OSI Encourages Positive Change with Efficient RightFax E-Document Delivery

OVERVIEW
Changing the world is a big job. To support its far-reaching initiatives, the Open Society Institute (OSI) and worldwide Soros Foundations rely on effective communication.

Unfortunately, manual faxing methods made retrieving important documents a slow, often laborious, task—especially for New York-based regional managers who spend nearly half of their time traveling internationally. The non-profit organization worked to increase the speed and reliability with which employees manage faxes. In doing so, they found an easy change made all the difference.

BACKGROUND
The Soros Foundations network consists of autonomous institutions to initiate and support open society activities in more than 50 countries, including locations in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The network includes these foundations and the OSI, a non-profit organization that provides administrative, financial and technical support for OSI and U.S. Programs initiatives.

Nearly 20 initiatives cover a range of activities aimed at building free and open societies, including the strengthening of civil society; economic reform; education; human rights; legal reform and public administration; media and communications; public health; and arts and culture. Most of the initiatives are administered by OSI-New York or OSI–Budapest and are implemented in cooperation with the various Soros Foundations worldwide.

THE CHALLENGE
For OSI and its network of Soros Foundations, time to process grant-giving efforts must be kept to a minimum. “The more efficiently money is dispersed, the more quickly positive change can come about,” Horace Chang, OSI-New York Systems Director, said.

As the central office supporting foundations located across the globe, OSI-New York employs more than 300 professionals, a third of which are regional managers. For these employees, important documents affecting funding efforts are often received via fax, making fax management a mission-critical function.

Prior to implementing a Captaris business information delivery solution, OSI employees were required to leave their desks and walk to one of almost 50 fax machines scattered across the office. Of course, with several machines handling a consistent flow of incoming transmissions, employees would often spend several minutes stocking paper or fixing paper jams. Also, faxes were sometimes misplaced within the piles of paper that accumulated daily.

When OSI professionals were away from the office—a work location for regional managers almost half of the time—faxes were even more difficult to manage. Documents would often have to wait until mobile workers returned to the New York office or until they had time to call for details to be read over the phone.

Since funding approval for new initiatives must be obtained from regional directors, these communication delays carried the potential to hinder efforts on worldwide initiatives.

To help employees manage messages more quickly, Chang and his team looked for a reliable product that would integrate with the existing OSI infrastructure. “We wanted to improve communication capabilities and streamline employee functionality—especially for our frequent travelers,” Chang said.

THE SOLUTION
The move from manual to electronic faxing proved to be a fit for an organization accustomed to bringing about positive change. “Just receiving faxes at the desktop instead of a fax machine is a big time saving mechanism,” Chang said.

OSI implemented Captaris RightFax, the proven market leader in enterprise fax and e-document delivery solutions, on the advice of its long-term communications provider, CORTEL Business Solutions, Inc. Using RightFax for inbound faxing, employees receive and manage transmitted documents without having to leave their desks or handle stacks of paper. Instead, faxes are delivered—accompanied by a fax icon—directly to users’ email Inboxes. Just as users would manage emails with a couple clicks, they may open, view, store or forward faxes—all in an electronic format.

In fact, thanks to tight integration between RightFax and CallXpress Unified Messaging, users access all messages—emails, faxes and voicemails—in the same manner. “CallXpress and RightFax work well together and integrate perfectly with Microsoft Outlook,” Chang said. “Users can see voicemails, faxes and emails in one familiar interface.”

As a result of the combined solution, Chang estimates office workers have reduced the time necessary to manage faxes and other messages by 30 percent. Also, faxes are no longer misplaced, since they are electronic files delivered directly to intended recipients.

“Users love the capabilities,” Chang reported. “CallXpress and RightFax have become office necessities.”
Fortunately, these “necessities” also return substantial cost savings for OSI. “Another advantage of using RightFax,” Chang stated, “is the ability to maintain or reduce the number of fax machines throughout the office.”

While the organization has kept existing fax machines for specific paper-based, outbound faxing, Chang is glad the office does not need to buy new machines. “Besides the hardware costs, new fax machines would take up space we don’t have,” he said.

A reduction in needed supplies—paper, toner, etc.—also adds up to savings, according to Chang. “I’m not sure what we were spending in supplies before,” he detailed, “but, supplies are a recurrent cost that are not cheap.”

Chang continued, “RightFax has also decreased management requirements related to faxing. Since incoming faxes go straight to the desktop, we replace less toner and paper.”

OSI employees traveling away from the office receive and manage faxes more easily with RightFax. Documents may be obtained using a laptop or Web interface. Also, through integration with CallXpress, fax header information can be read to users over the phone via text-to-speech technology. Using this combined functionality, Chang said, “Traveling directors and managers have cut the time it takes to check messages by 50 percent.”

Chang is excited to add other mobility enhancements through another Captaris product, Infinite Mobile Delivery. The solution provides wireless access to voice, fax and email messages along with important corporate data. With Infinite Mobile Delivery, OSI directors would be able to leave heavy laptops behind all together. “They would have everything on handheld devices that are portable and easier to move around,” Chang said.

While traveling users would still have the ability to manage messages via phone or laptop, Chang predicts using Infinite Mobile Delivery will add convenience since wireless communication enables users to download and see data and messages anytime and anywhere.

THE RESULTS
At first, users were not sure they wanted faxes added to their mailboxes, according to Chang. “Now,” he said, “they see the integration and how helpful it is to streamline daily operations.”

In summary, Chang recapped the benefits of the change from a manual to electronic document delivery system: “With RightFax, employees are able to deal with issues more quickly and get money to the people who need it,” he said.

Positive change has a way of expanding beyond itself—something OSI and the Soros Foundations count on every day.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Captaris is a leading provider of business information delivery solutions that integrate and automate the flow of messages, data and documents. Captaris produces a suite of proven products and services, in partnership with leading enterprise software companies, delivered through a global distribution network. Captaris has over 100,000 systems installed worldwide, with more than 90 of the Fortune 100 using the company's award-winning products and services to reduce costs and increase the performance of critical business information investments. For more information please contact us at: www.Captaris.com or 1.888.320.7778. Outside of the U.S. please call 1.520.320.7000.

About CORTEL Business Solutions
CORTEL Business Solutions, Inc., is a leading regional full-service communications provider that develops, installs, and maintains integrated voice and data systems and worldwide networks. Its general service territory spans approximately 100 miles in radius around the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia tri-state area.
CORTEL works to market and maintain quality communications products and services that meet or exceed the expectations of its customers. It does this by staying ahead of the technological curve, building long-term relationships and using a consultative approach to partner with customers. For more information visit www.cortel.com and contact info@cortel.com or 212.627.4200 ext. 2214.