Tuesday Tip: Fax from your iPhone

Who’d ever thought it would be possible to send, receive, and forward a fax from your iPhone?

Today’s feature-laden smartphones give you the freedom to run your business from the road, and an application like RingCentral Mobile goes above and beyond the call of duty to give you true mobility when you need it the most. We’ve written about RingCentral Mobile before, but today’s Tuesday tip will purely focus on mobile faxing features you’ll want to know about.

Receiving a Fax

If you’re an iPhone owner, you must download our free iPhone application called RingCentral Mobile in order manage any faxes. This application gives you the ability to view incoming faxes under the “Messages” tab, which are marked by a small fax machine icon to the left of the sender's fax number. Here you’ll also see the number of pages the transmission contains as well as the time and date the fax was sent.

To view a fax message you simply tap the message alert, which in turn takes you to another screen where you can zoom, rotate, or view the entire faxed document by swiping your finger up or down the screen. Definitely a great way to get a glimpse of incoming faxes while you’re on-the-go.

Forwarding a Fax

There will be times when you’ll want to forward a fax message to another colleague for immediate attention. Fortunately, RingCentral Mobile gives you this ability by providing you with a fax forwarding option on the top right hand side of the Fax View screen. You simply select this option, enter the email address of the person you wish to forward the message to, enter a short message, and hit send. Your fax document is forwarded as a PDF attachment.

Sending a Fax

This is not necessarily a part of RingCentral Mobile yet, but I thought I’d let you know there is a way to send faxes from your iPhone or any smartphone for that matter. In order to do this, you simply enter the fax number followed by @rcfax.com in the” To”” field (example: 5105551212@rcfax.com), enter a message in the email’s subject field, and attach the document you wish to fax. Pretty simple, eh?

That’s it! You can find more information about faxing documents by visiting RingCentral Mobile. If you have any tips or recommendations, leave us a comment in the section below.

How Internet Fax Works in Combination with Adobe Software

The basics 101 by John Sung Kim

Sending faxes over the internet really just means that while traditional faxes send text as images, the combination of an internet fax service such as RingCentral's with Adobe PDF Software means that those faxes can be read as text. For attorneys and many small businesses where compliance and record keeping are essential, this is a large step in not only saving money on fax costs, but being able to store their documents and contracts as digital, readable files.

Internet Fax Functionality

One can scan a document as one normally does in a fax, but in a traditional fax the data sent over the telephone line is not recordable. Once a fax is sent, there's no way to resend it unless it lives in the short-term memory of the fax machine itself (which are notoriously low-computing machines).

In an internet based fax, the data sent is over the internet and that means that documents and image faxed can be stored permanently and automatically into an e-mail inbox or folder. What I particularly like about RingCentral's Online Fax Service is that they're also a virtual phone system provider. I can see a record of all the faxes ever sent or received. That alone is a big deal for any small law firm or sales team that relies on getting faxed contracts.

And if the notoriously unreliable fax machines and transmission are at best 95% successful per dial-tone ring over the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) while internet faxing is 99.9% reliable, no one should hear, "did you get that fax?"

Adobe Acrobat Functionality

Because faxes are sent and received as images, one didn't have the ability to send a fax and then edit it (or store it) as a Word document on a computer. Sounds ridiculous, but think about it - it's true. Only until Adobe Acrobat (and only recent versions started to do this very well) could one take an internet-based fax transmission (basically a picture of a document) and quickly decode it back into text to be saved as a Microsoft Word document. (They would probably prefer you to save it as an Adobe PDF doc, but still - they're both good and work just fine).

Did I mention that it saves paper and is better for the environment?

(*I should disclose here that RingCentral hired me to write for them, but we do use RingCentral in our offices as our primary PBX).

The Future of VoIP

by John Sung Kim, founder of Five9

Many have speculated on the future of VoIP in so many ways. The reality is, there are actually 5 distinct and separate markets for voice over the net:

- Consumer Free VoIP
- Consumer Home VoIP
- Small Business VoIP
- Large Business VoIP
- Telco VoIP

This month we'll cover the first category of consumer free. In 2004 I started a VC funded VoIP company, and back then we had to license a SIP stack ($70k) and SIP soft-phone clients ($10 each) to our endpoint customers. That was when asterisk and other open SIP stack software was still in its relative infancy and virtual phones as a free application was unthinkable.

Though it's only been 5 years, there are dozens of VoIP companies (not just Skype) that offer free applications that allow voice over net communication without license fees - unless of course you call to a termination endpoint. What this means is that there are desktop applications for both Mac and PC (and now on smart-phones such as iPhones, BlackBerrys and Andriod phones) that leverage the web to call another client on the web. However, this is where "free" for the consumer ends.

If you call, even using a free VoIP service, another landline via the good old POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) going to the destination is likely owned by the regional (maybe gone national) telephone company. And they charge a "termination fee" to those other entities that call which can range from a tenth of a penny per minute to over 6 cents per minute in more rural areas where there is less competition.

That means when Skype charges 2 cents per minute to call any land-line in the country, they need to charge this to not only turn a profit, but they have to do so at a calculated risk assuming that most people and most calls will terminate in a major metropolitan area. Personal experience dealing with large telco bills tells me that if anyone calls a land-line in Alaska and all they have to pay is 2 cents per minute - someone is losing money.

Photo by inacentaurdump

Tuesday Tip: Top Twitter clients for Business Users

Twitter has become an essential customer service tool in today's business world, and finding the right Twitter client can be a challenging process. Tweetdeck and Seismic are the most popular, but they don't have the necessary features to support your social media efforts, so we put together a list of some of our favorite business-centric Twitter clients below. We hope this will help you keep track of your tweets!

1. CoTweet: CoTweet is a web-based Twitter client made especially with business owners in mind. The difference between CoTweet, and popular desktop clients like Seismic and Tweetdeck, is that it gives business owners the ability to add multiple users to one account (up to six), assign tweets to users for follow-up, see who’s on duty at all times, and track any escalated issues through notes and user names. The interface is very clean and simple so even a person who’s never used Twitter could understand how it works. Other notable features include integration with social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn), message archiving, URL shortening, threaded conversations, and click-tracking stats. CoTweet is a free service already being used by big companies like Coca-Cola, Ford, and Starbucks.




2. HootSuite: Another professional web-based Twitter client on our radar is called HootSuite. The incredible Twitter client is a mix between TweetDeck and CoTweet in many ways so it’s a great way to transition into a more customer service oriented Twitter client. Like TweetDeck, HootSuite has a tabbed and multiple-column view that allows you to organize your streams by keywords, groups, or profile feeds. It also allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts, and even add multiple editors to select profiles if you wanted to. You can also schedule tweets, view threaded conversations, and generate embeddable columns for your website. Business owners will appreciate the ability to integrate their tweets with services such as Sales Force, Google Adsense, and social networks through Ping.FM. An iPhone application or desktop client are not available at this time, but this web-based service is free to use so give it a try if you’re looking for a more powerful Twitter management system. Companies using HootSuite include Dell, Fox, and National Geographic.



3. Twaitter: Less powerful than CoTweet and HootSuite, but if you’re more concerned about scheduling your daily tweets, then Twaitter is for you. This light app has a tabbed view of your @mentions, searches, groups and archives. The Tweet Calendar allows you to schedule out your tweets up to a month in advanced, and even lets you view a timeline of all your scheduled tweets. Multiple users can be assigned to one account, it includes a URL shortener, spell check tool, and language translation tool. Overall, the clean interface makes navigating through this Twitter client a pleasant experience.



The folks over at SEO Optimise have a comprehensive list of 30 Twitter tools for Business, so check those out and if you have any other suggestions, let us know in the comments below.

Top 5 iPhone Apps that will Help your Business and Productivity

These great iPhone apps will help you survive the daily grind.

The introduction of the iPhone into everyday life has done more than make it easier to contact your friends and make you an amateur photojournalist. It has also helped immensely in the business world. We wanted to tell you about some iPhone apps that you might not know about that will help your business run more smoothly and boost productivity at or away from the office.

1. Business Productivity Booster & Tracker ($4.99)

This app is similar to TimeLogger, but goes one step further. If you need to track several employees and check on their productivity, then Business Productivity Booster & Tracker is the tool for you. You can create productivity groups and factors for each group. Add resources into the groups. Track by day, week or monthly. View a progress chart. Lastly, you can export a .csv file for easy printing. This app is a must for any Project Coordinator.

2. Evernote (Free)

Imagine that you are at a meeting across the continent. Your are taking notes while someone writes on a whiteboard and another person hands you 20 business cards. Not to mention that you have met 15 people who you need to know for the company dinner the next evening. Have no fear... Evernote is here! This app will let you take photos of the whiteboard, business cards and your notes and render them text searchable. This feature is also available if you want to leave some vocal notes. It also lets you organize the files to find it easily in the future. And the company dinner? Take a picture of everyone and put in their name so you can study it for later. Great for Partners in a firm that are constantly out of town and meeting potential clients.

3. iXpenseIt Lite (Free)

Do you have problems keeping track of all of those receipts and charges either on the road or off? The iXpenseIt Lite is a great way to help you manage your expenses. A bonus is that you can add a budget beforehand to make sure you don't exceed your means. This is a must have if you are constantly flying across the country for meetings and sales opportunities. Any CFO or Money Manager would love having this app for their employees.

4. Mocha Remote Desktop Lite (Free)

There are times when I am sitting in Starbucks and the person sitting next to me realizes that I am a computer engineer. We strike up a conversation and ultimately, they ask me for some samples of my work. If I don't have my laptop with me, then I can easily login to my home PC and show examples of what I do. That's what Mocha Remote Desktop Lite is for; it gives you a way to access your home PC for whatever reason. I have frequently wanted to send someone an e-mail, but worried that I wouldn't remember when I got home later. With Mocha, I can send the e-mail right then and there. One less thing to worry about. This is perfect for those Salesmen who are always on-the-go.

5. RingCentral Mobile (Free for RingCentral Customers)

This application creates a Virtual PBX Business Phone System on your cell phone. RingCentral Mobile gives you an auto attendant, on-hold music, customized greetings, call screening and a dial-by-name directory to give you call answering that professional polish. You can also use a toll free number to call from your cell phone. Need to send a virtual fax? No problem. Need to forward a call? Easy as pie. It really is like having an office in your pocket and helps you to organize everything. This app is perfect for executives who need to handle all of the calls and messages they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Make your iPhone your new office assistant and see your productivity soar.

History of the Fax Machine

Faxing has become one of those technologies that you can't do without.

Do you ever have those moments in life when you wonder how people survived in the past without a certain technology? I often ask my mother how she grew up on the Texas coast without air conditioning and she always says "we didn't know any better".

Every time I send a fax online, I wonder the same thing. The introduction of the fax to the mainstream business world started a worldwide shift in how we do business. Things didn't halt for a few days waiting on the client to get the contract and then have it sent back. It set up the current ideology that we can have things now rather than later.

If you needed to get a document to someone in the past, you would have to hire a courier or package delivery service especially if it needed to get there overnight. This involved putting the document together, calling the courier, giving it to them only to have them put it on a plane (or delivery truck), hope and pray that something bad doesn't happen and then have the document handed to the person it was meant for.

If you lived close, this was a fairly quick process, but what if you wanted to get a document from Miami to Seattle in the late-1950s? Very rarely would it happen overnight unless you sent one of your employees to Seattle and even that might be pushing it.

Luckily, the fax machine has changed all of that. Many think that it was invented in the 1980s and they will be surprised to find out that fax technology was actually created in 1843 by a little known Scotsman named Alexander Bain. The telegraph machine had been created by Samuel Morse in 1835 and Mr. Bain used that technology to help evolve his idea of "improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs".

While the telegraph machine sent dots and dashes across the world, Alexander Bain's machine used a stylus mounted on a pendulum that would scan a flat metal surface containing images.

This was a breakthrough in communications during a time when new inventions seemed to happen every day. Since that time, the fax machine was improved upon by several different inventors.

• 1850 - F.C. Blakewell invented the Copying Telegraph.


• 1860 - The first fax was sent between Paris and Lyon using a Pantelegraph, invented by Giovanni Caselli.


• 1895 - A watchmaker from America named Ernest Hummel invented the Telediagraph.


• 1902 - Dr. Arthur Korn took a big leap when he invented the Photoelectric System.


• 1914 - Edouard Belin realized the benefits of using remote fax for journalism.


• 1924 - Politicians got involved and started using the Telephotography Machine to send political convention photographs to newspapers. AT&T developed the machine.


• 1926 - RCA created the Radiophoto which faxed documents using radiowaves.


• 1947 - The very first successful fax machine as we know it was invented by Alexander Muirhead.


• 1955 - First radio fax transmission was sent to the other side of the continent.

In the past 5-10 years, the biggest improvement has been online fax machine technology. It helps to save on paper costs and can be lightning fast. It also allows the receiver to file the fax virtually so that it can be referenced quickly in the future. You simply send the fax with your computer and the receiver gets it. What could be faster than that? Telepathic faxing, maybe?

The next time you are sending a fax, be it physically or by internet fax, think about all of those thinkers before you that worked hard to bring this technology to fruition and ask yourself, how did we live without it?

Photo by cliff1066™

Tuesday Tip: A Green Office Equals Savings

Transforming your office can lead to more money in your pocket too

Running an ecologically friendly business is not only a good investment for us and our community but also a simple way to conserve energy and save money. After a long day at the office who really remembers to turn off their computers anymore? Unfortunately, most of us aren’t aware of the consequences in our routine behavior and the disastrous affects it has on others. Regardless of whether you’re the boss or an employee, everyone can help save energy, recycle waste, and create a friendlier environment. Below are several tips to help you save energy around the office and support any green efforts you have started:

1) Optimizing the energy settings on all the computers in your workplace can save you a tremendous amount of electricity, and money. Simply changing computers to energy-saving settings and remembering to put them on sleep mode when you leave the room will improve energy efficiency in the workplace. After a hard day of work, take a moment and remember to unplug all the appliances that will drain energy while you’re away. For instance, your cell phone charger uses electricity even when it isn’t charging your phone. Keep in mind that most gadgets still use up energy in low power mode, so you’ll need a powerstrip that cuts idle current , such as the Smart Power Strip in order to power only specific devices when the rest are off.

2) Switching to energy efficient light bulbs is also another great way to conserve electricity. Only 8 percent of the energy consumed by an incandescent light bulb is actually used to produce light. The rest just creates useless heat. Light bulbs such as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last ten times longer. LED desk lamps and other energy-saving light fixtures could be implemented all around the office. As well as utilizing natural daylight in large windowed offices to preserve heat and electricity. There are even simpler tasks we can work into our daily routine such as turning off lights in the kitchen and restroom when they aren’t being used. Raising awareness and remembering to do what our parents told us - turn off those lights - helps protect our environment and saves money.

3) One polystyrene cup contains one billion chlorofluorocarbons which contain elements of chlorine that can potentially harm a large amount of the ozone layer. To avoid using Styrofoam cups at the office, ask everyone to bring their own personal coffee mug and keep spare ones for guests. To avoid excess waste provide real towels in the kitchen and restrooms. Don’t use paper napkins! Rather than keeping cabinets full of paper, store things electronically and switch to editing and organizing digitally.

4) If you must keep paper items in stock, at least make sure they are recycled! Recycled paper saves 55 percent of water compared to freshly made paper. But simply having the nice recycler’s logo on the front package is not enough. When you buy recycled paper check the labels to make sure you’re buying paper with a high percentage of post-consumer content and little to no chlorine bleach. This paper has far less toxic chemicals that are harmful for the environment and will help make your office more eco-friendly. To help your recycling efforts, reuse boxes from your office and use shredded paper as packaging material. These small little changes will help conserve supplies and eliminate unnecessary waste.

5) Another hazardous part of our daily routine is commuting to work every morning. For every gallon of gas we use in our cars, 19 pounds of CO2 are released into the atmosphere. Public transport, biking, or even carpooling would help reduce your gas emissions tremendously. The best way to commute, however, is not to commute at all- or to telecommute. Telecommuting could potentially help save millions of dollars in gas mileage and best of all- it allows you to work from your own home! If people drive about 1,000 miles a month, they are producing around 120 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Imagine how much of our environment we could all save by telecommuting even once-twice a week.

Though we might not be saving the planet all at once, helping the environment and raising awareness is important in the work place and at home. Every little bit counts.

Has your office gone green? If so, share your tips with us below.