Tobit Software is a leading provider of fax, voice, e-mail and Web server solutions that are easy to install, intuitive to use and functionally robust. FaxWare is a cost-effective, directory-enabled solution for network faxing, and David* offers an entire messaging platform for enterprise networks—from fax, voice, e-mail and any other media. At the heart of the company’s products is Novell eDirectory, providing the manageability and security that ensures the success of Tobit products in many crucial ways.

Located in High Point, North Carolina, Levolor Home Fashions is the leading manufacturer of aluminum blinds, as well as wood blinds, pleated and cellular shades. The company employs over 2,300, with manufacturing locations in North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, California, New Jersey, Utah, Illinois, and Mexico.

Like most successful companies, Levolor faces a common problem. To keep sales humming, information in the form of faxed orders and confirmations is coming from, and going to, literally everywhere. As a custom window fashion company, there’s a unique order for everything Levelor sells. The health of their bottom line depends on fast, dependable fax transmissions, accurate information, and quick order turnaround. As Sonya Arthington, customer service manager for Levolor, noted, “We generate a totally detailed faxback that each Levolor customer receives within 24 hours. We confirm color, features and specifications—everything, including target ship dates. This is designed to reduce errors from the writing of the fax and re-keying the orders.”

Along with the staff needed to manage the flow of faxed information on a daily basis, Levolor’s information costs also include supporting an expensive, dedicated fax server. Even at peak performance, their UNIX*-based fax server couldn’t keep up with the outbound demand, often exceeding the time frame for order confirmations stipulated by Levolor and creating a backlog of faxes to be sent. In addition, their costs for leasing, using and maintaining additional standalone fax machines and dedicated phone lines have escalated along with the growth of the company. “We currently have over 100 standalone fax machines in our organization costing us around $200,000 annually in leases, with another $100,000 in toner, drums, and paper,” said Arthington.

“Levelor is moving fast to standardize on Tobit’s fax solution—on the server and our desktops. We are buying toner and drums that cost us plenty,” said Brad Vaughan, Oracle administrator at Levolor Home Fashions. “But we’re already taking the savings to the bank, because we now depend on FaxWare for ten thousand outbound faxes every week through an automated batch process.”

“Using FaxWare on the server has already reduced our hardware and supply costs,” continued Vaughan. “We’re currently processing over two million orders per year. Deploying FaxWare on our NetWare servers has greatly improved fax clarity and speed. FaxWare’s robustness and error tolerance allow automatic initialization, no errors or disconnections, and solid broadcasting and reception.”

FaxWare is similar to other network fax packages in that it works along the line of a print driver. But that’s where the similarities end. FaxWare leverages the information in NDS, and it runs as a NetWare Loadable Module™ (NLM™) on a NetWare server, which means it requires no memory on desktop PCs, nor a modem on each computer. FaxWare requires no regular maintenance, toner or paper. It is easy to install, administer, and is instantly discoverable on the network by its users. Also, FaxWare runs on PC-based hardware, saving the additional hardware and support costs of a dedicated UNIX server.

Levolor runs a NetWare 4.11 network with 250 clients. “We’re deploying FaxWare on our client desktops to provide the same quality of inbound faxing we’re getting out of FaxWare on our NetWare servers, offered Vaughan. “We are moving to do electronic orders. Currently we’re re-keying faxed orders, but with FaxWare deployed on our user desktops, order information will be routed electronically to the right persons. A single phone line and modem will enable dozens of users to send and receive faxes directly from their PCs. We’ll save time, boost productivity, and eliminate the overhead and expense of standalone fax machines. And with some development using Tobit’s open API, we’ll be able to integrate our other applications, receive faxes, populate electronic order forms and send confirmations to our customers—all without paper, toner, drums, and overhead.”

FaxWare offers Levolor another important benefit. FaxWare is easy to deploy, manage and use, and provides extensive integration possibilities via eDirectory. “We use Oracle to generate our order confirmations, and FaxWare integrated beautifully with it,” said Vaughan. “Report generation is great. We’re enjoying its performance and superior logging capabilities. I can easily open the client application to see how everything related to a server-based fax event played out.”

An easy single point of administration will make wider use of FaxWare a snap for the company. Levolor administrators can easily assign rights to each new FaxWare user, determine who may view fax files, if they may route received faxes, and who is permitted access to the FaxWare console on the server. It will even be possible to ensure faxes can only be sent after they have been released by a superior.

Among competing network fax solutions, FaxWare stands out with a range of budget-saving features and directory-enabled functionality. Installed in minutes, FaxWare integrates with the most popular Contact Management/Sales Force Automation packages, offering companies a full solution for fax automation of their IT infrastructure and full integration with their existing applications. Scalable from 5 to 1000 users and from 2 to 250 ports, FaxWare works with Windows* 3.x, 95, 98, NT*, DOS, OS/2* and UNIX clients.

Novell provides the global directory component and all of its support, and Tobit Software leverages it to bring best-of-breed value, manageability and performance to their leading network fax product—and on to their customers worldwide. Out of the box, FaxWare works seamlessly and profitably. And Levolor Home Fashions is dressing up more windows than ever because of it.

*All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.