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There was once a time when a telex machine was cutting edge office technology for communications. Now the choices are endless - faxes, e-mails, instant messaging, text messaging, among other methods. And even the way people use fax communication is changing. Businesses are now moving away from traditional paper and toner faxing for something better. The internet fax has a lot of benefits that make it a better choice for business - environmental stewardship, cost savings, efficiency, organization, and security.

1. Internet fax is environmentally friendly in that it essentially does away with fax paper and toner cartridges. The receiver can review faxes as they come in and decide which messages should be printed and which ones should be saved on the computer or deleted. The environmental benefit is actually two-fold. First it eliminates the need for toner and paper, reducing the amount of resources consumed for the production of those items. Secondly it reduces the number of actual fax machines that have to be manufactured and then disposed of in landfills.
2. From the cost savings standpoint, internet fax is a godsend. Just as eliminating toner cartridges from landfills is good for the planet, it's also good for the bottom line of a business. When considering the hundreds of dollars a year in toner and paper consumed by even the smallest businesses, the savings can add up. It also means less employee time wasted in changing toner frequently, or in dislodging paper jams. In addition to introducing this element of economy into the picture, faxing over the internet provides a nice element of control. Businesses can now mercifully be spared the guerilla tactics of blitz marketers who jam up people's faxes with offers of cheap health insurance or vacations in Orlando. The internet fax makes such annoyances a thing of the past.
3. The efficiency of sending and receiving faxes is enhanced with the internet fax. Senders won't receive busy signals. They won't have to hit the automatic redial button and then wonder when an urgent document would reach its recipient. The elimination of the proverbial "log jam" experienced by offices during periods of busy traffic can result in increased efficiency, as well as the benefit of not losing business due to busy signals. That last element in itself can be so profound as to eclipse many of the other advantages of the faxing over the internet.
4. From an organizational standpoint, the internet fax also imparts an element of order into the busy stream of faxes received by the typical small business every day. All those faxes can easily be categorized into folders that make file management under Windows or other operating systems much easier. This is definitely a preferable alternative to maintaining paper copies that can be lost or misfiled more easily. In addition to an office's own electronic filing system, the server of the service provider can be a trusty back-up.
5. From the standpoint of security, the internet fax is vastly superior to its traditional paper fax counterpart. When a document is received, it goes straight to the computer of a specific end user (unless of course copies are deliberately intended for others). This means that confidential information is not lying on the floor after falling off the fax table. Aside from the ethical obligation to protect the confidentiality of sensitive information, faxing over the Internet can reduce the chances that a business will be sued because someone's personal information was found in a dumpster outside the building.

With all these overwhelming advantages, it makes a person wonder if the internet fax will do to the traditional paper fax what CDs did to audio cassettes. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the traditional fax machine will be seen as an anachronism, maybe an interesting office decoration like an antique Royal typewriter. Whatever the outcome may be, it looks like the internet fax is here to stay.