Nortel Business Communication Manager
FAX Suite

The fax machine is common place in today's business environment. The ability to transmit hard copy information instantly anywhere in the world has heightened expectations for speed and accuracy of communications. Even with other available technologies, many organizations still rely on facsimile as a primary form of communication with customers, suppliers and employees, especially when hard copy documents are required. BCM'S FAX works with Voice Messaging to provide incoming and outgoing fax capability. A caller can send and retrieve a fax message to and from a mailbox as easily as they send a voice message to and from a mailbox. FAX options can be added individually or as a FAX Suite with the appropriate software key-codes.

BCM FAX provides the following fax capability:

FAX Messaging

FAX Messaging allows incoming faxes to be stored electronically as "fax messages" in a user's voice mailbox just as a voice message is stored. FAX Messaging can be forwarded to another mailbox, directed for printing to any fax machine in the world, or sent to a preprogrammed fax destination.

FAX Messaging becomes an even more powerful tool when it is used in conjunction with the BCM Unified Messaging application since the user can view the fax on their PC screen without having to print it out and retrieve it from a fax machine or printer. Users can also forward the fax on to others or file it in an appropriate folder.

FAX On Demand

The FAX On Demand feature allows a user to retrieve documents stored in BCM Voice Messaging in special mailboxes called FAX On Demand Mailboxes. The FAX On Demand Mailbox contains a greeting and all the documents the user has stored. These documents can be printed on any fax machine.

FAX On Demand allows a caller to retrieve a fax document 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It reduces documentation and distribution costs and also improves the organizations' image and customer service because of the quick response callers get to the information they need. FAX On Demand mailboxes are normally added to the CCR tree.

FAX Broadcasting

Business Communications Manager FAX Broadcasting allows a fax to be sent to multiple destinations, internal or external, by creating one message and addressing it to a fax broadcast group list. There can be 99 fax system Group Lists with each containing 125 member numbers. FAX Broadcasting is a very efficient and cost-effective way to send hard-copy information to many individuals, to stay in touch with important customers and to solicit new business.

FAX Overflow Mailbox

FAX Overflow mailbox is a mailbox for the user's fax machine. If the fax machine cannot answer an incoming fax call, BCM Voice Messaging answers the call and temporarily stores the fax messages in the FAX Overflow mailbox. Later, when the fax machine is ready to print, BCM Voice Messaging sends the stored fax messages to the fax machine.

FAX Overflow is like having a "virtual" fax machine. It significantly reduces the likelihood of an incoming fax encountering a busy or no-answer condition.

How Fax Works

Fax information is collected and displayed in four BCM Voice Messaging reports. Fax can be used by any outside caller or by any mailbox owner in the company. Outside the office, fax can be used from any touchtone telephone. Within the office, fax can be used from any BCM or touchtone telephone connected to the BCM system. Callers using a rotary dial telephone cannot access fax. A fax document (known as a fax message) can be left in a mailbox with or without an introductory voice message. A line can be assigned to a mailbox to act as a Virtual fax line for the mailbox. Any fax messages sent to the mailbox, on this line's telephone number, are sent to the subscriber's mailbox. If the Virtual fax line is either a Direct Inward Dial (DID) or Target Line (1FL), two callers can send a fax to this line at the same time. If a third caller attempts to send a fax to the Virtual fax line, the line is busy and the resulting fax message is delivered to the FAX Overflow Mailbox.

How BCM Fax Integrates

FAX Messaging does not require dedicated voice channels. FAX Messaging shares the voice channels with Voice Messaging and can use any of the 32 voice channels when required. This means that on a 32 channel Voice Messaging system with 2 channels of fax installed, there are still 32 channels of Voice Messaging available when the fax is not in use. Most competitive systems require dedicated channels for fax. This means that competitive systems would reduce the number of voice channels available to 30, even when fax is not in use.