Fax Featured Article

The term fax is defined as any image data sent between two end points that leverage the T.30 protocol. This protocol is actually the standard around the world that image exchanges must follow. In fact, according to a recent blog post from Commetrex (News - Alert), “If T. 30 isn’t being executed on each end of the exchange, it isn’t a fax.”

Organizations big or small within any vertical can leverage fax as a way to communicate efficiently via a paper trail that can then be archived and reviewed at a later date if necessary, serving as a type of proof in a sense.

The legal space, in particular, heavily relies on faxing important documents, in addition to insurance and medical organizations that use fax to get a message out quickly.

According to a recent piece by Oliver Marks, faxed documents are still serving as the foundation of many business operations, and as he “sits next to his steel filing cabinets he is acutely aware fax isn't going to go away, but can and needs to be contained. In many cultures hand writing of characters is expected during transactions –Asian cultures are an obvious example, with Japanese resumes typically being hand created so employers can judge people's personalities from the characteristics of their writing,” he wrote. “Japan and China both typically run on hard copies of documents, ironically even when the work being discussed is futuristic digital communications devices.”

 The United States doesn’t run the same as these countries though, and is instead transitioning to the use of electronic signatures, used as a way to get a document inked with someone’s John Hancock that can be sent without delay.

 “Creating a digital front office was overrun by e-mail until recently, itself an outmoded but lowest common denominator way of communicating that is a necessity in certain situations,” he said. “Now that many people have found – stumbled across in some cases – a digital rich mine of information in their work environment, whether a Sharepoint site full of useful info, a wiki or dynamic activity streams full of invaluable insights, contexts, and yes sometimes documents – the understanding that there are more efficient ways of working is increasingly more on people's radar as vein got value.”

“Making this their default way of working collectively, and moving away from document centric work as the foundation, is the challenge to achieve greater efficiencies going forward.”

In related news, a new offering coined eFax is enabling users to send and receive any fax document directly from their PC. Touted as the first online fax app, this next-generation solution is completely reshaping the fax game and can be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft’s (News - Alert) large portfolio.

To read the full report, click here.