Siebel Communications Server Administration Guide > Using Email, Fax, and Other Systems > Interfacing with Email and Fax Servers >

Integrating with Fax Systems

Sending outbound fax messages requires that you integrate your email system with Siebel Communications Server and integrate your fax server with your email server. In addition, you must prepare your Siebel applications to format fax addressing data correctly.

Siebel software does not natively send any fax messages. Rather, the software sends an email message with special formatting codes that an email-fax gateway can process. The fax server then picks up this email, converts it to a fax and sends it to the recipient. For information about supported third-party products, refer to Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms for your Siebel applications.

NOTE:  After a fax is sent to the email server for submission to the fax server, the Communications Outbound Manager server component may log that the fax has been successfully sent. However, this log file message does not indicate whether the fax was sent to a valid fax number.

Most fax software sends a notification message when a fax cannot be transmitted to the destination. Some fax software applications can also be set up to send a notification when a fax is transmitted successfully. If the fax server has been configured to send notifications to the sender, the notification would appear in the mailbox that corresponds to the profile that was used to send the fax.

Your fax software, such as Captaris RightFax, must be configured to communicate with the email server over a configured gateway connection (or communications link). For example, when installing RightFax, you should use the gateway for SMTP/POP3. For more information about email-fax gateways, refer to the documentation for your fax server.

You must also create an email account (mailbox) that will be solely monitored by the fax server. For example, email messages addressed to the RightFax email account are transmitted through the gateway connection and automatically picked up by the RightFax server, which converts them into faxes and sends them. Each RightFax email gateway for SMTP/POP3 can monitor a single such email account.

NOTE:  If you are using Communications Server with Captaris RightFax, in order to support Unicode configurations you should download the Unicode patch for Captaris RightFax. For more information, refer to Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms for your Siebel applications.


 Siebel Communications Server Administration Guide 
 Published: 23 June 2003