Visions of the Future: etherFAX Summit 2019

I had the pleasure of once again attending the conference sessions of etherFAX's annual summit two weeks ago at their new Headquarters at Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey. Over 20 companies were represented, with an attendance that grew significantly since last year.  Being there as an observer and listening to the presentations, especially from Paul Banco (CEO) and Rob Cichielo (CTO), it occurred to me that etherFAX seems to have what most fax vendors don't -- a realistic vision for the future. Granted they're a bit unique compared to their fax vendor, re-seller, and technology partners, but maybe from that vantage point things just seem clearer to them. 

Through the entirety of Rob Cichielo's road map presentation, it was evident that their vision is not only staying the course, but it's getting better. He provided an overview of where they've come from, where they are today, and where they're going. He spoke of things like end-to-end security, military grade encryption, patents, network capacity, platform integrations, rich content, mobile applications, containers, devices, and so on. Paul Banco discussed etherFAX's growing footprint - a result of investments they've made to build out their capacity, upcoming milestones, inroads in to healthcare, and new features. 

Listening to both Rob and Paul, it’s obvious that their position on fax technology is unabashed, honest, and forward-looking. They appeared to have honed their messaging a little bit, positioning fax as a "baseline" for them, which lays a foundation for customers to ultimately transmit all types of structured and unstructured data securely, as stated by Banco. Not just boring faxes, I'll add, but rich content, color, and high-resolution documents exchanged on their secure network. 

I, too, believe customers have a need for a fax baseline of sorts. From an end client perspective, the etherFAX solution offloads their telephony burdens and in return, they get a solid fax hybrid, complete with a pathway to the next level, a secure framework for digitally exchanging documents. This is why usage of the etherFAX Secure Exchange Network (SEN) is growing steadily year after year and  their partner ecosystem is growing, too. Partner presentations in the afternoon sessions were testimony to that. 

The message I took away is that they're grounded in who they are - a transport solution like no other. A foundation to offer high quality document exchanges with end-to-end security is the high ground they seek, and it all stems from a solid fax baseline. Let's face it, many believe that transport alternatives to fax don't measure up; IP faxes are unreliable and, according to Cichielo, "Secure email, that mere mortals can use, does not exist."  My favorite quote of the day, however, was from Paul Banco himself: "Fax and IP shouldn't be said together," he claimed, "It's ruining the vision."

Well said, Paul. -m