When shopping for a new piece of equipment, you’ll notice many multifunctional machines still come with the ability to send and receive faxes. You can also buy separate fax modules to add on to machines that don’t have one. However, many still question the importance of a fax machine.
The truth is, if faxing was obsolete, companies wouldn’t still be producing brand new multifunctional machines with fax capabilities. A lot of people are surprised to learn faxing is still a common practice in today’s business environment. Sure, not as common as it used to be, but it’s still around,
Email has largely taken over when it comes to sending and receiving documents, which is understandable because it is faster and more convenient. Faxing is not used as much as it was in the 1980s, but you don’t want to be stuck without the ability to send faxes if and when you need to. Yes, that is a problem that could come up depending on what types of clients or customers you work with.
Believe me, I’ve seen it all, and I’ll go over a few examples for you in the next section.
What is the Importance of a Fax Machine?
I’ve been in this business over 30 years — from the height of the popularity of faxing to where we are today. I still run into situations where having a fax machine has been necessary. Here are some of the most common situations I run into.
Personal Preference
Some business owners just flat out prefer to fax and won’t have it any other way. They don’t send email and they don’t want to, even if they have all the technology at their fingertips. Phone and fax is their preferred method of communication. You don’t want to find yourself working with one of these business owners and not be able to send documents back and forth.
No Access to Email
There are some clients who dislike sending email, and then there are others who couldn’t send email even if they wanted to. Depending on the age of the person they may have never entered the email generation. You might think that’s an unlikely occurrence, but it does happen. Sometimes you need to keep a fax machine around just to do business with one or two specific clients.
Professional Tradition
Some professions traditionally communicate via fax still to this day. A lot of the time the importance of a fax machine is determined by your customer base and what type of business you’re in. If you deal with people in professions that traditionally fax, then there’s no question about needing a fax machine around the office.
Security
Perhaps the most important reason why people still fax is because it’s more secure than sending files another way. Inboxes and hard drives can get hacked into, but it’s unlikely a fax is going to be intercepted by someone it wasn’t intended for. If you’re sending a lot of sensitive information back and forth then it’s worth it to have a fax machine on hand.
Conclusion
These are the most common situations I’ve run into lately where it has been necessary to have a fax machine, but I’m sure there are other unique cases out there. If you’re still on the fence about the importance of a fax machine and whether or not you need one for your business, please contact me and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.