Storm, the telecommunications company, is making the workplace an increasingly paper-free environment through its desk-top-faxing service.
This new offering enables users to send a fax from their PC, without the need for any custom hardware or software, all at an affordable rate, making it ideal for small to medium-sized organisations that work to an extremely tight budget. One of the up-front benefits of the offering is reduced costs whereby users are able to save up to 39% on national faxes and as much as 70% on international faxes. Faxes scheduled for after hours delivery benefit from an additional 25% saving.
Tim Wyatt-Gunning, managing director at storm, says: "An increasing number of businesses are communicating almost exclusively from their desktops. Storm realises that businesses want to move away from mountains of paper, and employees having to stand by a fax machine, waiting to send important information. Businesses also require a converged set of services to make the lives of their employees easier and Storm is striving to make this a reality."
Storm Desktop faxing enables customers to attach a document to an e-mail using software such as Microsoft Outlook by using a FaxNumber@stormfax.co.za address. Included in the offering is an informative delivery report that is returned to the sender's inbox within minutes, updating them on the progress of their fax. Users have the ability to attach a document created in virtually any application as storm has configured the product to ensure suitability in almost any environment.
This offering is part of Storm fax, which provides customers with significantly reduced fax costs for original documents that must be sent from the fax machine. Storm engineers install a fax management unit (FMU) onto a company's direct fax line, PABX extension or fax server lines, depending on the fax machine's location. The FMU then routes national and international calls over storm's IP network to the dialled fax machine.
National faxes are 20% cheaper than Telkom, provided the distance exceeds 100km and international faxes are up to 70% cheaper than the norm. Users have the option of purchasing the product for R550. Alternatively, there is a monthly rental option.
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Storm was incorporated as a South African limited company in December 1998. The business launched in Cape Town in June 1999. Storm is challenging the telecommunications status quo in SA.
The company provides over 2 000 businesses with a range of high quality, low-cost alternatives to existing providers of voice and data communication, reducing the cost of their phone, fax and Internet access bills.
Storm lowers the cost of international calls for businesses using callback technology. Additionally, storm has services which lower the cost of calls to cellular phones, utilising cellular least cost routing technology. With the acquisition of ITI's ISP business in 2000, storm offers a full range of Internet access, SMS, Web and data hosting services.
With its IP infrastructure and expertise, storm is positioned to offer converged voice and data services on one network, once deregulation of the local telecommunications market takes place.
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