The IT Forum gives AGC members an opportunity to discuss best practices and garner feedback about products and services that increase efficiencies. The following questions and answers were taken from recent forum posts.
Q: Hello, I would like to know what people out there are using for high-volume fax solutions, specifically on bid day. We are currently using an aging fax solution on a Windows server and it is have trouble keeping up with the volume. So, what do you use and why?
Del Ameko
Jaynes
A: We are using GFI Faxmaker with 12 lines and it works great. We don’t have the 15 minutes before submittal time glut anymore on bid day.
Brett Berdine
Byrne Construction Services
A: We have a Castelle Faxpress that handles the first four lines and prints out to a dedicated printer in the estimating area – as well as an emailed PDF – then we have a group of regular fax machines in the estimating area to handle the overflow. My preference is to get rid of the Faxpress and just maintain a group of dedicated fax machines instead until we agree on a viable alternative to handle bids – drop box, email, other. What’s more reliable than a dedicated fax machine with a pool of POTS lines with generator backup power? On high-volume days, we have to babysit the Faxpress and we do run into bottlenecks printing at times. We do hardly any outbound faxing anymore and hardly any inbound as well.
Ben Stromberg
Knutson Construction
A: We also use Faxmaker and have had good results.
Todd Eldredge MCSE, VCP, CCA
Donley's
A: We have used an online hosted solution for more than a year now, which allows us to electronically manage inbound/outbound faxing. Together with our company electronic archive, we are able to maintain a consistent and permanent audit history. The online solution also allows for growth, without the need to invest in new hardware/software, and removes the system maintenance responsibilities from our IT staff.
Keith Murley
Schimenti Construction
A: We have been using About Time for about 18 months and love it. They, too, have an iPhone and Android app. When we looked at Austin Lane about 18 months ago, they appeared to also be good, but at the time they only had software for the Palm Pilot.
Kenneth Sewell
Baker Triangle