TASC
Challenges
TASC is a driven, high-performance company whose mission is to efficiently deliver innovative employee benefits and administration services. The company has also set aggressive goals for continued growth, fueled partly via acquisitions. Trevor Farnum, director of infrastructure and acquisition technologies at TASC, is responsible for managing the integration of those acquired companies.
Farnum described the challenge he faces when dealing with the varied faxing technology of each new company: “Having multiple fax systems in our ecosystem is costly because we have to manage and maintain those systems. From acquired companies, we have multiple T1 lines or varying fax services that are brought into our company. We need to consolidate and achieve efficiencies through economies of scale. To do that, we have to move to one standard provider.”
To add to the challenge, Farnum must ensure that the standardized technology can support the highly seasonal nature of TASC’s business. The company’s highest fax volumes come primarily from people submitting benefits claims via fax.
“We have a seasonality to our product offerings. The Flexible Spending Account is a good example since it is based on taxation, so there is a huge spike in activity near the end of the year (when unused benefits will be lost). In my role, being in charge of the infrastructure and acquisition technology, I have to figure out where I need to have technology line up with this peak,” explained Farnum.
Farnum and his team set out to find an enterprise fax solution with the scalability, flexibility, and affordability to manage the peaks and valleys of the growing TASC business. “We needed a strong dedicated partner who could help us manage the fluctuating volumes and ensure uptime while reducing our costs. It was important for us not to have to maintain an infrastructure large enough for the busy times even during the slower times of the year,” said Farnum.
Solution
OpenText RightFax Connect—cloud transmission for the market-leading RightFax server
After a highly analytical and cost-driven decision-making process, TASC selected OpenText™ RightFax with OpenText™ RightFax Connect. OpenText RightFax provides enterprise faxing capability—integrating fax and document distribution with email, desktop, and document management applications. The RightFax Connect option allows TASC to cloud-enable the RightFax server, with a fully outsourced telephony solution that eliminates the need for fax boards, fax channels, gateways, PRI/T1/E1 lines, analog phone lines, or complex PBX integrations.
RightFax Connect enables TASC to meet their seasonal volume spikes. The scalable cloud faxing solution automatically provides capacity for small and large fax volumes, including bursts and peaks. “OpenText also brought about redundancy capabilities for fax transmissions (or delivery) for a fraction of the price of doing the same thing on premises,” added Farnum.
TASC’s history with the RightFax product also factored into the decision—TASC had successfully used RightFax for several years and many of its acquired companies were also using some form of the RightFax solution. “RightFax has always been a very stable product,” said Farnum. He added that continuing to use RightFax provided “a really positive benefit for us because we’re rolling out something that everybody is familiar with.”
TASC opted to move to the hybrid solution to gain flexibility and economies of scale. “When you’re looking at the growth that we’re adding to the business and how fast I want to absorb the acquisitions and acquire my economies of scale, I need a partner who can grow with me. We liked the hybrid option because the OpenText solution will grow as fast as I need it to grow. I didn’t want to have to estimate where I needed to be from a T1 line or from a fax system. I could just move fax delivery over to the cloud and have OpenText manage it,” explained Farnum.
Implementation
TASC worked closely with a trusted strategic partner, The Fax Guys, to help implement the solution. “They brought the RightFax expertise to the table, which enabled us to move faster and achieve our delivery objectives,” said Farnum.
They began the implementation with one of TASC’s acquired companies before rolling out the solution to TASC corporate. “The Fax Guys had a system to make sure that the first production system was ready to go, so when we did the cutover it was a very smooth process.” The team encountered an issue with the main rollout, when a telco provider dropped a line a week earlier than expected. “That caused a massive problem, but OpenText responded quickly and partnered with us to get the fax line back up and operational. It was really great having such a nice team at OpenText to work with,” says Farnum.
OpenText RightFax with RightFax Connect is now used at TASC for all incoming and outgoing faxes, for both corporate and for TASC’s acquired companies.
Benefits
Fax delivery via the OpenText Cloud
Using OpenText RightFax Connect, TASC can now optimize the flow of fax traffic and eliminate costs associated with managing and maintaining telephony connections. TASC can also reallocate the time and resources that used to be spent maintaining multiple fax systems. “OpenText RightFax Connect has allowed us to refocus our team on more important TASC-related objectives and off fax system maintenance and telco contracts to manage the physical inbound T1 lines. It’s freed up my resources. Traditionally, we would have had roughly one-eighth of a full-time employee managing the fax system on a weekly basis to ensure everything was operational. Now, I can refocus that employee back to his everyday tasks of desktop support,” said Farnum.
