Today’s Forbes article “Why the fax machine refuses to die” questions the survivability of this communications medium among other evolving digital alternatives.
While Gartner analyst Ken Weilerstein sees a shift from fax machines to multi-function devices combining fax capabilities with printing, scanning, and copying (according to the article 37 million of these units shipped worldwide in 2012), we have a unique perspective on fax communications.
Sure there is email and social media to exchange important business correspondence, but faxes are still considered a legal document, hence the reason why finance, law, and healthcare industries continue to utilize them.
While fax is shifting away from standalone machines to network-based solutions and fax-enabled applications, the cloud is replacing the transport and delivery layer. Leveraging the cloud allows organizations to eliminate the cost and maintenance of on-premise telephony infrastructure without compromising reliability, security and quality of service.
Based on the millions of pages etherFAX processes as a cloud fax service provider every month, unlike the article, we continue to see widespread use of fax and don’t anticipate a decline anytime soon.