How about sending and receiving fax and SMS via Microsoft BPOS or other hosting environments?

Cloud computing is the ideal way of downsizing internal IT infrastructures and for the efficient provision of applications, which is why many companies are migrating Microsoft Exchange to service providers. However, hosted Exchange solutions lack important functions that are required to operate unified messaging within this environment. As fax remains an essential service for many companies in Europe, Ferrari electronic's OfficeMaster offers a solution which combines the advantages of cloud computing with unified messaging.

For the users themselves, working with the unified messaging solution is as easy as writing an e-mail. They work in the familiar Outlook program. An add-in uses existing fax numbers for contacts, and it automatically recognizes telephone numbers that are entered manually as fax numbers.

OfficeMaster is implemented locally and it communicates with the online services from Microsoft by means of a specialized connector. Fax transmission and reception continues to work via the local PBX system. In addition, received faxes and status reports are stored in the hosted mailbox. Users can attach documents, such as those from Microsoft Office, to an e-mail and send them to the local connector via the hosted Exchange server. The connector then generates a fax from the e-mail and its attachment. A local Active Directory - which is constantly synchronized with the central BPOS Active Directory - manages the user fax settings, including the extension numbers for receiving fax.

With BPOS, OfficeMaster is installed in the network. However, Ferrari electronic also supports configurations in which OfficeMaster itself is operated as a hosted solution.

Whitepaper Faxing with BPOS and OfficeMaster BPE “BPOS Edition”