To Fax Or Not To Fax? That Is The Question.

I have a number of people asking us “why don’t you have a fax number?” or “How can I send you documents if you don’t have a fax?”

Foghorn Business Development Services is taking a new approach and doing away with the technology called “facsimile machines”

“Blasphemy!” you say.

Think a moment….

Is it often that you get a fax and say to yourself “my, but if that is not a great looking document.”? I doubt it. In fact, you probably find it a little frustrating, because you now have a poor replica of what once was a good quality document, and now you have to find a place to put it so you won’t lose it. Comically, you often send a document originally by fax, it is signed and sent it back to you by fax. It has now been diminished to a smudgy mess.

Now I ask you this; do you have a multi-function printer in your home? How about your office? You would be hard pressed to find an office without a printer/copier/scanner. Now you have to remember that a fax machine is a scanner. The only difference is that the scan is sent over a phone line to another unit that takes that information and then prints it. The problem is that the fax machines have to squash the image to a very small amount of information so that it will not tie up the phone lines for too long, thus the images are a very low resolution and poor quality.

So here it is, the key point. If you have a printer/copier/scanner, then why not scan the document to your computer and email the file? You now have a record of the document right there in your computer. You also have the ability to write an explanation in the email, instead of printing a fax cover sheet. You can also request a read receipt so you will know that your recipient has actually received the document, not to mention that you have now saved 2 print jobs and all the ink, paper waste & costs of unnecessary printing. Let’s not forget that the person on the other end now has a built in back up of the document you just sent them.

So the only point left to throw out there is why would you want to pay all that money for fax lines and long distance when all you have to do is scan and email a document?

Here in BC, we are trying to protect the environment. Why don’t we actually start doing it? Reduce paper and ink use. Reduce paper and ink waste. Cut costs. Use your scanner and email rather than your fax machine.

It’s simple.

1. Aeron says:

   December 8, 2009 at 12:24 am

   Interesting post Rick.

   I spent some time working in the finance industry and we had some interesting rules regarding faxed legal documents. Long story short, we weren’t able to accept signed documents via fax, however if that same document was signed, scanned and emailed we could accept those documents as originals once printed out. Simply based on the clarity of the documents, it allowed us this benefit and time saving measure of not having to wait for a courier or mail to arrive with the originals!
   I too agree that the fax machine is slowly fading into the history books.
   A.

   Reply
2. Rick says:

   December 10, 2009 at 8:01 pm

   Thank you Aeron, for your input. interesting facts. What do you do now, now that you have left the finance world?

   Reply
   • Chris says:

     December 11, 2009 at 12:44 am

     Actually, I just read an article yesterday about this — a company now offers a service called Zosh for digitally-signed documents without the “fax”.

     Reply