Test Your Fax IQ With This Short Quiz

What did we do before email was invented? We spent a lot of our time sending faxes back and forth and marveled at the improved speed in our communication capabilities. That seems pretty antiquated these days when you consider we get impatient if we haven’t received an expected email within 30 seconds.

So do people still have fax machines? You bet. But many are transitioning to an online fax service because it’s easier and provides many more options. I’ve been using a service for about five years now. It can really simplify your business. And fax capability is still something most businesses need.

Take this quick Fax IQ quiz from the folks over at Protus to see if your fax knowledge is up to speed.

Q1. Faxing was invented in:

A. 1843
B. 1945
C. 1972
D. 1984

A. The correct answer is A, 1843. Surprised? The technology didn’t really become common in offices until the mid-1980s, but the basic concept was patented more than 150 years prior by Alexander Bain. The device he used was quite a monstrosity and had a cattle jawbone as one of the moving parts. That’s a far cry from today’s Internet fax service which allows you to send and receive faxes anywhere you can get an Internet connection.

Q2. The number of faxed pages sent per year has done what since 1986:

A. Increased
B. Decreased
C. Remained the same

A. If you guessed B you’d be in good company. But you’d be wrong. The truth is the number of faxed pages has continued to grow since 1986. That’s why it’s important for small businesses to be sure they have a reliable and cost-effective fax solution in place.

Q3. Faxes are still widely used in which of the following industries:

A. Construction
B. Healthcare
C. Real Estate
D. Law/legal
E. All of the above

A. The correct answer is E, all of the above. In fact, it is the primary method of data exchange in the construction, and is used on a daily basis in real estate and healthcare. In addition, lawyers use faxes for documents that require signatures. Others that are heavy fax users include insurance brokers and companies, private investigators, truckers, bankers and salespeople. These users are rapidly moving away from fax machines and into Internet fax services since they provide greater mobility and convenience at a far lower cost.

Q4. According to HIPAA laws, healthcare providers can transmit confidential patient information via either email or fax:

A. True
B. False

A. HIPAA laws do not allow patient information to be transmitted via email because it is considered too insecure, i.e. email can be intercepted or misdirected too easily. Faxes, however, are immune to this type of interception by the nature of how they are transmitted. Internet fax services that provide 128-bit encryption provide an additional level of security for the confidential documents.

Q5. Fax machines and Internet fax services offer equal levels of privacy and security:

A. True
B. False

A. Again, the answer is false. Fax machines generally sit in common areas, where anyone walking by can pick up and look at the information that’s been printed. An Internet fax service, on the other hand, delivers the fax electronically to the intended recipient’s email address and/or a secure online server that is password-protected.

Q6. The number of trees that could be saved each year by delivering just one percent (1%) of paper faxes in America as electronic documents is:

A. 15 million
B. 27.2 million
C. 52.5 million
D. 73.5 million

A. It is 73.5 million. And again, that’s just one percent in one country. In addition, moving from fax machines to an Internet fax service would save energy (a fax machine consumes more energy than any other office equipment according to ENERGY STAR) and cut down on the waste stream by eliminating the need to dispose of the machine, toner containers and wasted paper. If you are committed to making your office greener, an Internet fax service can help on several levels.

Q7. Some advantages of an Internet fax service over a fax machine are:

A. No need to go back to the office to read your faxes
B. Internet fax accounts never have busy signals on inbound faxes
C. Because they’re electronic, your faxes can travel with you more easily
D. Only A and C
E. All of the above

A. All of the above. Since Internet fax services are tied to your email account, you can receive faxes anywhere you can get email. That also means you can store your faxes on your laptop or other device so they’re always handy. And if multiple people send you faxes at one time, your Internet fax service will never return a busy signal. You’ll receive all your faxes promptly.

Q8. The monthly cost for an Internet fax service is roughly the same as using a fax machine.

A. True
B. False

A. False. It’s actually a lot less. With a fax machine you have the cost of the machine, plus a dedicated phone line, toner, paper and electricity. The only cost for an Internet fax service is the service itself. While the exact amount can vary by the service, you’re really looking at pennies per day for 24x7x365 access to your important faxes.

So how did you score? 7-8 correct: You are a faxing genius! 5-6 correct: You’re smarter than the average bear when it comes to faxes. 3-4 correct: You need to bone up a bit before the mid-term. 1-2 correct: Your old VCR is probably still flashing 12:00.

This cool Fax IQ quiz was submitted by Steve Adams, vice president of marketing for Protus, a provider of communications tools for small-to-medium-businesses and enterprise organizations, including MyFax; my1voice, a virtual phone service; and Campaigner, an e-mail marketing solution. He can be reached at sadams@protus.com.

Pretty neat, huh? I did a comparison a while back of internet fax services. I love mine! Take a look at my online fax review here.