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Swiss Colony implements Esker's FlyDoc

On-demand fax technology will help retailer meet customer preferences

Best Web Hosting By Joe Vanden Plas • 06/14/06 Monroe, Wis. - As part of a Swiss Colony initiative to eliminate fax hardware, an affiliate and service provider for the Wisconsin-based catalog and Internet retailer has selected a new fax technology developed by Esker.

SC Data Center will use the Web-based FlyDoc document delivery service to provide on-demand faxing, create more efficient customer communications, and provide a fax option to customers who still prefer it. Swiss Colony officials said the system also will enable the company to eliminate ongoing costs associated with fax hardware.

Pay as you go

FlyDoc gives users the ability to send electronic documents via fax, postal mail, and e-mail directly from the user's desktop. Documents enter FlyDoc's network of mail and fax facilities, where they are transformed into postal mail and faxes and sent automatically to recipients worldwide. Users monitor progress through a 24/7 Web interface.

According to Esker, FlyDoc comes with no prohibitive setup charges or volume minimums, which means customers can retain the faxing capacity they need during high-volume periods and avoid paying for overcapacity during non-peak periods.

Prior to implementation at Swiss Colony, nearly 200 workers used a stand-alone fax server that was built in-house nearly a decade ago to send customer orders, customer service letters, logistics communications, and supplier notices. The technology proved to be problematic, which prompted a reassessment of the company's use of fax and e-mail technology, especially in light of customer preferences.

Swiss Colony decided to invest in a hosted solution to retain fax communications while avoiding large hardware replacement expenditure. The company chose FlyDoc over two other vendors.

Even as more of its customers choose e-mail as their preferred method of communication, many others still prefer to fax, according to Andrew Sefcik, senior application development manager for Swiss Colony. With the hosted solution, the company won't have to mandate one method over another, it can meet the document delivery requirements of all customers, and it won't pay a premium for this flexibility.

"Internally, each individual department utilizes the pay-as-you-go service when needed, and gets visibility into the costs for which it is responsible," Sefcik said.

Esker, a provider of business document solutions, has global headquarters in Lyon, France and U.S. headquarters in Madison.

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