If Hillary Clinton – a current presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State – can't fully figure out how a fax machine works, then what hope do the rest of us have? Instead of dealing with troublesome legacy fax solutions, organizations should embrace fax over IP solutions.
An email from 2009 sent by Clinton was recently released detailing her seeming ineptitude with the office fax machine. A few days before Christmas that year, Clinton was emailing with Huma Abedin, a longtime aide of hers, regarding what they needed to do to get their fax machine up and running, CNN reported. Unfortunately, the best solution they could come up with entailed hanging up the phone line multiple times to see if that cleared up the issue. Needless to say, these efforts ultimately proved fruitless. Eventually, Clinton instructed Abedin to just call Oscar, who presumably is their main tech support person.
As the back and forth between the two of them illustrates, dealing with fax machine-related issues is no easy feat. If even someone as well-educated and intelligent as Hillary Clinton has trouble with the technology, then it shows just how complicated the technology is. Still, part of the reason Clinton and Abedin may have experienced trouble with the fax machine back in 2009 was because the technology is not as widely used of late as it was a few decades ago. Fewer fax terminals were sold this past year compared even to 2005, and the number of regular fax users has been dwindling, Agence France Presse reported.
Use cases of faxing
"Faxing technology is still widely used around the world."
While faxing via standalone machines has been on the decline as of late, it is by no means disappearing. In fact, AFP noted that the technology is still widely used around the world. Many fax solutions were sold in the past few years, and sales estimates in many parts of globe look strong for the near future.
"Millions of people still use fax machines daily worldwide and probably will continue to do so in the near future," said Jonathan Coopersmith, an associate professor at Texas A&M University and an author of a book on faxing, according the AFP.
According to the news source, faxing is still widely used for the following reasons:
- It is more secure than other communication channels like email, in part since it is very difficult to intercept and alter fax messages.
- Many industries have specific compliance requirements that necessitate the use of faxes.
- It allows for the sending and receiving of signatures, which is critical for many transactions.
- Employees of all ages and technical skill levels can learn and use faxing without much difficulty.
- Faxing makes it easy to both receive and send handwritten notes and messages, which is an especially useful feature in countries like Japan.
"For many people and small businesses, faxing a written note or a form is easier than typing on a computer or smartphone," Coopersmith added.
The cloud is the future – and present – of faxing.What does the future of faxing look like?
While faxing may not be going away, the fax machine as a standalone endpoint may be nearing the end of its life. To cope, many manufacturers are creating all-in-one devices that fax, print, scan and copy, among other features, AFP reported. But, do such machines represent the future of faxing? Considering that multi-functional equipment still presents issues – difficult for Hillary Clinton and others to troubleshoot, expensive to maintain dedicated phone lines, cumbersome to deal with related paper and printing costs, etc. – the answer is probably not.
Instead, the best bet for the future may be the further embrace of cloud-based faxing or fax over IP solutions. Also known as "faxware," Internet-based faxing combines the security and reliability benefits of faxing with the convenience and cost savings of the cloud. It's perhaps no surprise then that this sector is one of the fastest growing segments in the faxing space today, AFP reported.
As the Hillary Clinton episode from 2009 illustrates, legacy fax machines can sometimes be quite cumbersome. But, by ditching this equipment and instead opting for a FoIP solution, an organization can still reap all the benefits of faxing, just in a far more convenient and cost-effective form.
Enhance enterprise communication, collaboration and compliance efforts with a proven FoIP solution from FaxCore. Contact FaxCore today to learn more about their 'Partly-Cloudy' fax solutions.
