A Vancouver-based startup company, Global Leading Edge Technologies Inc., is positioning itself as a rebel that wants to transform the way companies fax.

Its flagship (and solitary) product is the WBX 1000 Fax Management System, a $6,995 device that resembles a flatbed scanner with a document feeder mating with a desktop PC.

Sasa Lukic, the company's chief technology officer, is responsible for the creation of the device. "The initial idea for it was thought up by me and actually put together on a napkin in a restaurant almost a year ago," he says. "I was trying to come up with a solution whereupon faxing would become a little easier and, of course, take advantage of the Internet, which was starting to boom pretty big about a year ago."

The device, which sits as a node on the user's network, allows multiple scan, fax and save options to any workstation connected to the network. It also allows users to send long-distance faxes all over the world via the Internet. Essentially, any fax that is sent to a long distance number is encrypted, shredded into packets and sent over the Internet to a receive node (maintained by Global Leading Edge Technologies) that sends out the fax. "We have a receiving node at the local telephone company in every single city in the world. It doesn't matter where you send the fax," says Lukic. "That receiving node takes the fax, and then decrypts it and sends it out over the local telephone line."

Of course, because the receive nodes are being provided by the company, faxes sent via this network aren't free — there is a cost involved, but it's not as high as regular long-distance fax cost. "It's 53 per cent less than the normal cost of faxing over a long-distance phone line," Lukic says.

But this new way of approaching fax transmission isn't the only innovative feature of the product. The nature of its relationship with the network is also somewhat revolutionary. "No software is required on the company's server — it's a standalone machine sitting as a node on the network," says Lukic. "Software is installed to the workstations via a two-step process whereby they locate the WBX on the network, open up the folder and inside they will find one icon that says 'Client Install.' They double-click on that icon and all the software installs on their system."

The fact that the device runs independent of the server also makes it unique in that it can be used even if the server is unavailable. "Now, since it sits on the network as a node, your system has a link to the WBX over the network. The company server can actually crash and you can still connect to the WBX through the network because the station itself does not have to go through the server to get to the WBX," says Lukic. "It is a direct link."

Tim Kikot, the company's president, is still debating how best to distribute the new product. "We're undecided if we want to go with Tech Data or Merisel or one of the big players, as opposed to local distributors. We're going to have distribution in the following areas: Ottawa, Metro Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Winnipeg and Vancouver, where we have our first distributor. We're in the throes of setting up our distribution right now, but we haven't got it completely done yet."

The company's reseller compensation program has been finalized, however. "It's quite lucrative from their standpoint, and we've got that set up to go. What we've done with compensation is it goes to the sales person and the distributor, so it's quite a unique concept." Unique is right — the reward for distributor of the year is a new house. Of course, in order to qualify, that distributor must move over 5,000 units.

Greg McKinnon is sales represenative at Vancouver-based McKinnon Micro Distributing Ltd. and currently has a WBX 1000 set up at his office. "So far everything has been smooth — it's really nice to be able to not get up out of your desk, put something in the fax, wait for the fax to dial and, if there's a busy tone you'd have to go back. That's one of the nice things about it. The other thing we like using about it is the scan and fax type scenario where you can put anything in there, scan it and fax it."

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