The facsimile, or the fax machine, was invented as early as 1843. This was more than three decades before the telephone was invented. It was then called the telegraph or telefax machine. Yet the fax machine didn’t catch on right away. It was only around 1939 when it gained popularity among businesses and offices. But when people realized the power of faxed messages, every office and business wanted to use it for all their communications.
When the email was invented, it didn’t take long before it displaced fax machines as the most popular form of communication. But fax machines continued to be used by businesses and offices. They also adapted electronic fax and fax software to send and receive digital fax messages. Despite the prevalence of emails and scanned documents, some industries still need electronic fax solutions. Here are some:
- Banking Sector
The banking sector has for many decades relied on the facsimile. Banks use fax machines to send messages and transmit documents. Among the many uses, banks have for fax machines is for commercial transactions. They enabled parties to send and sign their names on contracts and send them back right away. Regional and international trading companies rely on banks for their importation or export transactions as a go-between.
To facilitate inter-country or even international trade, banks provide letters of credit. They act as an intermediary between their clients and the other party in the transaction. Moreover, they can coordinate with the bank of the selling party in the country where the goods come from. For instance, the importer opens a letter of credit with their commercial bank, then faxes it to the correspondent bank of the seller or exporter.
Once the seller or exporter presents the bill of lading to the bank, it is also faxed to the importer’s bank, which facilitates the letter of credit. After the documents are confirmed to be all good, confirmation to release payment is then faxed to the correspondent bank.
- Law Offices
The legal profession is among those sectors or industries that strongly resist the digitization trend. For one, most courts still require physical paper copies of pleadings and other legal documents in print along with their electronic copies. If it weren’t for the pandemic, courts wouldn’t have opened up to the idea of holding court hearings via video conferencing.
Law offices have always relied on fax machines to transmit drafts of pleadings and other legal documents such as briefs, memos, contracts, agreements, and trusts. They’ve also used fax machines to send advance copies of legal documents requiring urgent attention or response. The faxed documents were advance copies of the paper copies sent by courier or post office.
Even with the popularity of email, law offices still use electronic fax. They prefer it because they get a confirmation message. Fax machines are also not susceptible to hacking or mass forwarding. Fax machines still work even if there’s no internet connectivity.
- Money Remittance Companies
Money remittance companies were among the businesses which heavily relied on fax machines. They used fax machines to transmit the details of each money remittance transaction. They often faxed the information about the money remittance to the receiving branch. They fax the amount of money remitted, the details about the named recipient, and the transaction reference number. These pieces of information are faxed to the branch, which will pay out the remittance to the person named as the recipient.
Even though some industries were already ditching fax machines, money remittance centers prefer faxed messages. This is because fax messages can be sent out and received even in branches which don’t have a good internet connection. Electronic fax messages have the added advantage of sending fax-to-email messages or both fax-to-email and fax-to-fax. This allows them to store digitalized copies of the fax messages in their archives.
- Hospitals And Healthcare Providers
Hospitals and healthcare providers are also among those who rely heavily on fax machines. They usually sent out copies of test results, laboratory reports, and other medical documents through fax machines to health insurance providers, affiliate healthcare centers and clinics, as well as consulting doctors and health specialists.
Hospitals and healthcare providers preferred fax messages because they could be sent out and received more urgently. Emails and scanned attachments gained popularity for a time. But some of the transmitted and archived files were hacked by underhanded people. This made hospitals and healthcare providers appreciate that fax messages were more confidential and less susceptible to intrusion or hacking.
Moreover, hospitals and healthcare providers continue to rely on electronic fax messages. This has allowed them the flexibility to send documents and reports fax-to-email, email-to-fax, and fax-to-fax. They can send out medical reports and findings without worrying that they might be mass forwarded. This also allowed them to comply with the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). They can send out even to places where the internet connection isn’t that good.
Conclusion Offices and businesses continue to use fax machines to send paperwork and transmit messages. There are entire industries and sectors which are heavily dependent on electronic fax solutions for their business activities and transactions. These sectors are the banking sector, law offices, money remittance centers, and hospitals and healthcare providers. They’ve adapted to the digital age by shifting to electronic fax solutions and fax software.