Does anyone fax anymore? Last time I checked we were approaching the end of this decade and there are many other popular and easier ways to transfer documents. The truth, however, may surprise you.

Facsimile and unified communications analyst firm, Davidson Consulting, stated that there are “more than 100 billion fax pages transmitted each year.” Furthermore, The Gallup Institute and the Institute for the Future estimate that knowledge workers handle an average of 178 fax documents per week.

So, as you can see, the fax is definitely not dead. Many companies still see faxing as a viable way to transmit data for multiple reasons. As Davidson Consulting stated, “fax retains advantages over e-mail – never-think-about-it compatibility, retention of the format of complex documents, sending documents that are virtually uneditable, and ease of electronically sending paper documents.”

But, does this mean you should get your old fax machine out of the attic, buy toner, a couple reams of paper and add an additional line to your phone bill every month? I wouldn’t recommend it.

Like I said, we’re in the year 2009, there are new technologies that can simplify the transfer of valuable documents and even make faxing a more secure and streamlined process. Yes, I’m talking about ScanSnap.

eFax, one of the top Internet faxing services in the world, offers a couple of services (eFax Plus or eFax Pro) that when combined with the ScanSnap, turns the scanner into your desktop fax machine. The integration is simple and eFax is as easy to use as email.

How do you do it? Obviously, you need to have a ScanSnap. You’ll also need to sign up for an eFax account. We’ve made this easy – go to the ScanSnap Marketplace and click on the eFax icon (we negotiated a special price just for ScanSnap users!) and you are ready to send a fax from your ScanSnap.

Now place your documents into the ScanSnap automatic document feeder, press “Scan” and the Quick Menu will open. From the Quick Menu, choose “Scan-to-Email.” ScanSnap will open a new mail message in your email program with the PDF documents automatically attached. And it’s ready to fax! Just address the email to the fax “number@efaxsend.com” you would like to send it to. For example, the outgoing email address would look like this: 16785551234@efaxsend.com. There is no need to create a cover page as eFax uses the body of your email as the cover page and they will send you an email confirming delivery of the fax.

In addition, you can use the ScanSnap to scan directly to eFax Messenger.

Just another way the ScanSnap makes your life more efficient!

If you have further questions about the integration with eFax Messenger, I’m happy to help out. Just shoot me a note at dflower@us.fujitsu.com.

Derek Flower, Senior Account Manager, ScanSnap
Fujitsu Computer Products of America