Football fans, have you heard the incredible story of Elvis Dumervil? (If not, I promise I’m not making this up.) Short version: Were it not for a fax blunder, he’d have been playing in tomorrow’s Super Bowl!
With both Super Bowl Sunday and National Signing Day around the corner, here’s a great time to revisit an issue mobile professionals like you face all the time — and help you solve it. You can get plenty done on the road from your mobile device: You can email, text, videoconference and do research on the Web. But how do you sign and send fax?
That’s the issue Denver Broncos player Elvis Dumervil and his agent faced in 2013. Actually, I should say it’s the issue the former Broncos player and his fired agent faced. In the final minutes before the negotiation deadline, Dumervil’s agent was desperately looking for a place to send the signed contract — for $8 million — to renew his client’s tenure with Denver. The deadline passed. Denver cut Dumervil. Then he fired his agent.
What’s truly heartbreaking about Dumervil’s story — but great news for you — is that it’s now easy to sign a fax on your screen using only your finger, and send it right from your mobile device.
Here are two reasons a mobile professional like you should never take the field without a mobile fax app:
1. Fortify your defense
Chances are delivering a fax late won’t ever cost you $8 million. But could it cost you a sale? A client? Could it harm your reputation? You bet.
You probably do a lot of work on the go, so faxing isn’t always easy. That means you have two choices. First option: Look for a place with a physical fax machine when you’re on the road and need to send a fax. But that didn’t work so well for Dumervil’s agent, who ran out the clock on his client’s negotiating period racing around town looking for a copy place to fax the contract.
A better option: Subscribe to an online fax service that lets you fax by email or directly from a mobile app.
2. Relax and enjoy the game
When you have an online fax service with a mobile app included, you can take your business on the road anytime — and even step away from work for family and fun — knowing that if an urgent fax does come in, you’ll have nothing to worry about.
Just use your mobile device to read the fax, make notes if necessary, then sign it with a finger swipe and send it back — no printing, no scanning, no frantically searching for a fax machine.
So go ahead: enjoy tomorrow’s Super Bowl. With your online fax service, it won’t matter where the party is — you’ll be able to deal with any fax business right from your seat.
Besides, you’re sure to have a better time watching it than Elvis Dumervil.
Mike Pugh is Vice President of Marketing at j2 Global, Inc., a provider of cloud-communication services including eFax, the world’s most widely used online fax service.
