Information Systems:SRFax (desktop faxing) Administration

This is a technical guide. For user guides (e.g. how to send faxes), consult the Fax category.

Overview

uniPHARM uses a hosted fax service, SRFax, to send and receive fax documents such as recall notices to and from our business partners. This replaced Xerox/device-based faxing.

How it works

Users fax PDFs (or other supported documents) from the desktop as they would print something. A fax printer driver (downloadable from SRFax) is (or should be) installed on each computer, and printing from Windows applications should summon a pop-up where you configure cover pages, enter destination numbers etc., and finally, send the fax.

Configuration

Account Details

Website (administration/user portal)	https://www.srfax.com
Login credentials	admin@unipharm.com / NewVisionIT2051
Subscription Details	$611.40 HealthCare Standard Pluss 2500 - Annual 2,500 pages included $0.05/page overage 6 additional inbound/outbound numbers at $4.95/month each
Company Info	Located in Sydney, BC

SRFax Accounts

If you really want a full understanding of the SRFax setup, make the effort to understand this section. Otherwise, skip it and wing it. The way the accounts are setup is a little complicated but was determined to achieve the best outcome (with regards to user ease-of-use and convenience of administration).

Account Name	Account type (Main/Sub)	Billing account type (Inbound/Outbound)	Purpose	Fax number	Username/login	Mapped aliases	Account number	Notes
Administration Account	Main	Inbound/Outbound	Primarily for admin purposes, also the ultimate route through which outbound faxes travel.	604-276-8478	admin@unipharm.com	norwinu, darrenf, jeremym, nancyn	92531	nancyn and jeremym aliased to this account for address book management and billing administration, respectively.
Outbound Fax - Company Main	Sub	Outbound only	Used to group users (majority of staff members) for outbound faxing	604-276-8478 (routes through Main account)	fax@unipharm.com, or aliased users	Most staff members, with their usernames in AD format (e.g. norwinu; Exceptions: tomc, timm¹)	99797
Outbound Fax - Purchasing Dept.	Sub	Outbound only	Used to group Purchasing Dept. users for outbound faxing	604-276-8478 (routes through Main account)	purchasing@unipharm.com, or aliased users	elizag, johnt, judyt, rubys, shannonm, simonl, monicat	99783	Separated out so department can keep their own address books, local to the group.
Inbound Fax - Receiving	Sub	Inbound/Outbound²	Placeholder for inbound route only; for receiving faxes destined for Receiving department copier (reccopier)	604-276-5250	faxreceiving@unipharm.com	None	99645
Inbound Fax - Returns	Sub	Inbound/Outbound²	Placeholder for inbound route only; for receiving faxes destined for Returns department copier (rtncopier)	604-276-5283	faxreturns@unipharm.com	None	99643
Inbound Fax - Elaho	Sub	Inbound/Outbound²	Placeholder for inbound route only; for receiving faxes destined for 2nd-floor copier (elaho)	604-270-9728	faxelaho@unipharm.com	None	99639
Inbound Fax - Stein	Sub	Inbound/Outbound²	Placeholder for inbound route only; for receiving faxes destined for 1st-floor copier (stein)	604-270-8537	faxstein@unipharm.com	None	99647
Angela Chan	Sub	Inbound/Outbound	Inbound and outbound; dedicated for use by Angela only	604-270-2884	angelac@unipharm.com	None	99571	Inbound faxes will print to angelacprinter
Ron Gracan	Sub	Inbound/Outbound	Inbound and outbound; dedicated for use by Ron only	604-276-5255	rong@unipharm.com	None	308553	Inbound faxes will print to rongprinter
¹ SRFax requires aliases to have a username > 4 characters, yet the email address cannot be used (reserved for user accounts). So the user names for tomc and timm are 'Tom Chotwanwirach' and 'Tim Matiachuk' respectively. Will they notice? Lol c'mon now, it's fax. ² Note that while these accounts are of the Inbound/Outbound type (billing-wise), the point is that they are being used for inbound purposes only.

The primary justification for the level of complexity in the way the users were set up came from the desire to keep the inbound fax "experience" the same as when uniPHARM used traditional Xerox/device-based faxing. Each Xerox had a phone number and thus represented a distinct inbound route. Each Xerox was also a distinct outbound route, yet this was not as important (i.e. origin of the fax was not important; the cover page always indicated the return fax number). Yet another factor was that that faxing is an infrequently used (and outdated) means of communication, so it was not ideal to set users up as full-featured sub-accounts, as that would've incurred unnecessary administrative burden. Lastly, it was sensible to have groups like Purchasing to have group-local address books. Thus to translate all these requirements to hosted/internet faxing, users were set up as shown above.

Key points:

There are 2 concepts of "users" - user accounts and aliases. User accounts are those listed in the table above and, in our design, are mostly symbolic/representational, with the exception of Ron and Angela's (these are true user sub-accounts in the conventional sense). The rest of the staff members are not user accounts, but are aliases, aliased to one of the two symbolic "Outbound" users listed above. I.T. staff are aliased to the admin account.

Regarding user accounts, there is one main account, to which all sub-accounts fall under. This is for administration purposes. User accounts can also be inbound/outbound and outbound-only. Inbound/outbound accounts have a dedicated fax number, while outbound-only accounts use the main account's fax number. If I haven't lost you by now, congratulations. I am truly impressed. Not that this stuff is hard, but rather because of the Rube Goldberg-ness of the entire setup (a fax setup, no less). -norwizzle (talk)

Any time a fax is sent, it is done through a specific user account. Aliased users therefore send as the user they are aliased to. When aliased users log in, they are all logging into the same account (which for most staff members, is Outbound Fax - Company Main).

Any time a fax is sent, it also must go out a certain fax number. For inbound/outbound user accounts, its own fax number is used. For outbound-only users, the main account's fax number is used.

The concept of users only really comes into play during administration. That is, if you follow the table above, you will notice that all staff members (with the exception of Ron and Angela) ultimately send faxes through one number.

All inbound faxing occurs through pre-defined routes, with phone numbers mapped to email addresses, which in turn are mapped to printers.

Logging into the admin/main account lets you see everything across the sub-accounts, but some settings may require you to "admin-log-in" to the sub-account (similar to Barracuda administration, where you can enter into each user's account from the admin account).

Address book

The main account has the master address books, which all sub-accounts and their aliases can read, but not edit. The main account and its aliases, however, can edit these address books.

Each sub-account can have their local address books as well. This is primarily why some of them were created (e.g. Outbound Fax - Purchasing Dept.)

Delivery notifications

Because of the way users are set up, setting up delivery notifications (success/failure fax confirmations) to notify the original sender was a somewhat tricky matter. SRFax has been pre-configured to do the following:

When faxing through the print driver, delivery notifications will be sent to the Email field in the Account Details tab (success or fail). This is a suitable workaround for the fact that aliased users all send faxes under the same account. Note that the user account's email address will also receive a copy. For example, if alias rubys sends a fax, it will send to rubys@unipharm.com, as the fax driver is configured with this email. A delivery notification will also be sent to purchasing@unipharm.com (and since this email doesn't exist, we can expect this pathway to just be a blackhole).

When faxing through the web portal, there is no Email field to specify. Thus, delivery confirmations will not be specific to the user, but

The relevant settings can be found under Settings -> Sending Faxes. These settings are specific to each user account.

Automatic Email Manager

Automatic Email Manager is a piece of software installed inside the SuperServer virtual machine, that checks emails and auto-processes (prints or files) any contained attachments. It is an important part of the fax workflow as it prints inbound fax documents automatically to their designated printers (determined by destination email address, which in turn, is mapped to a specific inbound phone number).

Basic administration

Editing the master address books

Log in to SRFax as any of admin@unipharm.com, 92531, or the aliased users for this account.
Navigate to Faxes -> Edit Address Book.
Edit contact(s). A group may have to be selected first.
This address book and its contacts are special in that they are visible to all users when sending a fax, but will not show up in the 'Edit Address Book' area of their accounts.

Adding/removing a staff member (alias)

Also for changing permissions for aliased users.

Log in to SRFax as admin.
Navigate to My Account -> User Administration.
Most staff members will be aliased to Outbound Fax - Company Main. Click the Edit button for that account to log into it as admin.
Navigate to My Account -> Account Access to see the aliases for this account.
Add or remove users as needed. Edit permissions as needed.
Click 'Exit' at the top left to return back to the admin account.

Configuring the print driver

Prior to doing this, make sure you have the account number of the user being set up. To retrieve this, log in as admin and navigate to My Account -> User Administration, or consult the table above.

Acquire and install the print driver from SRFax (Support -> SRFax Printer Driver) if it is not already installed.
Bring up the configuration/fax wizard by attempting to print something using the fax driver (the printer is named just SRFax).
In the Account Details tab, click Change.
Fill in the proper account number. For the majority of situations, it should be the account number of one of the Outbound accounts.
Enter the corresponding password. (username/password found here)
Important: If this computer is used primarily by one user, enter their email address in the Email field. This is where delivery notifications are sent.
Review the settings under the other tabs, change if necessary.
Cancel out of the wizard.

Inspecting fax traffic

Log in to SRFax as admin.
Under Faxes, navigate to any of Faxes Received, Faxes Sent, or Faxes Queued to analyze corresponding traffic. Use Call Log Reports to generate a report.
Recall that since this the admin account, you can inspect/analyze usage/traffic of the sub-accounts.

Billing tasks

Invoices are emailed to accountspayable@unipharm.com and jeremym@unipharm.com.
The admin account can access and generate invoices in the web portal. There are also functions to display charges summarized by user in My Account -> Past Invoices.

Valid Fax Numbers For Outside Sources Like Pharmacies And Vendors When THEY Need To Send TO uniPHARM

Main 604-270-8537
Buying 604-270-9728
Receiving 604-276-5250
Returns 604-276-5283
RonG 604-276-5255
AngelaC 604-270-2884