Everything Old is New Again: Welcome to Faxing 3.0

Despite what you may have thought, the fax machine – and faxing in general – are not extinct! Far from it. According to Research and Markets, the Global Fax Services Market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.05% through 2028, reaching $5.96 billion.

Some of that growth is driven by cultural preferences. In Japan, for example, the vast majority of businesses in Japan still use faxes. The same is true in Germany, where 82% of companies still rely on faxing, with a third claiming they use the technology frequently or very frequently. Another significant driver is the unique role that faxing plays in industries including healthcare, financial services and real estate.  

In an age when older technologies are often swept aside to make room for the next generation, the resiliency of faxing may seem counterintuitive. A little digging reveals why faxing, a technology that’s been around since 1842, continues to be not only relevant, but continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of a digital age. 
 

Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine

Until the 1990s, the traditional fax machine was a fixture in most businesses. Transmitting documents, contracts, sales orders and everyday correspondence directly from one machine to another over the phone line was not only secure; it was fast. Documents that would take days to send through the mail could be faxed and received almost instantly.

With the widespread adoption of the internet and email, use of the fax machine as an everyday means of transmitting paper documents quickly dropped. In 1997, fax machine sales peaked at $1.14 billion. 12 months later, sales were down by nearly half. By 2010, fax machine sales struggled to reach $70 million and mainstream use of the technology was all but dead.

Ironically, the very thing that killed the fax machine – the internet – has enabled a rebirth of sorts for faxing. E-fax.

Faxing Finds New Life Online  

E-faxing is identical to traditional faxing with just a few key differences. Faxes are no longer sent and received as hard copies, machine-to-machine over analog phone lines. Instead, documents are automatically scanned and digitized, then distributed over the internet, program-to-program, much like email. Digitizing the information also enables other important capabilities, document management and portability. With today’s e-fax solutions, users can organize, forward, append and archive the documents digitally. So too, you can securely send and receive faxes anywhere and on any web-enabled device. 

Then again, anything you can do with an e-fax can be done via email. So, what’s the benefit?

For several industries, faxing (traditional or online) is not only beneficial, but also necessary to remain in compliance with government regulations regarding the secure transmission of documents. In the healthcare industry, where compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is essential, faxing is still the primary technology used to transmit patient records, prescriptions and medical documents.

Note: HIPAA compliance requires the service provider to take appropriate security measures, and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) must be in place.

Regulatory compliance has also made faxing critical in the financial and banking sectors. Much of this is due to The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002, which mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations.

The same is true of the real estate industry, where agents must send and receive purchase and lease agreements and other necessary documents, such as inspection reports, loan information and title documents. Many e-fax solutions also feature a precise time stamp showing exactly when the document was sent and received, making it valuable for documenting time-sensitive transactions.

As e-faxing evolves from individual services or software solutions to enterprise-scale document management platforms, companies outside of healthcare, real estate and finance are climbing aboard. These more robust, fully featured solutions offer advantages like AI-enabled automation, document handling and sophisticated workflow processes that enable businesses of any size to increase productivity.  

WebFax: Faxing 3.0

When traditional machine faxing transitioned to online services, questions regarding security were quickly put to rest as government regulators gave virtual faxing their stamps of approval. At Shentel Business, we always see room for improvement. Therefore, we set out to find a way to improve the security and reliability of existing IP-based fax systems. The result is WebFax.

As an advanced cloud-based solution, WebFax delivers industry-leading fax success rates along with a robust set of features and built-in security measures. WebFax incorporates military-grade encryption and operational practices to securely and reliably deliver confidential and/or mission-critical documents.

The solution deploys in a matter of days and scales to support an unlimited number of users and fax numbers. It easily integrates reliable faxing with other applications. Users can send and receive faxes directly from any internet-connected device using one of four methods:

Email gateway: Send and receive TLS-encrypted faxes directly from any email client. All emails are authenticated with an SPF record check.

Web Portal: Send and receive faxes, access fax history, modify account settings/permissions, manage workflows, and provision new users from a secure, mobile-friendly web interface.

Security: HIPAA compliant faxing of mission-critical documents, securely and reliably.

Faxbridge: An ultra-reliable VoIP fax adapter for integrating physical fax devices with WebFax.  

Let Shentel Business Take Your Business Further

Amazing how quickly the fortunes of a technology can change. Once a staple in every office, the fax machine all but disappeared—only to find new life through digital transformation. With advanced, cloud-based solutions like WebFax, Shentel Business helps you increase productivity while ensuring military-grade security and reliability. Faxing has quietly evolved into a modern tool for business communication.. 

Want to see how WebFax can streamline your workflow? Book a one-on-one demo with a WebFax expert from Shentel Business.