All About FoIP Blog

On the heels of our beloved fax industry analyst forecasting in 2011 a 5-year expansion of FoIP, our blogging efforts last year remained cautious but encouraged by the rising interest and adoption of Fax over IP, adding complimentary articles, research and consulting on fax modernization, healthcare fax integration, SIP trunks, Cloud Fax solutions, Fax Workflow solutions, and even Steve Jobs.  In retrospect, we underestimated our own parent company’s success by doubling revenue over last year quarter-end.  Ultimately we owe it to smart customers who have wisely invested in “modernized” fax solutions, complimented by the momentum and mainstreaming of virtualization, IP infrastructures and IP telephony, and electronic document intelligence.....

On Oct 5, 2011, a technology maverick, marketing genius, warrior, and one of my dearest role models was lost. While reading the republished article "The Tale of Steve Jobs and the Five Dragons" (follow link below for access to the full story), I flashed back on my career in the fax server technology industry with pride and accomplishment.  In 2011, fax technology once again picks up speed at an astonishing rate.  Fax has evolved to find its place in the new era of Unified Messaging, Unified Communications, IP communications, Cloud computing and transactional document capture and delivery.  Rumor has it, Google and Microsoft both still use and need fax for a variety of business communications and processes.  The naysayers of the future of fax, both within the industry itself, and outsiders who don't have a clue, are unaware that their negative psychological investments, blogs and white paper omissions will never defeat such a simple and smart technology with words.  Comparatively so, it is not unlike the naysayers of Apple and NeXT who nearly wrote Steve Jobs and his ventures off in the 90's. The difference between naysayers and Steve Jobs is Vision.......

All the buzz is “fax modernized.”  Fax modernized is everywhere from Unified Communications to Cloud Computing to Microsoft Office 365.  1H-2011 illustrates that electronic fax defies knee-jerk perceptions, surprising exo-analysts like Frost & Sullivan, who abrubtly see what industry insiders like us have always known, that enterprise and traditional fax markets continue to grow and redefine themselves amidst global IT paradigm shifts.  Like the wheel, it was invented a long time ago and is still a damn good solution, constantly enjoying improvements.

What is Fax Modernized? 

Fax modernized is a mature form of electronic document exchange.  It reigns as an undisputed front runner for compliance, cost-reduction and consolidation initiatives, and simply represents the evolution of faxing away from traditional fax machines towards evolving document exchange networks including multi-functional digital onramps (MFP Faxing), locally encrypted network attached scanners (Fujitsu 1800N-OTIS), and secure electronic document exchange, rarely originated or terminated as paper.  All the same, electronic document exchange still hangs its hat on proven, reliable and evolving secure transmission methods in the families of PSTN, Fax over IP (FoIP), http over SSL (https and https fax) and alternative modes of secure file transfer.

Davidson Consulting, lead by Peter Davidson fax server industry expert analyst, has published a new report on FoIP Server Markets, that states the fax over IP (FoIP) market will grow during the five-year forecast period, from $130 million in 2009 to $415 million in 2014, a 26.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Companies are converting their conventional fax servers to FoIP servers and increasing adoption of Internet-based fax services and Cloud Faxing technologies.  Mr. Davidson indicates market growth will also be driven by server virtualization, centralization of fax operations, enhanced IP infrastructures, VoIP initiatives requiring an IP fax strategy, the ability to FoIP enable both multifunction peripherals (MFPs) and traditional fax machines while preserving audit trails and satisfying compliance regulations. 

Speaking from the perspective of a 20 year fax industry veteran and company founder, One Touch Global credits RightFAX as a key influence in its history and substantial participation surrounding the fax server space through 2011 and beyond.  Fax technology, now morphing gradually away from stand alone fax machines, finds its futuristic home using digital on-ramp solutions, multifunction devices, and IP Telephony (IPT).  In other words, electronic fax remains deceptively successful and highly relevant for years to come.

The RightFAX brand continues to stand out, namely a by-product of .....

Dear FoIP Technology Providers and Analysts,

In October of 2010, merely 6 months ago, the first release of www.AllAboutFoIP.com was launched for the purpose of providing an un-biased and consolidated Fax over IP (FoIP) information resource, and for serving the growing industry as a whole.  Search engine rankings on a wide-variety of fax industry related terms continue to elevate and astound us.  We estimate that AllAboutFoIP.com already experiences roughly 36,000 pageviews per month, a majority from organic searches and referrals. In December, we launched our bi-monthly newsletter with a distribution list already approaching 10,000 recipients, with additional press releases providing worldwide exposure.

It is 2011, and faxing in the healthcare market continues to check out in great shape as hospitals, insurers, payment processors, laboratories, and medical product manufacturers all use fax servers and fax services to move documents confidentially.  With fax servers and fax services, documents typically arrive in secure fax to e-mail or fax client applications, or directly into healthcare management systems, so no one can read patient information except authorized users.  Fax immediately converts paper documents into electronic documents at the source.

Fax server software, fax appliances, multi-functional devices and Internet fax services are transforming into Fax over IP servers and cloud faxing solutions.  These offerings are sometimes also coined IP Fax or VoIP Fax.  Globally, enterprise class organizations and carrier offerings are driving an improvement of the IP networks to increase overall reliability, bandwidth and relevance for the new and exciting technologies offered by SIP Trunking.  In the midst of these IP network improvements are SIP and SIP trunking discussions as a compliment to VoIP implementations, ultimately a migration strategy away from traditional PSTN (TDM networks). 

Scott Riley CEO One Touch Global Technologies, Inc.

Many organizations have adopted a VoIP (Voice over IP) network infrastructure, or in some cases began a partial transition from traditional phone lines to IP, and thus are already reaping the 5 primary benefits of a unified communications strategy. A unified communications strategy involves the migration of primary business communication methods such as voice, data, video and fax from traditional analog phone lines onto an IP-based network, including the internet. Terms commonly used as a part of these unified communication migrations are VoIP (voice over IP) & FoIP (fax over IP).

Fax machines, fax servers and fax services continue to evolve towards a Fax over IP (FoIP) strategy, and FoIP will become the future of fax communications. As the Fax over IP (FoIP) industry matures, Fax over IP (FoIP) will become cheaper, faster, and easier to use, while dramatically enhancing consolidation and business continuance initiatives.

While there are thousands of sites and products dedicated to understanding voice transmission over an IP network (VoIP) and the internet, there are very few which discuss Fax over IP (FoIP). As a key fax server industry advocate, fax insider and reseller for 20 years, the goal of the "All About FoIP" website is to provide valuable information regarding Fax over IP (FoIP) for business executives and technology professionals to make well informed decisions.