You’d think that with emails, PDF files, and the internet in general, the fax machine would share shelf space with the typewriter, floppy disks, and that one boxed copy of Flash. But, despite the relentless march of technology and its numerous casualties, the fax machine soldiers on in countless offices around the globe.

Fax machines were a big deal back in their heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, but the underlying technology is much older than that. In fact, fax machines share their origins with the electric telegraph of the mid-1830s, and the first patent for a rather rudimentary version of the device was submitted sometime around 1843 by Scottish inventor Alexander Bain. However, it took a combination of telephones being in nearly every home and office and Xerox introducing its Long-Distance Xerography (LDX) technology in the early 1960s that fax machines finally entered the mainstream.

Before the internet and email, fax machines were the fastest way for businesses to send and receive documents. Even if you were halfway around the globe, you could still get an important contract or bill of sale via fax in just minutes, whereas it could take days or even weeks for a courier to do the same. By the 1990s, there were over 5 million fax machines in use in the United States alone.

Why We Still Need Fax Machines

So, why are businesses still using fax machines when emails and other technologies can deliver documents faster and easier? As it turns out, there are plenty of special use cases where fax machines are a necessity. Take the healthcare industry, for example. Healthcare providers still rely on faxes due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and how it’s interpreted. The HIPAA Privacy Rule mandates health providers to safeguard patient information, and the rule itself explicitly mentions fax but not other forms of electronic transmission, including emails. As a result of that strict wording, most health providers only submit their medical records via fax.

Health providers are also concerned about cybersecurity and computers being a vulnerable weak link, whereas it’s much harder, if not impossible, for cybercriminals to attack fax machines. Fax machines are also “platform-agnostic—no matter what type of fax machine you have, you can still send and receive documents without worries about compatibility.

Law enforcement agencies also rely heavily on fax machines for a variety of reasons. Some agencies see faxed documents as more legitimate and less likely to be tampered with than emailed correspondence. Others are simply happy to use a tried-and-tested tool despite having access to more advanced technologies. The same goes for many legal offices around the country.

If you do business with a Japanese company, then chances are a fax machine is involved. Fax machines still play a key role in Japanese business communications despite the changing technological landscape. Chalk it up to bureaucratic rules that still demand paper documents and a desire to hold on to a familiar piece of tech equipment. Older Japanese also find sending handwritten faxes more practical than typing out emails, owing to the incredibly complex written language and its multitude of symbols and characters.

In a nutshell, privacy, security, and familiarity are the major reasons why fax machines are still in use in many corners of the globe, let alone the United States. These issues also explain why the fax machine isn’t going away any time soon.

And That’s Not All!

Its technology might be outdated when compared to emails and the cloud, but the fax machine still has its uses in the modern office. If you’re wondering if you should hold on to your fax machine or even add one to your current office equipment stable, then here are a few interesting pros to consider:

• That Secure Feeling – As mentioned earlier, legal offices and law enforcement agencies see faxes as more secure and more reliable than emails and PDFs. Fax machines can be used offline, making it harder for cybercriminals to target them and potentially steal personal data. Even when they’re internet-connected, fax machines are often more difficult to compromise than a typical computer or mobile device.
• Look, Ma–No Internet! – Internet outages can put a damper on sending and receiving most forms of communication in today’s modern office. But a fax machine works just as well without an internet connection as it does with one. All you need is a working phone line to send and receive documents.
• You’ll Know It’s There – Spam filters, blacklists, and misspelled addresses can easily block emails from getting through, but a fax machine won’t bounce back your documents or relegate them to the spam folder. You’ll even get a confirmation page that not only verifies the document was sent and received, but also includes the dates and times for both. If you need to be absolutely certain of a document being delivered, fax is usually the way to go.
• Paper Trail – A fax machine lets you keep your original documents, ensuring there’s a paper trail to follow and a record to maintain and reference when needed. For this reason, it’s not out of the ordinary for companies to receive check payments via fax.
• Lower Linguistic Burdens – For many Asian clients, it’s often easier and faster to send handwritten faxes than sending emails, which could take considerably longer to type out.

The fax machine isn’t dead just yet, nor does it need to be rushed into an early grave. The privacy, security, and practicality advantages that faxes offer over emails and PDFs prove that fax machines still have a place side-by-side with the latest in modern office tech. If your Pacific Northwest office could use a fax machine for its document management needs, contact Copiers Etcetera today and get in touch with one of our sales specialists.