With the world and technology quickly evolving, certain technologies and ways of doing business feel antiqued. Over time new technologies have come along and changed the way of doing business, like VOIP did with landlines. While landlines are still being used today, many
businesses have opted for VOIP. For many businesses, fax machines are a thing of the past as they have opted for different methods of moving documents. However, does this mean the fax machine is going to die?

The main industry that is still using fax machines is the healthcare industry. They have been using them for a long time, and are comfortable with them. The pandemic showed some flaws in the healthcare industry’s technology. It proved to be outdated and because of this many in the healthcare industry are looking to upgrade and move to the future. This is not as easy as it seems, as there are multiple hurdles for the healthcare industry to overcome.

The first issue is cost. For those in public healthcare, the first issue arises when they have to get the money allocated towards this. This is an issue on its own, and even when they do have money that could be allocated to this issue, the choice is not so simple. The switch not only costs a lot of money, but it is a switch that sounds easier than it actually is. Old documents and
records have to become digital and then hospitals have to worry about securing and protecting the digital records.

This is the second issue that occurs. By making all records digital, hospitals have to make sure that the records and charts are always available. If a network is down, then doctors could lose access to the patient’s chart and records. For example, this could cause huge issues if a patient is coding. Furthermore, hospitals become a bigger target for cyberterrorists, as taking down or invading a network could cause bigger issues as now people’s private information can be accessed.

An alternative, as mentioned in one of our previous blogs, is the direct standard. The direct standard is a digital method of sending documents that are encrypted and only gets sent to authorized users. Konica Minolta has worked hard to allow their multifunction printers to have
their direct messaging with a partnership with Kno2. To learn more about the direct standard, read our blog about it. 

Does this mean fax will die? No, not exactly. Fax still has a place in the workplace, as it is a secure way to send documents. Furthermore, many businesses are still using fax; it is still a valuable method of document transfer. Another reason is that fax can still be used during network outages. This means while many businesses are exploring other options to document
transfer, fax has a valuable lifespan