Why Faxing Remains Relevent in Today's Business World

Why faxing is still a critical tool for many businesses

When fax was invented in 1843, documents were transmitted over telegraph lines. In 1955 the first radio fax transmission was send across the continent. In the 1980's, the fax machine was a must-have piece of business equipment. Today you can send and receive faxes through e-mails, cell phone and hand held devices, and it has been argued that fax is outdated and no longer necessary in our high-tech world. Yet the traditional fax machine with its landline-based data transmission and physical presence remains relevant even in today's digital environment.

What is the reason for the long existence of something is supposed to be obsolete? The undeniable strength of fax is its simplicity, confidentiality and privacy. It has been used in core industries such as education, finance services and transportation. And there is no technology that can replace fax completely and still provide the same level of security.

Some interesting statistics provided by SlideShare:

There are approximately 46.3million fax machines all over the world (one-third of them reside in the USA) It is estimated that about 17 billion faxes sent each year and this figure, and the technology doesn't seem to be trending down

Reasons why organizations still rely on FAX:

FAX can effectively communicate complex information such as text, diagrams, illustrations and handwritten or signed documents. FAX is a universal capability that can be added to any organization anywhere. FAX transmissions are point-to-point communication between the sender and receiver. FAX is embedded into many modern business processes. FAX transmissions are immune to viruses and malware. FAX is traceable and you can substantiate that a fax was sent or received by means of the fax logs. FAX is legally binding with faxed signatures legally identical to the original in most countries. FAX supports Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and HIPAA compliance and security requirements. FAX is simple to use by a fax machine, server, or cloud fax service. FAX can easily be integrated into IT systems for both incoming and outgoing documents.

Our friends at inFORM Decisions have been recognized world-wide for their developments and implementations of secure, reliable FAX systems. With iFax, you are able to broadcast fax your invoices, purchase orders and acknowledgments. Save time and money by no longer folding, inserting and mailing your time critical documents. inFORM Decisions' iFax is a Power Systems, iSeries, System AS/400 native, fully functioning, automated and easy to install fax solution that works standalone or integrates with inFORM's iDocs or other third party document solutions to provide seamless facsimile capability direct from a user's desktop. If you want to learn more about iFax, contact inFORM Decisions today.

Key Benefits of iFax:

A fully functioning, automated fax system that's simple to install, easy to use, powerful and inexpensive Save time and money by eliminating the need to walk to standalone fax devices to retrieve faxes Integration of iFax with inForm's SmartRouter capability saves additional time and money by increasing document distribution efficiency, improving payment cycles, and intelligently controlling document routing Native iSeries processing saves time, increases security, and provides more stable up-time versus PC based (secondary server) solutions for handling faxes Decreased costs associated with less paper-handling, document loading, storage, distribution, postage/shipping, labor and waste disposal Integrates with all iSeries, System i and Power Server accounting/ERP solutions including JD Edwards, Mapics, Lawson, HTE, SAP, ORACLE, Computer Guidance, Optimum, Metalware, Pansophic, DCMS, PRMS, Infinium ...any software application that generates a spool or XML file output Integrates with third party document management solutions Supports Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and HIPAA compliance and security requirements User friendly menu's and interface simplify product administration and setup iFax contains numerous API's that easily integrate programs with your existing software