The information age is now in full swing and it’s leaving old technologies behind in droves. With the rise of social media, digital communication, and interconnecting consolidation applications, complete industries are changing almost overnight. In addition, some technologies that were considered paramount advancements in human communication – items such as phones, laptops, and televisions – are now being replaced by smarter phones, tablet hybrids, and internet streaming radio and visual broadcasts.
Specifically for the workplace environment, one device is changing so rapidly that 2014 may be the year to get rid of your old technology altogether – yes; I’m taking about your fax machine. The need for fax machines will always be prevalent in society, whether for business or personal use, but modern economies and businesses or individuals located within those advanced economies will begin to streamline faxing automation through capital investment initiatives.
So here we go…….the 5 technological trends sending fax machines to the dump yard.
1 – Centralization of Operations
In most organizations, decentralization creates a loss of organizational objectives and goals via the dissipation of information. Technology is known by economists as the “equalizer” to this dissipation of organizational goals by creating centralization in specific knowledge formulated by individuals within an organization. Simply put, technology is streamlining communication and effectively lowering costs within organizations to access specific knowledge. Centralization makes business transactions easier, specifically when faxing contracts, job orders, or bill of materials across multiple divisions – or to customers for signing. More businesses will therefore integrate a centralized faxing platform, consolidating multiple fax servers into a single server. Using software similar to SAP (an enterprise software), they will be able to access various information and signed documents from multiple storage servers without redundancy. This is very effective and makes internet faxing a new integrated standard for business.
2 – MFP Explosion
Statistics show that over 40 percent of fax server sales are driven by MFP’s, which are simply multi-functional printers. Integrating these printers into their existing fax server platforms will save businesses costs and time, making electronic fax integration all the more enticing. As with electronic records in the medical industry, once this integration takes place, there is really no turning back.
3 – Cloud-Based Faxing Operations
This new trend in business faxing rises in conjunction with centralizing operations for faxing with enterprise software. One of the most pioneering software companies is known as SNAPS, which offers a hybrid-cloud model and basically acts as an outsourcing company for faxing. Therefore, businesses will see a dramatic drop in physical assets and infrastructure associated with both printing and faxing within company operations. Everything will become leaner and cleaner with lowered operational costs – the cloud-based faxing storage and digital printing will be based on usage capacity each month making it an operational expense, not an asset.
4 – On the Road Again
Personal lives and businesses are going virtual and people are traveling more than ever before. Remote location businesses and operations cause concerns for CEO’s and owners who want to sleep easier at night knowing that important signed documents or other faxes are being transmitted while they’re not in the office. As more and more businesses become remote or travel continues, internet fax and email to fax services are going to become much more important.
5 – Small Businesses Will Continue to Save
As long as management sees cost-effective results, technologies will continue to be used. When something solves a problem, why not continue to use it? For small or medium-sized businesses, paper costs and labor costs of waiting for faxes or sending faxes may cause more problems than desired. Digitizing faxing is one of many new ways small, medium, or even large companies can cut costs and time spent on unimportant tasks.
Author Bio
Matthew Hall is a professional writer for a small tech magazine who is learning the joys and comforts of telecommuting and the new digital age. For finding the best online fax service to replace your old physical fax service, he recommends visiting http://findafax.com. You can find more examples of Matthew’s work on Google+.
