Canadian Tire Corporation wanted to consolidate their multiple RightFax fax servers onto a single virtualized platform to reduce costs and simplify management. They worked with Connectis Group to virtualize the RightFax servers using VMware and implement Fax over IP using Cisco VoIP gateways. This allowed Canadian Tire to eliminate dedicated fax hardware, reduce licensing costs, and centrally manage fax services from two data centers. The virtualized and integrated solution helped Canadian Tire reduce expenses, streamline operations, and enhance disaster recovery for their fax infrastructure.

1. to Fax over IP (FoIP) and eliminate
the need for traditional fax boards.
With FoIP, Canadian Tire expects all
the advantages, reliability, and se-
curity of a traditional fax server
solution to remain the same, but
with added benefits, such as server
consolidation through virtualiza-
tion and a unified communications
strategy that's inclusive of fax.
THE CHALLENGES
CT Information Technology
(IT) departments were under in-
creasing pressure to allocate more
time and resources to strategic initi-
atives by consolidating multiple
RightFax physical server workloads
onto a single highly available virtu-
alized platform strategically located
at two data centers for fail over.
Leverage existing Cisco VoIP unified
communications and IP network
resources to provide centralized
access to all voicemail, email and fax
communications to meet the needs
of their business groups.
CT was very well aware of the cost
associated with server sprawl in
terms of licensing and resources.
This server sprawl of multiple Right-
Fax servers was of concern to the
company in terms of management
challenges, lowered resource utiliza-
tion, high infra-
structure costs
and utilization of
more resources
than can be justi-
fied by their
workload. The IT
administrator had
Canada’s Largest Retail Chain Consolidates
RightFax & Integrates Cisco Gateway with IP Fax
BACKGROUND . . . Canadian Tire
Corporation, Limited sells a wide
range of retail automotive, sports
and leisure and home products.
With nearly 1,700 retail and gasoline
outlets from coast-to-coast, its pri-
mary retail business is supported
and strengthened by the tens of
thousands of corporate and retail
employees across the Company.
Each day Canadian Tire (CT) ex-
changes critical and confidential
financial business related infor-
mation such as contracts, legal doc-
uments, sales quotes, purchase or-
ders, order confirmations and much
more between vendors, clients, em-
ployees, branches and officials. Fax
communication is the primary
means of transmitting business-
critical documents at Canadian Tire
and all the fax related information is
confidential, immediate, and secure
delivery & receipt is of highest im-
portance.
While Canadian Tire Corporation is
committed to excellence in the
practice of retail operations, the IT
department was facing a situation
in which multiple RightFax servers
and multiple fax boards take up
more space and consume more
resources than can be justified by
their workload. CT has been on IP
networks that support voice, video,
and data applications on a single
network infrastructure. The only
technology that was overlooked
when transitioning to VoIP net-
works was fax. It was a prime ob-
jective to transition TDM based fax
Company: Canadian Tire Corporation,
Toronto, Canada. www.canadiantire.ca
Industry: Retail
Application: Implement Unified com-
munication strategies leveraging Cisco
network infrastructure with IP-based Fax
over IP RightFax Solution.
Challenge: Transitioning from tradi-
tional fax environment PSTN to IP com-
munications and bridge Data and Voice
networks onto a single IP network cen-
tralizing while eliminating redundant
dedicated phone lines. Consolidating fax
services using VMware virtualization
technologies and OpenText Shared Ser-
vices Highly Available architecture.
Solution: RightFax 10.6, Fax Over IP
licenses, Connectis Professional Services
Results: A complete software-based
fault tolerant virtualized IP-based fax
servers with unifying voice, fax, and data
Communication resulting in automating
business processes, managing docu-
ments, and meeting regulatory and com-
pliance standards while eliminating cost-
ly hardware, simplifying management,
and enhancing disaster recovery.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Objective: RightFax Virtualization:
Reduce carbon foot print, Maximizing
existing network resources and infra-
structure, Simplifying redundancy and
disaster recovery, eliminate reliance in
hardware based fax boards.
IP Considerations: Reduce their phone
bills by driving long distance fax traffic
over IP, Eliminate the cost of maintaining
analog PBX ports, Reduce network ad-
ministrative costs, Lower the cost of dis-
aster preparedness associated with fax
technology, Consolidate remote fax serv-
ers in a central location and eliminate
analog lines.
Connectis Project Story RETAIL

2. to monitor all the RightFax servers to
ensure service is provided effectively
and continuously, IT executive leader-
ship wanted to have a centralized
monitoring facilities for all the fax
jobs that goes inbound and out-
bound every minute of the day from a
single monitoring station. RightFax
servers IT team were under growing
pressure to reduce capital and oper-
ating costs while maintaining or im-
proving the level of services they of-
fer. CT IT executives’ main concern
was to reduce their carbon footprint
and transition to IP based faxing us-
ing Cisco Unified Communications.
CT has been on IP networks for over a
year to support voice, video, and data
applications on a single network in-
frastructure to reduce the complexity
of their total infrastructure, which in
turn reduces the cost of maintaining
the network. The only technology
that was overlooked when transition-
ing to VoIP networks was fax. This
“fax problem” significantly impedes
ROI payback on VoIP investments,
since organizations continue to incur
significant costs associated with long-
distance fax charges, fax board
maintenance and upgrades. CT big-
gest challenge was to enable facsimi-
le traffic to run on this same infra-
structure, leveraging the investment
made in their converged voice and
data network. The challenge for CT
was to fully understand how existing
network applications, including those
that are distributed over an enter-
prise, and can take advantage of new-
er IP-based approaches to data com-
munications.
Telephony and Unified Communica-
tion fax configuration is technically
complex, and requires substantial fax
server and telephony expertise to ex-
ecute. Together with Connectis
Group, CT identified that by migrating
fax communications to converged IP
architectures, CT can enjoy many ad-
vantages over legacy analog or Time
Division Multiplex (TDM) fax. CT has
multiple RightFax servers provisioning
faxing to entire company. All the
RightFax servers require a database to
house user information, fax images
and DIDs information. As databases
are an unavoidable part of an infra-
structure, CT had to expend a lot of
© 2016 Copyright Connectis Group. All rights reserved.
effort to manage these separate databases effectively at each of their
distributed branch offices. The bigger challenge however was databases,
RightFax images and meta data and user information and DID routing
rules formed the foundation of CT business systems, IT departments
would easily lose control of the number of databases that need to be
maintained, because each group may simply create their own database
to solve a specific problem they may be experiencing. This leads to a
proliferation of databases and machines running database instances.
RightFax server consolidation was the only way to address and consoli-
date database and DID routing from a single source. The databases con-
solidations were one of the prime candidates for RightFax server consoli-
dation.
Canadian Tire Corporation was upgrading an Active Directory Domain
from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012 R2. Their existing
RightFax server collective v9.4 is not compatible with Windows Server
2012 R2 x 64 bit. As a part of Windows server upgrade, Canadian Tire is
upgrading many of their line-of-business (LOB) applications and non-
Microsoft applications including RightFax v9.4 on Windows Server 2012
R2 operating system. It is expected to roll out Win 7 / 8 on all the client
machines as well as a part of this upgrade. It was yet another challenge
to roll out RightFax – Windows 2012 compatible version before Active
Directory and client machines were migrated to windows server 2012
and Win 7/8. Both Windows Server 2003 and RightFax v9.4 are end-of-
life status products.
Canadian Tire found that the duplication of servers, applications and da-
tabases are not only expensive to maintain but also kept them from uti-
lizing their resources and information to the maximum extent. The re-
sponse has been a driving force behind RightFax centralization, consoli-
dation and IP unification of VoIP and FoIP.
THE SOLUTION CONSULTANCY
When CT decided to move from a traditional fax solution to an
IP-based one, careful planning was required for a smooth migration.
While planning RightFax and IP consolidation, Connectis focussed on
their RightFax infrastructure, IP networks, Server infrastructure, Virtual
host environment, network designs, Cisco infrastructure, and specifica-
tion of new processes; and came up with project plan that addressed
how the new implementation will be rolled out and specifics of a contin-
gency scenario. The implementation plan included deployment, IP con-
solidation of voice, data and fax utilising their existing Cisco VoIP infra-
structure, data conversion and migration, training and a support plan for
the new environment. Prior to embarking on detailed plans for consoli-
dation, Connectis Group had many discussions with CT to discuss the
potential impacts and associated costs and benefits of moving forward.
Connectis Group started with a review of CT’s RightFax servers, Cisco
UC / telephony system, the servers capacities, and how much of that ca-
pacity was being utilized and how to reduce hardware foot print, licens-
ing costs and recurring annual maintenance costs. As part of an IT over-
haul, CT finally decided to Virtualize & Consolidate fax server architec-
ture between two fail over locations leveraging Cisco Unified Communi-
cations Manager and Cisco Voice over IP Gateways.
THE SOLUTION
By consolidating RightFax systems, CT leveraged existing VM
infrastructure for server virtualization with 100% software solutions with
Fax over IP driver licenses. Virtual RightFax fax Servers gave CT an oppor-

4. tunity to use less hardware, maximizing existing infrastructures, reducing capital expenditures by eliminating the
need for dedicated CPU hardware and fax boards, and increased IT administration efficiencies by centralizing man-
agement of all virtual applications. CT have increased efficiencies and improved their service capabilities while
maintaining an infrastructure that is both robust and adaptive to changing business requirements. The net result
was a reduction in expenditures (less hardware and energy costs) and a new centralized point of administration that
streamlines server management and increases the agility and efficiency of their IT organization. In addition, it low-
ers the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by increasing the efficiency of server resources and operational changes,
minimize server sprawl and IT infrastructure footprint. Virtualization enabled seamless interoperability with existing
Cisco voice and data networks.
With Cisco integration, CT leverages a single, common resource and employs the Internet and company intranets
for cost-effective voice, fax and data services. RightFax fax server with T.38 Real-time Fax over IP (FoIP) solution al-
lows CT to route your faxes over an IP network in real-time leveraging Voice over IP (VoIP) deployment for immedi-
ate cost savings and productivity gains. T.38 FoIP enables point-to-point, secure fax transmission in real time. Right-
Fax FoIP network fax server leverages VoIP gateway capabilities and related security to connect to the public net-
work, just like the IP telephony system, protecting the network from security breaches.
RIGHTFAX & CISCO INTEGRATION
RightFax can be integrated with Cisco enterprise messaging applications such as Cisco Unified Communica-
tions Manager (formerly Cisco Unified Call Manager) and Cisco Unity Connection. RightFax supports direct integra-
tion to Cisco gateways or routers and Cisco Unified Communications Manager via the T.38 real-time FoIP standard.
The connection uses a minimal amount of server processing power and supports SIP, H.323 and MGCP protocols.
RightFax currently supports Cisco IOS Gateway Series and Universal Gateway Series (those that are T.38 compliant)
version 12.3 or later (SIP and H.323) as well as Cisco Unified Communications Manager as follows:
 For H.323; release 4.2.3 or later (within the 4.2x product line)
 For SIP; release 5.0.4(a) or later (within the 5.0x product line)
 For SIP and H.323; OpenText RightFax v9.4 supports 7.x and 8.x
THE RESULT
A complete software-based fault tolerant virtualized IP-based fax servers with unifying voice, fax, and data Com-
munication resulting in automating business processes, managing documents, and meeting regulatory and compli-
ance standards while eliminating costly hardware, simplifying management, and enhancing disaster recovery.
600 Bowes Road, Unit 32
Concord, ON, Canada L4K 4A3
t: 905.695.2200 | f: 905.695.0923
www.connectis.ca | info@connectis.ca
© 2016 Copyright Connectis Group. All rights reserved.
Fax - Scan - Document Capture | Document Management | eForms & Workflow Solutions
At Connectis, our expertise is in Business Process Automation solutions
for business: providing consulting services, IT, software deployment,
and project management services focused on lowering organizational
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). We eliminate Paper, improve business
processes with on demand & on premise document automation solu-
tions with fax servers, document capture, document management,
workflow and scanning solutions.