Industry report names RightFax as global fax server leader

RightFax from Captaris, the automated document-centric processes software provider, has been named the global leader of the fax server market in the Computer-Based Fax Markets Report 2005-2010 from Davidson Consulting.

AmVia distributes Captaris in sub-Saharan Africa. "RightFax is one of our most successful products from Captaris and is part of our business information delivery portfolio," says Boudje Giljam, sales and marketing director, AmVia. "We've had particular success in the financial services and retail markets."

Captaris increased its 2005 worldwide market share for fax server software to 31.5%, which is 250% larger than its nearest software competitor.

"Captaris has a strong multifunction printer solution and is taking further market share from the traditional fax server vendors," says Peter Davidson, Davidson Consulting, in the report. "Captaris is also starting to make some progress on fax over IP (FOIP) systems."

Captaris held an even larger lead in the North American market than last year. It once again led the large, medium and small enterprise segments, respectively defined as businesses with more than 5 000 fax seats, between 100 and 4 999 fax seats and up to 100 fax seats.

Predictions put growth of 8.2% between 2006 and 2010, and multifunction printers could account for nearly one-third of fax sales by 2010. FOIP sales are expected to grow at an annual rate of 50.7% between 2006 and 2010.

"Davidson Consulting doesn't believe e-mail will eliminate fax in the near future, since it still offers specific security advantages over e-mail, and we certainly see widespread use of faxes in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in banks," says Giljam.

The report also discussed the continued importance of fax to businesses as a secure, compliant document delivery solution.

"Fax servers sold well in 2005, in part because corporations are interested in moving documents in a secure manner, and that translates into fax," says Davidson.

"Corporations like fax because they like business process automation. They want to know that the document's transmission is secure, that messages can be audited, that they can be stored in a central repository and searched for quick retrieval, that messages can be received in confidentiality and moved from place to place as the need to process them arises."