Fax Isn’t Dead—It’s Just in the Cloud (And Growing!)

UCaaS and Fax are Like Peanut Butter and ….

Some readers may not realize that Fax was one of the original “M’s” in Unified Messaging (which preceded the term Unified Communications). Yes, UM included Fax, Email, Voice Mail and SMS. And all of that came forward when UM morphed into Unified Communications (UC). So fax and UC go together like peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and chocolate. Maybe not as seamless, but it still goes together.

Still you say. Like are companies still using fax? I feel like I have been writing that for last 15 years. But it still deserves some words today. Yes, fax is an integral function for Unified Communications in that the UC system would enable faxes to be sent or received digitally to/from the UC system. So yes, fax machines are typically gone from the enterprise now, but the act of faxing is still around?

Why? Because of many factors, such as workflows that may still include fax (and some workflows, especially those that work fine, are hard to change). Additionally, fax is relatively secure (even when it is digitized and goes over the internet) and thus faxing is still used for HIPAA, and for legal documents, and in some government institutions. And when sending a fax, part of the fax flow is sending a receipt of delivery. That does not happen with emails. And thus that feature contributes to fax remaining in workflows, etc.

Research I have read indicates that fax continues to grow. In fact, according to Research and Markets, “The Fax Services Market was valued at USD 3.31 billion in 2024, and is projected to reach USD 4.48 billion by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 5.17%”.

That is hard for many readers to understand since many of us do not encounter faxes on a daily basis. But as I said above, faxing is used in healthcare, legal and government settings readily.

If you need fax and UCaaS, please consider Clearspan as we have solutions for you.