Faxes are a funny thing. I recently managed a printer rollout for an organisation (about 50 devices - no paperless office yet) and we needed to include a number of devices capable of sending and receiving faxes even though we could achieve the same electronically by print to fax and digitising tools.
It's easy to see how the rolodex and tape recorders will die as there are plenty of easy, digital solutions. Our smartphones, tablets and computers can cover those functions easily. But there's something more tangible about paper and that's why, I think, faxing is hanging around.
The fax machine is going to disappear in the next five years along with the rolodex and tape recorders, Recently a survey of 7,000
LinkedIn users asking what office tools would disappear from the workplace by 2017. A total of 71% of the participants identified the fax.
As
we've explained before there is a lot of company comfort wrapped up in paper. While storage is relatively difficult, people tend to trust paper as it feels more tamper-proof.
If you're still using faxes and are looking for a way to extricate yourself from their hold, sites like
mBox provide fax to email services. When some sends a fax to your number, it's automatically digitised and sent to your email. It's cheaper than maintaining a fax machine and phone line.
Will faxing go away? It is slowly fading but I think LinkedIn is a little ambitious. I give it the rest of the decade before faxing is gone.
