“Our new VoIP PBX is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and faxes.” — Benjamin Franklin
Well, maybe I’m paraphrasing here but the truth of the matter is faxing documents isn’t going away. The first fax machine was patented on May 27, 1843. More than 175 years later, fax popularity remains to this day, with more than 43 million fax machine units still in operation across the globe. Primarily used by businesses, the fax machine is alive and kicking, and it continues to be a vital part of modern communication networks.
One would think that SMS or e-mail would have killed the fax by now, but one would need to think again. Electronic signatures have yet to catch on as well as expected; the fax is still a leading method to receive legitimate signed documents from business partners and clients.
For example, it’s difficult to work with the healthcare service – or any other sector that regularly uses fax – if you don’t have fax capabilities. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 stipulates that documents transmitted between doctors, labs, and insurers have to be secure, making faxing the norm and often the mandatory method.
In July of 2020, the Internal Revenue Service set up a special fax number and procedure for taxpayers to file tax forms due to COVID-19. That’s right – fax. Not e-mail, not e-signed – faxed.
E-mail tends to be the victim of its success. Every day, we’re flooded with personal e-mail, business e-mail, newsletters, SPAM, and more. Receiving a fax catches us off-guard and rises above the e-mail din. Simply put, we treat faxes with higher importance.
This has led some sales organizations and other professionals to use fax as an effective way to stand out in an increasingly digital crowd.
With so many working from home, many of whom will not be returning to an office, teleworkers can be set up so that they can “email” outbound faxes. By attaching a document to an e-mail and sending it to the destination fax number, their faxes will come through in the same way as they would if they manually faxed them from the physical fax machine in the office. This is particularly important as most teleworkers are using VoIP or mobile phones for voice communication and have no way to use a physical fax machine even if they wanted to. Callicity℠ eFax is both fully integrated with our managed PBX solution and is available as a stand-alone, low-cost, service. Call, text, e-mail, or fax us for more information.
