Twice a year, TMC (News - Alert) hosts an ITEXPO event to provide a venue for technology professionals to learn more about the industry from the best and brightest in their given field.

One of the more popular sessions at ITEXPO (News - Alert) West 2011, which just wrapped up earlier this month in Austin, Texas, was the panel discussion on fax over IP, a small but thriving industry that is helping enable enterprises and SMBs to deliver fax traffic over IP networks.

To find out more about the panel discussion – and the industry in general – TMC editorial director Erik Linask (News - Alert) sat down with Max Schroeder, senior vice president at FaxCore, maker of the award-winning FaxCore fax server.

Schroeder says that the fax over IP industry has really taken off in recent years as companies have begun to realize that the technology can provide them with a total solution.

"They can have their email, their fax and their voice all in a converged environment," he said, adding that fax over IP also facilitates storage, archiving and adherence to various governmental regulations.

Schroeder told Linask that companies that are looking to implement fax over IP are also taking advantage of the technology's document management and document storage capabilities. He said that this is particularly prevalent in the healthcare field, where electronic medical records are replacing physical documents.

Healthcare firms that deliver documents using fax over IP can automatically archive the information without having to take any additional steps, Schroeder said. "Fax over IP can help enable companies to become completely paperless."

Schroeder said that the fax over IP session – and ITEXPO in general – were "fantastic venues" for bringing together partners and even competitors to promote the industry.

"All the players are here. From a networking perspective, it's really great," he added.

Click here to learn more about Faxcore, a multiple winner of TMC's INTERNET TELEPHONY Product of the Year Award.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves