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Trusted Messaging Solutions

Barronswww.caravandeals.co.uk

Customer ProfileBarrons is one of the largest retailers of leisure ve-hicles and equipment in the UK with two main offic-es in the North of England and five branch offices throughout the country. They conduct most of their financial transactions via facsimile technology.

ChallengeIn a business where high-value purchases require paper copies of documentation to be transmitted between retail outlets and finance partners, Bar-rons needed new technology to reduce the cost of facsimile communications.

SolutionBarrons replaced 24 fax machines—each with dedicated fax lines and high maintenance costs—with one Voice over IP account connected to the RelayFax network fax management software from Alt-N Technologies. Faxes are sent and received via page scanners and Alt-N Technologies’ MDaemon email server.

Motorhome retailer saves thousands by replacing 24 fax machines with RelayFaxPurchasing leisure vehicles and equipment is big business in the UK. To make the buying process as smooth as possible for customers—and to slash its own telephone costs—Barrons has switched its fax calls to an IP-based system deploying the RelayFax network fax management software from Alt-N Technologies. Barrons has also migrated its voice lines to Voice over IP (VoIP) technology.

As an alternative to expensive traditional call charge, line rental and ongoing fax hardware maintenance costs, the IP system for voice and fax will recoup its costs in the first year, according to Tim Ormrod, IT Manager at Barrons: “Having budgeted £5,000 ($10,000*) for all hardware and software, we’re confident this will pay for itself within 12 months.”

“We’re confident [our switch to VoIP and RelayFax] will pay for itself within 12 months.”

While many may consider the fax to be old technology, it is essential for high-value purchases requiring paperwork to be transmitted between retailer and lender. For example, when a customer wants to buy a £30,000 ($60,000) mo-torhome, the finance company obviously requires a number of verifications to be carried out. “Paper copies of ID, proof of income and signatures need to be sent,” says Mr. Ormrod. “Hence, we have the reliance on faxing. It’s essential for our business. You’d be surprised how many customer-facing companies still use the trusty fax.”

All Barrons offices fax documents to finance companies and to the head of-fice. In the past, the company had 24 fax machines with line rental costs of £41.50 ($83) a quarter each, or £4,000 ($8,000) a year for all. In addition, there were thousands in call, maintenance, toner and replacement costs. (Barrons had budgeted for three replacement machines annually at up to £500 ($1,000) each.) With RelayFax, all 24 fax stations share one outgoing IP account, cost-ing £10 ($20) a month—£120 ($240) annually—for all local and national calls. All faxes are routed via a VoIP gateway, merging voice and data calls in a cus-tomized solution.

Barrons chose RelayFax because the company needed VoIP for voice calls and believed adding facsimile calls would be an intelligent combination of tech-nologies. “With VoIP, we are further down the road than a lot of companies,” says Mr. Ormrod. “We are able to quickly adapt to new technologies, able to experiment a little and take the plunge. It may not be what you might ex-pect from a motorhome retailer!”

Retail

* U. S. dollars are approximations as of August 2007.

2550 SW Grapevine Parkway, Suite 150 Grapevine, Texas 76051 Phone: (817) 601-3222Fax: (817) 601-3223© 2007 Alt-N Technologies, Ltd. MDaemon and RelayFax are registered trademarks of Alt-N Technologies. www.altn.com

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Trusted Messaging Solutions

The voice over IP system handles both voice and facsimile calls, while RelayFax provides easy installation and configurationBarrons has invested in a cost-effective IP communications system tailored for its business needs. It rents 24 telephone numbers from a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) provider which supplies 24 unique fax numbers over IP. These SIP data calls are delivered to the various company offices over IP using a fairly modest 2Mbps leased line for Internet connectivity. A VegaStream 50 6x4 VoIP gateway converts the incoming IP calls and presents them in the offices as 24 traditional telephone lines. Also there are three 8-port MultiTech modem cards in the RelayFax machine to handle the 24 fax lines.

“I have settings for Relayfax, VoIP and the MDaemon email server that give me

total control over the system.”Using telephone numbers which route calls over IP through their SIP provider significantly reduces Barrons’ facsimile costs because replacing fax machines with RelayFax removes the expenses of maintenance, paper and ink, plus the cost of multiple phone lines. This technology combination also keeps faxes in a digital format—such as PDF—which is a far more efficient way of managing facsimile communications.

“RelayFax is straightforward to use and easy to configure,” Mr. Ormrod explains. “There’s lots of flexibility and, initially, it’s worth spending some time to get the configurations right. I have settings for Relayfax, VoIP and the MDaemon email server that give me total control over the system.”

“In the future, you’ll see many more companies move to IP-based technology. It allows for significant

cost reduction and is much easier to administer.”In addition to RelayFax, the company uses Alt-N’s MDaemon email server to handle all email communications, Outlook Connector for Outlook groupware, and SecurityPlus for MDaemon for protecting email communications against security threats.

“In the future, you’ll see many more companies move to IP-based technology,” says Mr. Ormrod. “It allows for significant cost reductions and is much easier to administer.”

RelaxFax Key Features

Flexible Sending and ReceivingSend via email, web mail, mobile device or desktop application. Receive through email.

Flexible DeploymentOperates on a network or a standalone computer.

Scheduling, Automatic Least Cost Routing Set delivery times and auto-routing to control costs.

ScalabilityOne server can support one user or hundreds, lo-cally or worldwide.

Hardware DiversitySupports Class 1, 1.0, 2, and 2.0 fax modems, as well as boards from major manufacturers.

ISDN SupportSends and receives faxes through ISDN CAPI 2.0 devices.

Email Server DiversityWorks with any standards-compliant POP/SMTP server. Provides optimal performance with the MDaemon email server. Also operates standalone.

DID RoutingDetects DID numbers for routing to specific users.

Delivery Format DiversityOffers various delivery formats, including TIFF, PNG and PDF.

SimplicityEasy to install, configure and maintain without ex-tensive computer background or expensive certi-fications.

Authorized Alt-N Distributor in the UK and Ireland

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