Despite its reputation as an archaic mean of communication, it appears the fax is here to stay

Graig Steward - Product Manager, CommunicationsGraig Steward - Product Manager, Communications

This is according to , product manager for Communications at . “Fax services still remain a core function of many companies today,” he says. ”Although email and other  messaging services have replaced fax as a primary form of communication, the type of information being  faxed is, if anything, even more mission-critical than ever. Faxing is not about to disappear any time soon.”

In addition, there are still too many companies that do not fully understand their faxing environments. According to Stewart, they aren’t being as strategic as they should be.

For instance, there are numerous  potential threats that can affect an organisation, like fax-to-e-mail spammers, confidential documents left unattended near multifunction printers (MFPs), and employees leaving companies and taking their company fax number
with them.

“The costs of running a production or enterprise faxing service remain incredibly high in terms of  hardware, software, licensing costs, MFPs and traffi c,” says Stewart. “They don’t realise that these costs can be significantly reduced in most areas.”

WHERE THE FOCUS SHOULD LIE

According to Stewart, there are a few issues that companies should focus on going forward.

“A full audit of the organisation’s current faxing environment needs to be conducted,” he says. “This should  include a audit.” Stewart also believes that due to the rise in compliance and governance issues,  all relevant legislation should be taken into account.

“Once the company has a good overview of what they have, they should consider looking to reduce the  number of MFPs in their organisation by employing a secure, fax-to-email solution,” says Stewart.

He believes that from a production faxing point of view, organisations should be looking at deploying a  hosted solution. “Onsite faxing solutions are becoming increasingly irrelevant due to their incredibly high  costs. Very simply, companies these days are struggling to see the ROI of onsite faxing solutions,” he says.

Finally, Stewart believes that companies should begin to investigate a fax over IP solution (FoIP). FoIP is a  T38 protocol that is driving the advancements of IP faxing. “Not only does FoIP decrease traffic costs, it  also supports real-time delivery and receipt of faxes. FoIP is a perfect complement to any organisation that  currently uses or is looking to deploy a VoIP solution,” he concludes.