Fax on Demand
Many cable television companies offer viewers movies on demand. In California, one maker of large, metal containers offers portable on demand storage (PODS). It should come as no surprise that many businesses now offer fax on demand.
How can companies provide fax on demand? Do they hire one employee to sit next to a FAX machine all day and place in the machine-selected documents? No they obtain special software, and have that software added to the features on their website. Hence anyone can bring up that website on a PC and request a faxed document.
The public desire for fax on demand services stems from the age-old legal proposition that something in writing cannot easily be disputed. One paralegal in California typifies the mentality of many within the general public. That gentleman liked to request a faxed document as substantiation for some claim or some promise that had been made to him over the phone.
During 2004 and most of 2005 that paralegal would make his request and then wait at his fax for what the employee to whom he had spoken would be sending him. In 2006 that same gentleman found that most companies had begun to use fax on demand software. When he requested a faxed document, he was told to go to the company website.
Other customers, those who got similar promises, or who heard similar claims, over the phone must also have said on many occasions, “Can you fax that to me?” No if any customer asks that question, the company employee directs them to the website. There on the website that customer will find the fax on demand feature.
Fax on demand is an excellent example of how demand affects supply. The demand for a fax on demand capability led to the creation of the fax on demand software. Now that the fax on demand software exists it can easily be altered to suit the changing needs of the customers. Software is not difficult to change, and therefore companies can demonstrate flexibility in their delivery of fax on demand services. That fact adds to the value of such software.