By e-mail, in chat or in the cloud, there are now many digital ways to send documents. Nevertheless, German companies continue to hold on to a classic of analogue communication, the fax machine.
Overall, 82% of companies in Germany still fax. A third (33%) of the companies still use the fax frequently or very frequently. However, intensive use is declining sharply. In the previous year it was still 40%, in 2018 even 62% of the companies that sent faxes frequently or very frequently. 50% of companies only fax occasionally or rarely. 16% are already doing without it completely, in 2022 it was still 11%.
These are the results of a study commissioned by the digital association Bitkom, for which 505 companies in Germany with 20 or more employees were surveyed.
“In view of the digital change, the fax was declared dead a long time ago. However, once a communication channel has established itself, it usually takes a while until it is completely replaced – even if there are now much more convenient and secure communication channels,” said Nils Britze, Head of Digital Business Processes at Bitkom. “What is particularly appreciated about the classic fax is the high verifiability of the delivery. When it comes to encrypting data and thus its security, digital channels have quite a bit ahead of fax. Digital fax machines pick up on this and use servers for data transmission instead of telephone lines. This makes the digital fax much more secure than its analogue predecessor.”
