To the casual observer, the similarities among fax servers may make selecting one seem like a commodity purchase. On Wednesday, two major fax server vendors, GFI and Captaris, tried to step away from the crowd and get their servers noticed: GFI released FAXMaker for Exchange 9, and Captaris announced that RightFax will be included with Oracle9i Application Server.
FAXMaker for Exchange 9
To the casual observer, the similarities among fax servers may make selecting one seem like a commodity purchase. On Wednesday, two major fax server vendors, GFI and Captaris, tried to step away from the crowd and get their servers noticed: GFI released FAXMaker for Exchange 9, and Captaris announced that RightFax will be included with Oracle9i Application Server.
FAXMaker for Exchange 9
GFI is billing FAXmaker for Exchange 9 as the first fax server to need “zero administration.” The product does not require an internal fax user database, which GFI believes greatly reduces administration and saves enterprises time and money.
FAXMaker instead relies on Active Directory and allows all fax-related settings to be directly applied to Windows users or groups.
“FAXmaker for Exchange 9 was designed from the ground up to minimize the administration required. Thanks to its new interface, FAXmaker for Exchange 9 must only be installed and configured once, without requiring further maintenance,” explained Nick Galea, GFI CEO.
Key new features in FAXmaker for Exchange 9 are:
- A built-in spam filter
- Support for Windows XP clients
- A Microsoft Management Console (MMC) based interface to monitor and configure the server remotely
- Integrated Brooktrout drivers
Key capabilities include:
- Import and export of direct inward dialling (DID) numbers via Excel
- Auto-generation of DID numbers
- Easy mapping of DID numbers to FAXmaker users
FAXmaker for Exchange is a native fax connector for Exchange Server, and thus carries no need for a proprietary fax client: Faxes can be sent and received from within the Microsoft Outlook client.
FAXmaker for Exchange is priced from $750 for a 25-user version to $1,895 for a 100-user version.
RightFax and Oracle 9iAS
Captaris, meanwhile, announced that Oracle has integrated RightFax into Oracle 9i Application Server. Going forward, Oracle will include RightFax’s drivers in every copy of Oracle 9iAS it sells, thus enabling mobile customers to wirelessly send print documents to any fax machine.
As a wireless application server, Oracle9iAS enables enterprises to extend their applications to all wireless devices. The server also offers full J2EE support for developing, deploying, and managing mobile applications.
When using Oracle9iAS and RightFax, a mobile user can forward any document he or she has accessed from a wireless device to a nearby fax machine for printing. This offers the capability to turn virtually any fax machine into a secure network printer.
“With the growing number of professionals working out of the office, it is imperative to have a reliable remote printing solution that works securely and easily,” said Christopher Davis, senior vice president for global marketing at Captaris.
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