Time to talk a little "M-F-P" !

Open Text FDDG's very own MFP guru - Jim Wieser is starting a blog about a topic well deserving of discussion - the Multi-Function Product (MFP) business.  Good luck and you can count on my support and comments!

http://faxsolutionsblog.opentext.com/2012/12/10/opentexts-jim-wieser-to-begin-mfp-blog-series/

Free Fax? A blog from Doug Olive at Ingenium Software caught my eye...

http://hub.ingeniumsw.com/blog/bid/165916/Modules-for-Nothing-and-Fax-for-Free?goback=.gde_2456831_member_191145549

New Cloud Offerings from OpenText...

http://faxsolutionsblog.opentext.com/2012/10/15/opentext-announces-the-release-of-new-cloud-services/

Fax ATA + Fax Server/Services = a SOHO Market for Fax?

Click to link to PDF of article (Click)

Testing the MediaPak™ Fax ATA from AudioCodes

By Mark Malone, Fax Industry Analyst

I was asked to test an interesting new fax product that should make an impact for fax on the smaller, SMB and even SOHO markets. AudioCodes asked me to evaluate a new “flavor” of their Fax Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA) product.  The “new” is really the Fax ATA and a new product bundle now that the device has abilities for 3^rd-party interconnectivity. I was to do the evaluation product under the auspices of this new go-to-market strategy, but this was a few months ago and I have heard nothing from them in a while. Nonetheless, I wanted to share my findings anyway.

The AudioCodes ATA device is not new and has been selling well on the market for over two years.  You plug a device into a fax machine or fax-enabled MFP and now the outbound fax calls can be sent securely over the internet or local network. This is a tremendous benefit to the, “Residential and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) VoIP market” according to AudioCodes.   

I couldn’t agree more...read on...

Summer Holidays Coming to an End...

Hello Fax People!

I trust everyone in the Northern Hemisphere has had a wonderful summer! Coming soon, I have new posts about the fax market so stay tuned! - Mark Malone

Banking Technology; Article on Cloud Technology

Banking Technology Website - article on cloud technology.  A long article but a good read..... - MM

http://www.bankingtech.com/bankingtech/clouding-over/20000227303.htm

RightFax 10.5 is here !!

Check out the latest release of RightFax.

http://faxsolutionsblog.opentext.com/2012/07/17/press-release-opentext-rightfax-10-5-helps-businesses-boost-productivity-performance-and-profitability/

Kofax Express 3.1 and upcoming earnings call

Kofax (LSE:KFX) has released Kofax Express 3.1:  http://www.kofax.com/journal/index.php/software/kofax-express-3-1-now-shipping/

FYI - their earnings call is 7:00 am UK time on Tuesday, July 24, 2012.
http://www.kofax.com/news/article.asp?id=1322

Cloud Interrupted

So it seems my previous blog where I employed a Mandelbrot quotation about clouds in the context of the OTEX-ESIC acquisition, may have been taken the wrong way.  Let me put that to rest before more of you get your knickers all in a bunch.

I used Mandelbrot’s quote because it stemmed from his lifelong research as a mathematician and as an “IBMer” who is known as the “father of fractal geometry”.  His perspectives of “clouds” are a parallel thought of sorts: As you get closer, there are more complexities.

Today’s cloud computing environments certainly have more complexities as you get a closer look.  

OpenText Announces The OpenText Cloud

"A cloud is made of billows upon billows upon billows that look like clouds. As you come closer to a cloud you don't get something smooth, but irregularities at a smaller scale..."    - Benoit Mandelbrot

Congratulations to OpenText! (Link below)

http://www.opentext.com/2/global/press-release-details.html?id=AB6A5496D22540D3BADA0E3210012BBB

Axient's summary of RightFax 10 SR 3

Nice post from Karl Tikoft from Axient about RightFax 10.0 SR 3.  I also added them to my list of blogs. Check it out from THE RightFax experts down under!
http://www.axient.com.au/blog/view/15-service-release-3-for-rightfax-v10

Testing FAX ATA Product from AudioCodes

Bob Green from AudioCodes asked me to test and write about their Fax-enabled ATA (analog telephone adaptor) device.  My testing is underway and nearly complete which means soon I will be ready to publish my results, commentary and observations.  The premise is that some companies may in fact want to keep their fax machines or their MFPs which may already have fax hardware installed.  The device is plugged into your network as well as your MFP or fax machine where it provides a dial tone. Working in conjunction with eFAX, you or your users simply do what they normally do, send a fax, or scan a document then fax. Instead of dialing out on a traditional phone line, the ATA "intercepts" the call and places it out over the internet. Sounds easy right?  Stay tuned for my review !!

EasyLink investors are greedy?

So if you watch my newsreel at the top of my blog page, you may have seen the headline from SBWire about EasyLink investors who've engaged the law firm of Brodsky & Smith to "investigate" the OTEX acquisition.  The link to the article is at the end of this post.

I don't get it.  $7.25 is NOT enough when the stock price hasn't been that high since the super-inflated dot.com craze??   From 1999-2001 ESIC stock was all over the charts. Since then, it hasn't been above $7.00 at all. Investors should be happy with the negotiated price. Moreover, maybe next time they can go to the shareholder's meetings and vote for different Directors! Sorry guys - pay attention next time.

I'm irritated at the article too - especially the part that reads, "EasyLink Services’ financial performance improved lately. Its Total Revenue rose from $81.44million for a 12months period ending on July 31, 2010 to $164.77million for the 12months period ending on July 31, 2011 and its Net Income increased over the respective time periods from $17.09million to $24.70million."


HELLO? Not only is that passage a huge understatement - It failed to mention that ESIC acquired Xpedite during that period (Oct. 2010). Granted, with that acquisition it gained top line revenue, but they also assumed a huge amount of Xpedite's debt.

I am not a financial expert, but I see this as a greedy play by the ESIC investors. Take your money and run, else you'll spend it on legal fees.

Here's the article:  http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/easylink-services-international-corp-nasdaqesic-stockholder-alert-merger-under-investigation-140960.htm

Yes, but will it get “EASIER”? Open Text announces Easylink acquisition plans…

I was excited to learn that Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) (TSX: OTC) recently announced its acquisition of EasyLink (NASDAQ: ESIC) for a modest $7.25 per share. EasyLink, who’s latest balance sheet shows a $243M in assets versus a $143M in liabilities (source: Yahoo! Finance) has not seen a trade price at that level in a very long time.  Trading volume, which normally hovers in the 10’s of thousands of shares per day, jumped to 12M+ shares on May 2, 2012 after the announcement.

Fax Industry gossip, commentary, etc.

March 7, 2012

Here are some latest observations and perspectives brought to my attention, comments welcome – MM

Open Text RightFax:

The folks at RightFax have a lot of newness to talk about; especially with respect to branch offices, appliance fax, secure email, hosted fax, cloud-based support, online access, and even a cool integration with the Cortado Communications Server for mobile users. You would come to expect nothing less from them as the dominant player in this space.  Version 10 is solid and I now ask, “What’s next?”

etherFAX:
EtherFAX has come on to the stage with offerings that put the entire telephony infrastructure in the “cloud” – really cool stuff and it represents an alternative to FoIP and an alternative to supporting a telephony infrastructure internally.  A good company to watch and I’m sure we will hear more about them.

Biscom:
While we’re on the topic of “diss-ing” FoIP:  A short time ago, Biscom introduced “Biscom IP FAX”, which they say stands for “High Definition-Internet Protocol Fax” (HD IPFAX).  This is a proprietary technology they’ve developed that circumvents the need for a traditional PSTN or FoIP connection.  Companies that require high definition, color imagery transfers can use IPFAX to transport at very high speeds via their encrypted internet connection.  A great application for medical imaging, graphic arts, retail stores, and many other industries that require high resolution color image or color fax delivery.

Question: Is color fax an underserved market??  (Comments welcome)

New Blog Links Added...

On the right hand side of the blog page, towards the bottom: I've added other Fax blog links and latest info.  If you'd like to link up your Fax blog, please contact me at Mark@MarkDMalone.com.  Thank you !

Fax Vendor RSS News Feeds added to this blog

I've added RSS feeds at the bottom of the page for various Fax Server vendors. I will find a better home for them soon. Thank you./

Electronic Signatures: A Death Knell for FAX ??

The other day I signed a very important document without using a pen and it was done 100% online and you know what?  It made me think of fax. 

Okay, so I need to get a life. 

But the truth is that I conducted an electronic business transaction that required my signature on a document and go figure - I didn’t have to print it, sign it and fax it back. The sender used a third-party software product that gave me the option to “sign” the document online. It even gave me a choice that allowed me to draw my signature using the mouse on my computer.  If I didn’t choose that option, it filled in my signature for me using a special cursive-like font.  I didn’t like this because it didn’t look like my signature. So I chose to draw it using a mouse – not an easy thing to do, but at least I can say I “signed” it myself.  

Pretty cool indeed, but what made me think of fax?

Open Text and Message Manager

Open Text, (NQ: OTEX) the owners of the market leading RightFax product line, recently acquired Message Manager Solutions, an Australian Company who has apparently been handing OTEX their lunch down under and making waves with fax & messaging business in a country that was supposed to be dominated by OTEX's RightFax via their regional distributor, Axient.

I believe the acquisition was an excellent strategic decision made by Open Text and will help take back any lost ground they might have suffered in that vital region.

It's crowded in here: Fax Vendors and Market Data

Is it me, or does the list of Fax suppliers seem to be getting longer? I'm referring to the one and only market report available that lists vendors and market share data - we all know who I'm talking about.

Every time a new report comes out, we seem to have new players, or old ones that resurface from time to time. We also see the fruits of the M&A labors that take place each year. Open Text's acquisition of Message Manager is a fine example as is Topcall and Kofax being acquired by DICOMM.  Still, I recently searched online for a fresh look at fax suppliers and frankly, I didn't recognize some of the companies listed.  

I really believe this to be a good thing; the more the merrier.

Welcome !

Welcome to the Future of Fax Blog! Coming soon, there will be topics to blog about, helpful links and hopefully objective discussion about the Computer-based Fax Market. Please "join" or submit a post.