Virtual fax for El Paso businesses

Virtual fax from TechBit Solutions keeps the fax number an El Paso business already publishes, delivers incoming faxes to email as PDFs, and takes the machine and the phone line out of the building.

Call (915) 629-8888

What this covers

Virtual fax replaces the fax machine and the dedicated phone line behind it. Faxes arrive as email attachments and go out from email or a browser, from wherever you are.

TechBit Solutions ports the existing number so nothing your contacts have on file stops working.

How it works

1. We port your existing fax number, or issue one if you need a new one.
2. Incoming faxes arrive as a PDF attached to an email, to one address or several.
3. Outgoing faxes go from email or the web portal, with a delivery confirmation.
4. The fax line and the machine come out. That is usually the point at which the saving shows up.

Who still needs fax

Fax has been declared dead for twenty years and is still in daily use in the places where it matters most.

• Medical practices, because referrals, orders and records still move this way between providers
• Law firms, where some courts and agencies still expect it
• Insurance, for claims and authorisations
• Logistics and customs, particularly on cross-border paperwork
• Anyone dealing with a government agency that has not moved on

If you are in one of those, the answer is not to get rid of fax. It is to stop paying for a machine and a copper line to do it.

Getting rid of the fax line

The line is usually the expensive part, and it is often the last analogue line in the building. Removing it can mean the office no longer needs any traditional phone service at all.

Worth checking before you cancel anything: alarm panels, elevator phones and some card terminals sometimes share that line or a sibling of it. We check for that as part of the work, because discovering it afterwards is a bad afternoon.

The problem it solves

A fax machine is a single point of failure that nobody monitors. It runs out of paper on a Friday, and the referral that arrived on Saturday is simply gone. Nobody finds out until the patient calls.

There is also the confidentiality problem. A document sitting in a tray in a shared corridor has been seen by everybody who walked past it. In email it is at least addressed to somebody.

Where the faxes end up

Worth deciding deliberately rather than defaulting to one person's inbox.

• A shared mailbox several people watch, so a referral does not sit unopened while somebody is on leave
• Separate numbers for separate departments, so billing paperwork does not land with clinical staff
• Filed automatically into the record system, where your software supports it
• Retained for as long as your industry requires, rather than living in an inbox indefinitely

For a practice handling patient information, that last two points matter more than the cost saving. A fax in a personal mailbox is a record nobody else can find and nobody is managing.

Getting started

Porting a fax number takes a couple of weeks, so it is worth starting before you want the line gone. This is part of the phone system, and it is often the first thing we move for a practice. See also IT support for healthcare.

Call TechBit Solutions at (915) 629-8888.

Questions we get asked

Do we keep our fax number?

Yes. It ports across like any other number, so every customer and vendor who has it on file carries on as normal. Nobody has to be told anything.

Can we still receive from an old fax machine?

Yes. The sender has no idea what is at your end and does not need to. They dial your number the way they always have, and it arrives in your email.

Is it secure enough for patient records?

It is at least as good as the machine in the hallway and usually a good deal better, because a fax sitting in an uncollected tray is one of the most common ways records get seen by the wrong person. Whether it satisfies your particular obligation is a question for whoever advises you on compliance, and we will give them whatever detail they ask for.

What does it save us?

Usually a phone line, the machine, the toner and the paper. For most El Paso offices the line by itself is the bulk of the saving, and it stops the month you switch.

Can we send as well as receive?

Yes, from email or from the portal, from anywhere you have a connection.