FOR YEARS, choosing a faxing service was easy. Individuals and small businesses wishing to send a fax used a standard machine, paying standard Telkom rates for the pleasure of transmitting.

Companies handling large volumes of documents daily used a fax server solution, which reduced document delivery costs, accelerated business cycles, enhanced accountability and effectiveness and increased control over document dissemination.

For Amvia, which according to website has 80% of the Top 100 South African companies using it`s products, business was great.

THE UPSTART

Enter the outsourced fax-to-e-mail service, an upstart method of faxing which takes a fax message, converts it into data and transmits it to the recipient as an e-mail attachment.

It requires nominal set-up costs, as users don`t need a fax machine and can go completely paperless. Also, the service does not require complicated integration into the network.

Many service providers even offer it for "free" - if you have an e-mail address, you can acquire an 0866 fax number!

However, is the system all it`s cracked up be? There are those who believe it`s a rip-off for the individual user.

The spokesperson for the Communications Users Association of South Africa (Cuasa) notes that the tariff of R2.02 per minute for the 0866 number range is much higher than the Telkom standard rates, and that consumers are not adequately informed about the cost of sending a fax through his system.

Jason Berry, former Citec CEO and developer of FaxPlatform, says the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) should do more to ensure users are adequately informed.

Currently, Telkom only has to publish tariff information; there is no obligation to provide additional information. The information is also not readily available in the phone book.

However, the tariff was set by Icasa and Telkom published the information in its directory.

So why would an individual user pay that amount of money if he could use a regular service?

SAVING YOU TIME, SAVING YOU MONEY

Calum McCracken, CEO of Safikatel says fax2e-mail is not only cost-effective: it saves users money. To start with, the individual using regular fax still has to have a machine to send from.

He has maintenance costs, paper cost and transmission costs. "You need to look at the total cost of sending a fax, including how much it costs the company to set up the system and maintain it before making a judgement,` he insists.

For companies with a large number of users, McCracken argues that fax2e-mail is still a good option even when compared to the server-based system. He calculates that in a three-year period, a company with 1 500 users using a fax server would pay six times the amount it would if using fax2e-mail.

Berry argues that fax2e-mail services are quicker.

Another factor to take into consideration is that it costs little to receive a fax, as the transmission comes through channels already set up for e-mail receipt.

RAPID TAKE-UP

Take-up for the fax2e-mail service is increasing at a good rate. Berry says fax2e-mail is estimated to exceed 60% penetration levels by the end of 2006.

Leon Labuschagne, CEO of Data2Data, says his company has seen a fairly constant growth of 10% usage per month for the past year, which translates to 30% growth per quarter.

He says about 70% of his subscriber base is small, medium and micro-sized enterprises.

"The popularity of the service is mainly due to the ease of use," he says.

Fax2e-mail is however not a silver bullet for all faxing ills, Berry says.

"One must not forget that if the e-mail is not delivered, an individual has no way to recover his fax or view his fax logs,` he says.

The system also does not have a way of managing collective faxes received by their employees.

However, he sees a big place in the market for it. "The immediate benefit is that service providers will offer encrypted faxes, fax tracking systems, confidential fax communications, indefinite storage and recovery services," he says.

The service will also offer a PC2fax service and full Electronic Communications and Transaction Act compliance, he says.