In the digital world, faxing may seem as obsolete as using a rotary dial telephone or a cassette player. It sounds extraordinary, but a new study by digital advocacy group Bitkom found that 8 out of 10 German companies still use faxing. Even more impressive, one-third of the respondents said they use this technology frequently or very frequently.
This rate has fallen since last year, when the usage was 62%, and nowadays half of the companies send faxes occasionally or rarely, and 16% dropped the use entirely. The data from Bitkom confirms that the use of a 180-year-old technology is gradually decreasing.
The question remains: why bother sticking to faxing and not use more innovative and secure methods, like emails or cloud sharing? According to Nils Britze, head of the Digital Business Processes at Bitkom, a great characteristic of the classic fax machine is its capability of tracing whether something has been sent.
Also, businesses are not always well equipped to properly digitize their processes. An in-depth survey from Bitkom found that larger companies had an easier time to keep up with the digital trend, as 42% of them managed to digitise their business processes. On the other hand, small companies with less than 100 employees faced more difficulty, as 94% of them were still using paper.
Furthermore, delays in adapting newer technologies can be linked to people’s reluctance of change. Professor Jonathan Coopersmith has coined this phenomenon as “comfortable inertia”. Even if there is a better technology available, it takes time for people to get used to it and replace the classic one.
Just like cars, phones, and even typewriters, fax machines are also crossing their final strides. Still, some companies in Germany are hesitant to let go of the tedious but familiar process of faxing and embrace the new digital methods.
