The choice we made
The solution we eventually chose is called RightFAX, at http://www.rightfax.com. It met all of our criteria. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you my company is now a reseller of RightFAX. Should you decide to go the same way and choose RightFAX, I've included a few user tips we've discovered since implementing the fax server.

When we began to deploy RightFAX, we were pleased that there were no major stumbling blocks or surprises. The steps for installation and configuration are well documented, but if you know a few things before beginning the installation process, your job will be easier, and RightFAX and the Notes Gateway will end up properly integrated.

You should note that for full RightFAX and Notes Gateway integration, the RightFAX server requires that a Notes client with Designer be installed on the server with a user ID, and it also requires that you have certain administrative rights in Notes. You need to be able to access the Notes public address book, add groups, and perform other tasks. Some of this is only necessary for advanced functionality, such as synchronizing users, groups, printers, and cover pages between the RightFAX Server and the RightFAX Notes Gateway. This will give the Notes client running on the RightFAX server the ability to update the mail template to allow direct integration (using action buttons) so that users can send faxes directly from their Notes mail.

Your users can also create groups or broadcast fax lists in the Notes public address book and then call on these lists to send faxes. Setting up RightFAX users in Notes is a snap, and there are several options for doing this. One option (depending on how much integration you have configured between Domino and the RightFAX Notes Gateway) is to allow all or only certain users in your Domino Directory Name and Address Book (NAB) to be created automatically in RightFAX.

We chose RightFAX's automatic installer and it worked well. The hardcopy and online documentation provide an outline of the installation process and, if you follow the steps, it's very straightforward. There are some options for full Notes integration or partial integration, but because we were trying to limit our user interface to only the native Notes interface, we opted for the full integration.

After we had the users configured, the actual installation was automatic, requiring only a few additional configuration settings within the RightFAX/Notes Gateway configuration database, which is configured directly in any Notes client with sufficient administrative access.

The full integration with Notes has helped simplify the flow of communication from our office to the outside world. As a part of the automatic installation process, the fax user list in RightFAX can be automatically created from as many as five Notes public address books. In addition, users can create their own personal fax phonebooks, automatically creating entries from their personal address book or manually adding them at any time. RightFAX also provides a method for fax redundancy. Options can be set to either delete faxes from RightFAX once they have been delivered to Notes, or they can be aged in RightFAX.