The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

H N

MARCH 1993

Bridging the Communications Gap

Use the Fax!

by John Furlong, Solicitor

Historically, the modern computer

age may be viewed as having four

phases:- data processing; text

processing; access systems and

communications. The former two

dealt with making information more

usable, the latter two with making it

more available. It is quite easy to

take for granted the means by which

large volumes of information are

readily available to us. Legal offices

may share their own store of

information across systems and

networks; centralised sources are

accessible by subscribers through the

telephone and packet switching

networks and vast amounts of daily

traffic are carried via fax machines

across the globe. The

"communications revolution" has

raised expectations and pressed

suppliers of both software and

hardware to.come up with cheaper

and more effective means of linking

remote users and systems to each

other.

Fax and Figures

Today, the fax, telefax or facsimile

machine is a standard item of office

equipment with over 30 million units

in use worldwide. The original idea

of sending a facsimile of a document

across telephone or telegraph systems

originated in the last century. Over

the past ten years fax has become an

accepted (and often preferred means

of communication).

The law is

slowly coming to recognise the fax as

an acceptable format.

Today's

specifications have improved as

dramatically as the price per unit has

fallen. The following points are

worth noting:

• Most mid range fax machines will

now print to A4 sheets using laser

quality printing. There is no

longer any need to opt for

thermal printing on continuous

roll stationery

which resulted in

degraded image quality,

additional costs in photocopying

(since thermal paper fades over

time) and additional time cost in

sorting or cutting the continuous

paper to suitable lengths.

• Most fax machines cannot receive

and transmit at the same time.

One method of solving this

problem is to use timer

transmission delays so that

outgoing faxes can be

programmed to transmit at off

peak rates or after office hours.

In addition, memory facilities on

many machines will store

incoming faxes for bulk printing

after office hours.

• Newer generation machines have

an error correction facility which

will automatically retransmit an

outgoing document if there has

been a fault in the original

transmission.

• Some fax machines can also be

used as photocopiers and printers

which, in a small firm, can

provide an all in one solution to

several office needs.

• Fax machines may include levels

of security to encode

transmissions which can be used

to ensure that confidential faxes

are read only by those to whom

they are addressed.

PCs and Faxes

One of the biggest problems which

remains and which fax machines do

not address on their own is the

transmission of computer generated

traffic. Thus a forty page contract

document may be produced on a

word processing system, printed to

hard copy and then faxed to another

office where the document will be

keyed on another system to be

redrafted or amended. The

subsequent draft is returned via the

fax to the originating office. This

regular occurrence in many offices is

costly in time and resources and is

highly inefficient.

In certain circumstances, the problem

can be overcome by using a PC fax

board (which is installed inside an

existing PC) and a modem which

allows the transmission of a

document directly from one word

processing system to another

compatible system at a remote

location. In theory, this should allow

the paperless processing of a

I document until its final engrossment