In a world where email has changed the way both individuals and companies communicate with one another, it’s easy to forget that only a few years ago, faxing was the accepted worldwide standard for the timely transmission and reception of just about any document. While the use of email to transfer documents continues to grow in popularity, the use of faxing isn’t going to end any time soon, since much of the world still relies upon faxes for the transfer of critical information. Although the Internet is changing the ways that companies look at communicating with both their customers and suppliers, faxing still represents a secure, convenient, and ubiquitous technology that almost all companies worldwide accept and make use of.
Although a popular communication mechanism, most companies still rely on traditional manual faxing using a dedicated fax machine. While still acceptable in cases where a company rarely or very sporadically requires the ability to send or receive faxes, the manual fax machine is clearly out of date in any environment that regularly relies on fax communication. The main issue with manual faxing is the need for individuals to literally get up, walk to the fax machine, wait for their fax to send, and then return to what they were doing – just to send a single document. Furthermore, the user sending the fax needs to look up the recipient’s fax number, possibly create cover pages, and more. On the receiving end, time is wasted with the sorting and manual routing of faxes, which can easily be lost, forgotten, or otherwise not received in a timely manner. At the end of the day, manual faxing leads to only two sure things – lost productivity, and by extension, wasted money.
