The new era of the fax server: an overview of its evolution and adoption

Do you think fax server adoption has drastically decreased in these years? We would like to change your mind because this communication management system is still a key component in some environments. 

Over the years, it has developed into a modern solution and, according to the “Market Guide for Fax solutions” of the most important consulting firm, Gartner, its evaluation and implementation have increased by 5% per year, playing an important role in support of critical business communications processes. 

How has fax technology evolved?

The traditional fax technology with a paper-based solution has gradually evolved over the years into a more sophisticated system in the Cloud. This new experience ensures reliable fax delivery over the Internet across any device avoiding the inefficiency and the slow process of the traditional one. The documents are securely stored in a centralized repository that could be integrated with the company directory or LDAP.

The evolution of the working landscape, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, has accelerated this evolution increasing the requests for the cloud fax server as a more flexible solution that can be part of an all-in-one communication platform. Companies have faced the imminent need to move their UC to the Cloud and this change has involved also the fax solution. 

Why are fax solutions requested?

Gartner has highlighted that the number of companies that use the fax server to manage a high volume of documents has remained unchanged, but in recent times, enterprises have found new cases of usage by integrating this technology with other communication systems (such as email, text, and SMS) and CRM. The main aspects to be considered by these companies when they are evaluating to adopt of a Cloud fax server are:

• cost-saving: the new solution enables decreasing the telephony usage costs related to physical fax lines (e.g. paper and toner), infrastructure, management, and maintenance costs. The cloud fax server does not require any fax machine or phone lines to deal with long distances, it just needs a PBX that routes the traffic of the faxes to the system. Fewer investments are needed than the traditional ones based on hardware. It works in the Cloud with centralized full control to streamline the paperless workflow and its effort;
• scalability, flexibility, and interoperability: it allows to easily increase and decrease the fax lines as needed without additional architectural investments. 
• seat-less usage: this cloud solution is accessible from any device without geographical limitation. This aspect is essential in the current work-from-anywhere scenario. Wherever the agent is he can securely send and receive faxes. This aspect helps companies increase their efficiency.
• compliance and regulations: documentation privacy and security are essential topics to be considered when a company is planning to adopt a fax server. The cloud solution can efficiently address these needs (e.g. GDPR): for example, the administrator can set up a different level of access permission so only authorized users can access the portal and see only the specific documents they are authorized to handle.
• speed and accuracy: the Cloud fax server digitally receives, manages, and saves hundreds of faxes at the same moment, there is no busy signal. The virtual ports are always available and it is ever connected.

Which are the main markets that request the Fax Server?

The recent research of Gartner has highlighted which are the five industries that still continue heavily adopt the Fax Server to support other internal applications and processes:

• Healthcare - Fax technologies have been chosen in this industry for their cost-save and secure communication management to be integrated into their electronic medical record and electronic health record systems.
• Manufacturing - These companies integrate fax solutions in their current business processes (e.g. purchase orders system) to handle a high-quality automated service for transactions.
• Legal - In this environment, the main communications between lawyers, counsels, courts, and clients still go through the fax channel.
• Finance - Banks and investment enterprises still rely on fax solutions for high-security regulatory requirements.
• Governments - They continue using fax technologies to ensure a high level of secure communication.

Do you work in these markets and are you evaluating moving your fax management into the Cloud? Discover Mida Fax Server and go deeper into its main features you can rely on. You can easily track documents and securely automatically archived them in a reliable fax solution.

by Mida