. People are more likely to visit your business and take action on promotions or offers shared through SMS than any other marketing service.

Enterprise SMS Server software security

BNS’s enterprise SMS server software runs in the customer’s cloud tenancy, protecting sensitive SMS data from exposure to service providers. The SMS Server software only sends the minimum amount of information to the SMS network service provider using secure encryption industry standards protocols. Once the data is sent to the SMS network,  service providers in Australia and some other countries are required to keep the data secure.  All other metadata provided by the customer’s applications to the SMS Server software is securely stored in the customer’s SQL databases in the customer’s cloud tenancy and not exposed to any SMS service provider.  The SMS Server software comes with rich analytics capabilities allowing the customer to examine SMS delivery performance to their customers.

Greater audience reach

Many businesses are moving to SMS as a method of communication because it does not require the internet, and nearly everybody has a working phone. With the high usage of phones, SMS is nothing less of a goldmine. As a result, businesses can use this opportunity to reach customers right where they are by email, giving them the advantage of getting more people involved.

Instant delivery

In order to see the advantages of text messaging for businesses, you must make sure you are associated with a good Cloud telephony provider that has strong network operator connections all over the world. This network-operator relationship can come in handy when businesses need to deliver time-sensitive OTPs.

Campaign success visibility

When analysing the success of bulk SMS campaigns, businesses need insights into how they’re performing. After that, they may use this data to develop their text advertising plans and target the correct audience to gain more attention.

Cloud telephony providers offer real-time data and detailed graphical analytics, including the number of messages delivered, timestamps, message status, whether the customer has read it, which browser was used to visit the site, geolocation data, and much more. Such insights help businesses better understand their target audience, assess a campaign’s success, and plan future campaigns for greater reach.

Easy Opt-in/Opt-out

The major advantage of SMS compared to email marketing is that messages may be stopped if clients don’t want to hear from the business. Shortcode and long-code numbers allow consumers to choose whether they wish to Opt-in or Opt-out of communications. Customers may respond instantly, and businesses can set simple keywords that allow customers to reply quickly. This simplicity enhances customer pleasure and loyalty since they have a way out if they decide they no longer want to receive messages.

Flexible and reliable

SMS services are helpful for businesses- they can announce sales, provide coupons and discounts, remind customers of appointments, share online order status, and more. However, because SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, businesses need to be mindful of how best to utilise this restricted space to most effectively reach their customer base.

msXsms Enterprise SMS Server for Office 365 & Microsoft Exchange

With the rapid growth of email use for interagency communications within the Australian government, a strong case was made for a standardised and machine-readable marking scheme for security purposes. Initially introduced in 2005, the Email Protective Marking Standard (EPMS) was created as part of the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) to meet this need. At their core, EPMS and PSPF require each entity to identify information asset holdings, assess the sensitivity and security classification of these assets, and implement operational controls for them proportional to their value, importance, and sensitivity.

This framework enables individuals to identify whether any information requires special handling measures. As all Australian federal government agencies are affected by changes to the framework and standards, so are organisations contracting with government entities.

As all Australian federal government agencies are affected by changes to the framework and standards, so are organisations contracting with government entities.

Your organisation should keep several considerations in mind:

1. Acceptance of both old and new standards: Does your organisation require users to be able to mark in both new and old versions of the standards at the same time?
2. Updating schema for new fields and adjusted policies: Is your organisation prepared to update schema for new areas and adjusted policies, such as recipient validation, for example?
3. Addition of optional elements: With this transition, do you require the addition of optional details?
4. Sensitivity level changes: Does your organisation now need to mark material at a higher sensitivity level?
5. Although all these questions are essential, the biggest question to ask internally is, “Are our users ready for the change?” Without buy-in from users, your organisation’s ability to comply with changes to EPMS becomes increasingly tricky.

BNS has made this process somewhat more accessible by ensuring that msXsms is 100% Email Protective Marking Standards compliant. So reach out today to learn more about packages, pricing, and how msXsms can assist your organisation.

August 2021, Sydney Australia

Microsoft System Centre Operations Manager (SCOM)  is a key component of Microsoft’s System Centre solution used for: deployment, configuration, management and monitoring of infrastructure and virtualised software-defined datacentres.

With IT staff working from home, SMS alerts from core network management platforms is becoming more important.    Microsoft System Centre Operations Manager can manage critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange email.  SCOM can be used with the SMS Server to securely notify engineers via text messages.

The standard SCOM offering from Microsoft uses modems which are not allowed to be connected to most corporate and government networks for security reasons.

msXsms enterprise SMS server does not use modem but instead  uses secure encrypted industry standard SMPP\TLS over the Internet to SMS aggregators such as SINCH and MessageMedia.

The SMS Server software runs on Windows Server which can be deployed in Azure\AWS if required.

For more information, refer to: https://msxsmskb.bnsgroup.com.au/scom_get_started