The German digital association, Bitkom, recently released the latest figures for fax usage in Germany. According to the survey, 82 percent of the participating companies are still sending faxes – and 33 percent even characterize their fax usage as frequent or very frequent.
The number of intensive fax users has, however, been declining over the years. In 2022, they still accounted for 40 percent of all respondents, while in 2018 the proportion of companies defining their fax transmission as frequent or very frequent was 62 percent. However, that is far from suggesting that fax is reaching the end of the line – only 16 percent of companies completely refrain from faxing (2022: 11 percent).
What companies appreciate especially about conventional faxing is the clear evidence that the fax has been delivered, says Nils Britze, the head of Bitkom’s Digital Processes division. “As far as the encryption of data and thus its security is concerned, digital channels nevertheless have the edge over conventional fax in several respects,” Britze points out. “Digital fax applications take advantage of these benefits and use servers for data transmission, rather than telephone lines.” As a result, digital fax transmission is significantly more secure than its analog predecessor.
For the survey, Bitkom Research conducted a representative poll of 505 companies in Germany with over 20 employees.
By the way, digital fax is not only more secure, but also works without requiring fax devices at all and is, moreover, much easier to integrate into your systems – allowing you to digitalize your business processes and automate workflows. Find out how you can benefit from Retarus Cloud Fax Services on our website or directly from your local Retarus representative.
