tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post7144233448268702319..comments2024-03-08T06:18:28.125+11:00Comments on Bronte Capital: Electronic fax? Really. Doing the time-warp with J2Global.comJohn Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-15466185335923919792015-11-06T07:54:28.287+11:002015-11-06T07:54:28.287+11:00John - any updates on this one? Valuation is stra...John - any updates on this one? Valuation is stratospheric, while cash is burnt to acquire mediocre businesses. Now the Company is levered, and ability to put on additional leverage may be impaired (to the extend there is general distaste to continue to fund roll-ups post VRX fall-out)...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-51349811368957144142012-01-12T04:47:43.845+11:002012-01-12T04:47:43.845+11:00I would recommend following for free online faxing...I would recommend following for <a href="http://sendfreefax.net/webfax/sendfaxform.php" rel="nofollow">free online faxing</a> to USA and Canada where you can send PDF/Word files with no ads or any limitations. Also use <a href="http://sendfreefax.net/webfax/free-receive-fax.php" rel="nofollow">receive free faxes online</a>.mghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17956808761970571955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-31781078717184912602011-10-17T22:39:37.966+11:002011-10-17T22:39:37.966+11:00For some reason some people must fall for it. In t...For some reason some people must fall for it. In the form of efax.co.uk they are currently good advertising dollars on UK commercial radio.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-37598031763995278302011-10-10T15:29:04.333+11:002011-10-10T15:29:04.333+11:00Price of fax machine, scanner etc is not the point...Price of fax machine, scanner etc is not the point.<br /><br />For image/credibility, a small business needs a telephone number AND a separate fax number. What is the legal status of a scanned and emailed document? Better fax it!<br /><br />BUT: A dedicated phone line for the fax number costs $25 a month here in California.<br /><br />Also, inertia (why spend a few hours work and probably disruption to move to a $6/mth service and save, what $100 over the next year?) and losing your published number is show-stopper to cancelling.<br /><br />Their best bet is to sell their customer base something new in future.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-17694247880040388332011-09-26T22:15:30.870+10:002011-09-26T22:15:30.870+10:00I am a MyFax customer too. They charge me $5 per ...I am a MyFax customer too. They charge me $5 per month. And charge me per page of use. Why am I a sucker? Well, I travel a lot. And $60 per year for me is nothing compared to the headache of finding a fax machine. I don't even use myFax that much. But I pay for the optionality of receiving a fax or sending a fax.<br /><br />I think most of J2's customers are price insensitive customers...many of them in the professional services. <br /><br />ExMBBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-56188713873382248962011-09-25T14:43:12.800+10:002011-09-25T14:43:12.800+10:00I have to disagree with this post.
We use J2 (Pro...I have to disagree with this post.<br /><br />We use J2 (Protus) for our main toll-free number, and no one is getting scammed.<br /><br />I read your article this morning and was actually in the process of transferring my number over to Grasshopper (another service), which completely screwed up the transfer.<br /><br />Our main line was disconnected for several hours because Grasshopper screwed it up - something anyone would consider to be totally unacceptable.<br /><br />Grasshopper's porting department only works Monday - Friday, and their support staff were unwilling to escalate the issue. Totally irresponsible!<br /><br />I called J2 - within 10-15 seconds was routed to a support rep, who escalated the issue to their porting department, which promptly cleaned up the mess created by Grasshopper by calling Global Crossing and getting our number back.<br /><br />The reason we pay higher fees is precisely for this kind of support because if we have a problem, we want it fixed ASAP.<br /><br />J2 provides value for money. They could charge me $20/month.<br /><br />As a customer I could not be happier with their service after today's experience, and I will be a customer as long as we are in business.<br /><br />Good luck with your short!Theohttp://managebac.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-45704913442181664742011-09-14T12:13:14.127+10:002011-09-14T12:13:14.127+10:00I'm a J2 customer, and recently managed to dro...I'm a J2 customer, and recently managed to drop one of their services via online chat.<br />Of course, it was never efax for me, but j2, from back when they were separate.<br /><br />The reason for fax at all is those parties (fewer but still real) who insist on fax rather than email. What amazes me is that they make this insistence even though essentially all modern faxes are sucked into computers at some point, so they are in no way "more secure".<br /><br />Another J2 service, now replaced by skype, is a phone number not connected to an actual phone. Typed into web pages, given out at trade shows - keeps pests from ringing my real phone just ask me if I got their fax! There may be a lot of people using that, and stuck because going to skype would change the number. (I didn't care.)<br /><br />Given all that, using j2 let me drop my landline phone years and years ago. I'd rather pay for electronic fax than have to have a landline phone for the few times a year somebody HAS to send me a fax rather than email.<br /><br />The problem with all the fancy MFC devices is that a "true fax" by defintion *uses a landline phone*.<br /><br />So J2's fortunes may *rise* with the fall of landline phones. Until not-so-secure faxes are replaced with distributed-cert-crypto-locked-and-dated pdfs.<br />(That technology is like 20 years old now too.)Bryan Willmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-23056998030919397902011-09-14T04:08:32.289+10:002011-09-14T04:08:32.289+10:00I would talk to your back office about how many co...I would talk to your back office about how many counterparties don't send email confirms but send faxes, especially internationally.<br /><br />If you want to turn those faxes into a PDF you can archive, you're looking at 1) manually scanning paper on your fancy Xerox 2) investing in your own computer / fax gateway hardware which is surprisingly headachy or 3) a service like efax.<br /><br />Why those all-in-ones don't come with an Internet connection and easy to use integrated incoming fax to PDF service is a headscratcher.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-70610079274853999642011-09-13T21:09:20.609+10:002011-09-13T21:09:20.609+10:00A friend of mine still makes a decent living selli...A friend of mine still makes a decent living selling pagers. <br /><br />Obsolescence can take a long time. Think analog photography...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-88097822877458429512011-09-13T03:35:55.554+10:002011-09-13T03:35:55.554+10:00A lot of people (say mortgage brokers) use eFax to...A lot of people (say mortgage brokers) use eFax to receive fax, so that they can see them immediately on their cell. (Yes, they have a fax machine, but use that only to send.)<br />There is a market...Heinzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08755519794597351246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-50774101757957891402011-09-13T01:01:36.817+10:002011-09-13T01:01:36.817+10:00Credit Reporting: Trans Union (and probably the ot...Credit Reporting: Trans Union (and probably the other agencies) don't like to send credit reports in email. I need about 40/mo and they insist on fax. They used to allow emailed PDFs. So that's actually a significant increase in my fax use.<br /><br />For what it's worth, I'm one of the people who had a heck of a time switching out of eFax/J2. They canceled my account finally after a huge amount of time on the phone and fake/incorrect info by their telephone support (till I got the mythical "supervisor").<br />ALAS I switched to MyFax. Now acquired by J2. Ugh.Max Rockbinhttp://www.bestportlandrentals.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-81214638763257727612011-09-12T22:32:44.759+10:002011-09-12T22:32:44.759+10:00In the last few weeks there have been a lot of adv...In the last few weeks there have been a lot of adverts on Absolute Radio here in the UK for eFax. I couldn't understand why anybody would want it. I actually thought the advert was a joke. <br />Knowing that once you sign up for their free trial you can't leave might explain some of it. Presumably they are quite keen to find new suckers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-52365695386913268822011-09-12T18:07:59.877+10:002011-09-12T18:07:59.877+10:00In most jurisdictions fax is accepted on par with ...In most jurisdictions fax is accepted on par with a signed paper as evidence in court. If I can submit a fax coming from you, you have to prove that it is a fake. Mail is not there yet. So the death of the fax will as far as I can see not depend on technical sofistication but on change in law.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-10377766208633116672011-09-12T17:56:12.513+10:002011-09-12T17:56:12.513+10:00If this is the same one I actually used it a few t...If this is the same one I actually used it a few times when I lived in San Diego. It was a bit clunky by the emailed fax worked. I never looked at the company's financials however.Adrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07667460066856874799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-70825431146272024422011-09-12T14:06:50.157+10:002011-09-12T14:06:50.157+10:00You have to be *very* careful with technical obsol...You have to be *very* careful with technical obsolescence shorts.<br /><br />The Chinese frauds were nice in that many of them collapsed quite quickly. Obsolescence shorts might take ten years to work out.<br /><br />Heck, I'm still surprised at how quickly the American newspaper business collapsed -- I really thought that it'd take another forty years for their readers to die off (as Warren Buffett once put it very bluntly). Little did I know that the collapse of the housing bubble would take the newspapers down with them (real estate ads were keeping them afloat).Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-59645689616301732632011-09-12T11:12:06.567+10:002011-09-12T11:12:06.567+10:00mnm and Unknown have it right: efax systems are fo...mnm and Unknown have it right: efax systems are for slow-changing industries full of not-too-tech-savvy employees. <br />And being "ingrained into the workflow" really is a big deal. <br /><br />I'm an insurance claims adjuster; I work from home, and need to both a) receive faxes whether at my office or out on the road and also b) archive them electronically. <br /><br />The efax does both. I don't SEND any faxes with it- the physical fax machine is easier for sending (yes, I have one also), but I'd be pretty irritated if my company decided to quit their Facsys subscription and make me receive paper faxes, scan and upload them, and toss the paper original in the trash. <br /><br />Not a cutting-edge technology, to be sure, but not dead either.Mike C.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-2302687401463001772011-09-11T21:46:56.745+10:002011-09-11T21:46:56.745+10:00Maybe so on some of these applications where peopl...Maybe so on some of these applications where people are still used to faxing but I think that 1) those jobs are getting gutted and 2) scanners with OCR like the fujitsu scansnap are getting cheaper than most home printers. I regularly take mine for diligence trips now since its easier than having stuff faxed to us or in physical form. <br /><br />Sure, it might be a scummy biz and it might have a few sticky users - but its dying and failing a big dividend increase it is going to try to acquire itself out of irrelevance. It trades at 11x PE because it is going to overpay for a lot of crap and investors won't see that cash. <br /><br />Welcome to Japan value investing, all over again.Nemo Incognitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07345185457108156269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-75310768433819523092011-09-11T01:01:08.480+10:002011-09-11T01:01:08.480+10:00I have great respect for John but I disagree with ...I have great respect for John but I disagree with him about the users of eFax. I've used eFax during my time involved in the A/R department of a large, publicly traded healthcare staffing company in the US -- we had approximately 120 eFax accounts linked to each user. <br /><br />Our IT department, ruled by an old-school dude, would never consider taking us off the system since it was engrained in the company's workflow. <br /><br />The service worked well and catered to people who tend to work in healthcare's backoffice -- people who tend to be technology/e-mail averse. Staffing contracts, invoices, etc. would be faxed to/fro clients even though we had modern Xerox machines that could scan docs into PDFs. (The frustration of not having documents being word searchable (OCR) was incredible!)<br /><br />Our AR department received faxes through eFax and sent out using our 5 fax machines on our floor. Very old school but effective since it's reliable -- many AP departments required hard copies of invoices so any adjustments to an invoice would at times, be edited manually, and sent via fax. AR is not going to risk not getting paid on this week's check run (and missing monthly cash goals) because we asked a client's AP department to scan invoices and have them sent via e-mail. If they wanted to send us revised invoices (& money) via pigeon, we would comply and setup a system to feed pigeons. A client's AP and their ways could make or break our month/quarter so we had to cater to their needs -- "invoices can only be faxed? (in 2011)?" You got it. <br /><br />I'm in my mid-20s, have a dropbox account at home, print to PDF most things, and don't have a phone line. I'm the minority in the corporate world though -- JCOM thrives on those 40-50 year IT managers who think XP is the best thing since sliced bread and department managers that don't realize that you can't have 55 e-mails, 18 spreadsheets, and 19 Internet Explorer 6 windows open at the same time on a Core Duo machine with 1 GB of RAM and expect the machine to work well.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07512888490085333221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-41450582217018219702011-09-10T13:19:42.430+10:002011-09-10T13:19:42.430+10:00John,
I have no opinion on JCOM but I think you’r...John,<br /><br />I have no opinion on JCOM but I think you’re overly dismissive of the value proposition offered by fax-to-email.<br /><br />The above comment that “this is a product for someone who does not have lots of use for a fax machine but needs one irregularly” isn’t entirely correct.<br /><br />Huge enterprises that are heavy fax users (finance, legal, healthcare, etc.) tend to receive important docs via fax that need to make their way onto some type of electronic document management system.<br /><br />Given the volume of paperwork, it’s onerous to receive a hardcopy fax, scan it to email, then upload it to your DMS. By getting it straight to email, you don’t even have to get up from your chair.<br /><br />I think you’re barking up the wrong tree by asking industrialists or small fund managers. Maybe ask your prime how they manage their faxes?mnmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-22379494721903804352011-09-10T09:17:52.820+10:002011-09-10T09:17:52.820+10:00For what it is worth, I work at a 5 fee-earner com...For what it is worth, I work at a 5 fee-earner commercial law firm and It never ceases to amaze me the number of faxes we send and receive. We originally had an efax but ditched that In favour of a 70 dollar Epson all in one from officeworks. <br /><br />We have a enormous photocopier and scanner that has every scanning to pdf and copying option you could imagine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-88517197483165983862011-09-10T07:47:17.327+10:002011-09-10T07:47:17.327+10:00funny how companies with soon obsolete technology ...funny how companies with soon obsolete technology is actually one of the places that i look for opportunties<br /><br />i have made some decent money on UNTD and USMOAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-75308574268690389122011-09-10T05:45:56.134+10:002011-09-10T05:45:56.134+10:00Very similar situation to a company called Web.com...Very similar situation to a company called Web.com (WWWW), which is essentially a small business website hosting company that has been reasonably successful rollingup competitors in order to fight persistent declines in ARPU and near zero organic subscriber growth. (Web is much cheaper though.)<br /><br />One quick observation and question. JCOM is reporting persistent declines in customer attrition rates and the same thing was happening at Web in the last couple years. Is it possible that the customer base that remains, after years of attrition, is simply super sticky and unwilling to pursue rational alternatives?brendannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-84932368723548713802011-09-10T04:15:41.269+10:002011-09-10T04:15:41.269+10:00With scanner and email pricing where it is (unbeli...With scanner and email pricing where it is (unbelievably cheap), why would any sane person pay someone for efax? Any individual can manage their fax needs with a $100 all-in-one from Canon and a Gmail account. Any business big enough to need serious faxing capacity will have an email system with high capacity and big Xerox machines that will email scanned documents directly. Are there still document-intensive businesses using email systems as if bandwidth and HD space is expensive and limiting users to 10 megs or something? I'm baffled.najdorfnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-88658283738639688572011-09-10T04:00:51.790+10:002011-09-10T04:00:51.790+10:00Your less-than-astute 1Q y/y revenue analysis mana...Your less-than-astute 1Q y/y revenue analysis managed to miss the fact that a change in accounting had them record a $10M increase to deferred revenue offsetting current period revenue by an equal amount. They actually showed modest organic growth y/y, not a "sharp underlying decline."<br /><br />Do other people actually entrust you with their money?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-76543310535846730042011-09-10T02:20:27.858+10:002011-09-10T02:20:27.858+10:00Most lawyers, title companies, and real estate age...Most lawyers, title companies, and real estate agents have moved on to scanning and email or at least have a fax machine (or two) in their offices. The customers are not people in offices.<br /><br />I think most of the customers are probably home-based businesses or people who travel a lot and can't be at a fax machine or a scanner.<br /><br />As for canceling, I wonder why people don't simply report that credit card number as lost and never give them another number?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com