Digitization is ongoing – but the fax machine remains. Most companies continue to rely on the classic analog communication. Just why?
82 percent of companies in Germany still use a fax machine to transmit documents at least occasionally. This is the result of a representative survey by the digital association Bitkom among companies with 20 or more employees, which was presented on Thursday in Berlin. A comparison with the survey values from previous years shows, however, that communication in companies is taking place less and less by fax.
A third of the companies still use the fax frequently or very frequently. In the previous year, on the other hand, it was still 40 percent, and in 2018 even 62 percent of the companies that sent faxes frequently or very frequently. Every second company now only faxes occasionally or rarely.
Nils Britze, Head of Digital Business Processes at Bitkom, said that faxes had long been declared dead in view of digital change. “But once a communication channel has established itself, it usually takes a long time to completely replace it – even if there are now much more convenient and secure communication channels.”
What is particularly appreciated about the classic fax is the high verifiability of the delivery. “However, when it comes to the encryption of data and thus its security, the digital channels have a lot ahead of the fax. Digital fax machines pick up on this and use servers for data transmission instead of telephone lines.” This means that the digital fax is significantly more secure than its analogue predecessor.
Source: Stern
