Q&A with Steve Woodard of Quadrant Software

VSM: For those who may not be familiar with Quadrant can you tell us more about the company?

SW: Quadrant Software was founded in 1990 and is the leading provider of Document Output Management (DOM) solutions for the IBM i (iSeries) enterprise.

Quadrant’s FastFax fax server allows enterprises to send, receive, route, and manage mission-critical documents from within familiar business applications and/or email clients.

VSM: Explain more about Virtual Fax technology.

SW: Recent research has found that Virtual Fax or “Fax over IP” (FoIP) solutions are growing at an estimated annual rate of 14.5 percent. Similar to Voice over IP (VoIP)-based UC and Telephony systems, which are now common-place in many organizations, FoIP solutions allow enterprises to improve server utilization, reduce their carbon footprint, add flexibility and cut costs while streamlining document output management in a virtual environment.

VSM: Can you share more about the benefits of this technology?

SW: There are many benefits of FoIP, including:

• Server Consolidation: FoIP eliminates the need to purchase costly boxes and servers to add to their data center, leading to increased cost savings. Additionally, migrating to FoIP can further cut costs by routing long distance fax and phone traffic over IP, reducing long distance charges from phone carriers.
• Disaster Recovery: Unlike traditional fax systems that rely on appliances and phone lines, FoIP allows organizations to fold fax into their existing IP server infrastructure, which is inherently more stable than traditional environments. Data is protected even if the server goes down--The elimination of boxes onsite prevents users from losing data, even during the occurrence of server failures and natural disasters.
• Simplified Management of Fax: FoIP allows enterprises to easily deploy and maintain fax, while providing the same ease of use as traditional fax. FoIP does not require dedicated fax lines at each of the organization’s locations, so all faxes can be centrally managed and routed throughout the company.
• Security: A FoIP-based system includes all of the security benefits inherent to traditional fax, with the added protection of encryption, which is required to protect sensitive information that is sent over public IP networks.

VSM: Quadrant recently launched QuadraDocV. What makes this product unique & why is this product so important?

SW: QuadraDocV is the only virtual FoIP product native to the IBM i environment and Quadrant Software has the largest installed base of any fax server vendor tailored for the IBM i platform. QuadraDocV allows organizations to reap the many benefits of FoIP, including unified communications, cost savings, scalability and disaster recovery.

VSM: What influenced your decision to focus on the IBM i / VMware platforms?

SW: Being Advanced Business Partners of IBM, Quadrant Software, has traditionally focused on the IBM i environment and has become a leader within that market. We decided to partner with VMware because it is the global leader in virtualization.