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SMBs favour fax machines over laptops

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 2 Nov 2011 at 10:00

Fax machines remain the most commonly used piece of technology for small and medium businesses.

This is according to a survey commissioned by Intel, which asked 3,000 SMBs with fewer than 250 employees about how they use technology.

Fax machines are still used by four out of ten IT users in SMBs, while 36% use laptops, 16% use smartphones, and only 1.4% use tablets.

"Fax machines are old technology, but it's still something that ranks very highly among SMBs," Graham Palmer, managing director of Intel UK, told PC Pro. "Why are people still using fax machines? Because it still works for them."

Fax machines are old technology, but it's still something that ranks very highly among SMBs

Nearly half of those asked said they don't adopt any new technology because they lack the money or staff to do so, while a third have no plans to upgrade PCs or other devices in the next year.

"When you're running an SMB you have a lot of different business priorities you're trying to juggle, and being an expert in IT isn't perhaps one of them," Palmer said.

However, 42% of those polled said they use their own devices for work, although Intel warned that only a third of businesses were aware of legislation regarding data privacy and security.

The majority of employees who do use their own kit - some seven out of ten - do so because of the "attractive design of the device" or because they "value the increased privacy of using their own laptop".

Cloud confusion

The survey also highlighted the continuing confusion over cloud computing, finding that half of people using Google Docs don't believe they use cloud services.

Half of IT users and a quarter of IT decision makers said they weren't entirely sure what cloud computing is - although it's easy to see why they're confused when Intel's own report cites Amazon and eBay as examples of cloud applications.

"When you spoke to people who said they weren't [using cloud computing], they were in fact using services that are deployed through cloud capabilities," Palmer said. "The sector is deploying these services, but they [SMBs] are not necessarily associating them with cloud services."

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User comments

But do they favour fax machines over PCs?

Unless you actually need to move your machine around, laptops offer an inferior experience to desktop
PCs in every way. So while fax machines might be more commonly used than laptops, I wonder how the stats would look if you were to include all PCs, including desktops?

By SirRoderickSpode on 2 Nov 2011

Agreed. They're almost certainly using the fax machines to send out documents they typed on a computer.

It also sounds like 40% of SMBs have a fax machine sitting in the office in case they need to send a fax, which seems like a fair idea.

By steviesteveo12 on 2 Nov 2011

Don't blame SMBs

The reason many SMBs have fax machines is becuase many Government departments, Banks and Lawyers (to name a few!) won't accept paperless 'electronic' communications, can't \ won't accept digitally signed docs.

This means that you have to send manualy signed Faxes to many of these august institutions if you want to do any kind of business....

Actually I agree that in an SMB context, Desktop PCs have more value and offer vastly superior value.

If your company does not need to go to its clients and make presentations etc, then portables are a luxury and are much less secure physically than desktops.

By wittgenfrog on 2 Nov 2011

Still using Fax

In 1966 (yes 1966) I started work at a UK key research lab (Standard Telecoms Labs, Harlow), on a project developing a Fax scanner. At the end of my first month the project was cancelled because "the paperless revolution had arrived" A little premature in retrospect! PS my next project was a 20 metre range optical fibre transmission system.....

By zmail on 3 Nov 2011