Just give us the FAX, please.

Many businesses are turning to facsimile transmission to speed the course of everyday operations. Is it right for your business, now or later? Here's a report.

ARE THERE times when you might have closed a good deal if you had been able to obtain faster approval of a potential customer's credit application? If so, maybe your business could justify the cost of a facsimile machine, a bit of electronic wizardry which can transmit and receive written documents by telephone.

Paul Streaker, one of four brothers operating Streaker Tractor Sales, Findlay, Ohio, Yes, we use a facsimile machine quite a bit. It was put in here because brother Earl is president of the National Farm & Power Equipment Dealers Assn. (NFPEDA) and he gets communications from headquarters in St. Louis through it. We have become accustomed to having it available and just may keep such a machine after his term expires."

Streaker says"Probably the area where we use it the most is in retail financing. We fax customer applications to our credit company. We can send an application in by putting it on the machine and normally, within an hour's time, we get a report back with approval or denial of credit. That's better than waiting days for mail service to do the job. The credit company, after looking over the application, can elect to call us and give the decision orally."

Okay, you ask, what is this fax stuff anyway? What do I get for about $1,500 investment if I buy a fax machine? How much does it cost to use the thing? How difficult is it to use? Can I rent one and see if it's worth the money?

How they work

First, here's what a facsimile machine is. Simply put, it is a photocopy machine that can transmit over the telephone. Liz Koch of Canon Facsimile Systems, St. Louis, Mo., explains:

"The original of a document is placed into the transmitter for duplication, it is then scanned electronically, and the printing or writing is converted into signals which are coded and transmitted over ordinary telephone lines. At the receiving end the process is reversed and the electronic signals are converted back into printed matter to produce a facsimile, or exact copy of the original.

"The two units may be separated by only a few feet of wire, or they may be thousands of miles apart. Facsimile can be looked upon as a cross between a teletype machine and a copier, as it can transmit anything that the teletype can and many things it cannot-such as graphs and charts."

Koch explains that the procedure for sending a document is really quite simple. Although it may vary slightly from machine to machine, the basic process is the same. The operator places the original in the feed slot, then dials the telephone number of the facsimile to which he or she wishes to transmit. When the receiving machine answers, transmission is initiated. In a

few seconds the transmitted document is in the recipient's hands.

Paul Streaker agrees that transmission of documents is relatively simple. "The person on the receiving end has a piece of paper in his hands, an exact copy of what we want him to see and study. Maybe it is a credit application, a piece of literature or a specification sheet. For communications like that, it's okay. If facsimile has a drawback, it is that it can only send something that is written, typed or printed. You can't communicate with someone else with it unless what you want to communicate is a written or printed document-and the other person has a facsimile machine available for his use, too."

Mike Kierath of Konica Business Machines, St. Louis, comments, "The benefit of facsimile is that it can transmit a piece of information in seconds or minutes, but the real value of a facsimile is what the supplier, prospect or customer can do with the faxed information once it is received.

"Some users are turning receivables around in a day instead of a week; others place orders in time to qualify for volume price breaks. Some transfer bills of lading or permits to prevent shipping delays; others use it for charging or approving new contract terms with no time delay. Quite a few are sending documents back and forth between store branches.

When it's best

Users remind that facsimile is their communications medium of preference when one or more of the following holds true:

1. The document to be transmitted is time-sensitive, that is, it must get to its destination as soon as possible.

2. The document contains drawings, signatures, or handwritten material that cannot be reproduced by a communication word processor or other electronic communications systems.

3. The document must be returned to the sender as soon as possible with comments or corrections.

Now for an important consideration. How much does it cost to buy and use? If you're willing to gamble a bit, you can buy a facsimile machine at a discount store for between $600 and $800. But buy it that way and you're on your own with only an instruction manual to make it work.

Most business machine suppliers can put a unit in your store from about $1,300 to almost $10,000, depending on the gadgets, bells and turbochargers with which they are equipped. Such suppliers will help you get into operation and do the simple training required to help you operate it. You may wish to rent a facsimile machine before buying. Several companies have rental plans with costs ranging from about $60 to $100 per month.

Once you own or rent the machine, your only additional expense for using it is the cost of a long distance telephone call. If you have a one minute minimum line charge of 41 cents for the first minute and 35 cents for each additional minute, you can send a page (about 200 typewritten words) for 41 cents. Two pages will also go for 41 cents. You can send 10 pages for $1.46 and 25 pages for $3.21. You will normally use your regular telephone line, but it you can expect to be using the machine quite frequently during the day, you may wish to have a special "dedicated" line for it alone.

Supplier use

A number of your suppliers and wholesalers are making good use of facsimile machines themselves. For instance, Jay Hesse of Automatic Equipment Co., Pender, Neb., says: "We currently use our machine to correspond with all WDA distributors in the recreational vehicle field as well as many of our suppliers. We also know that Harco Ag of Harriston, Ont., communicates with us almost entirely by facsimile.

"We see many opportunities for the fax machine. Included are elimination of voice telephone time, manpower and customer hold time. We have found that most orders can be placed by facsimile, both wholegoods and parts. Quotations, availability and delivery time can also be communicated quickly and clearly in written form."

"With all the growth we've had around here," adds Hesse, "we're understaffed for people who take and give information over the phone. The fax cuts down on the time involved. We also find it useful in communicating with our ad agency when we want to make fast changes in the wording of our ads. We do in a day what took a week or so. We can also ask for and get steel bids from several suppliers immediately."

Available facsimile machines range in size from floor models down to units that can be carried on the road in a briefcase-size carrier. Telephone Yellow Pages list the many facsimile suppliers you can contact for specifications and prices. They have been known to make some especially good deals. NFPEDA is also considering plans which would allow dealers to obtain facsimile machines through its dealer services section.

So there you have it-a brief overview of what a facsimile machine can do for you, how much it will cost and how much you can expect to pay to operate it. One dealer, Woody McCartney, Durand, Ill., says:

"We could conceivably use such machines to send copy between our two stores which are located about 50 miles apart, but they will have to get the price down a bit before we can justify buying two of the units-one for each store. We've looked into the advantages and disadvantages of facsimile and have elected to wait for prices to get down to where we can justify their installation and use." This Kansas dealerships ' shop was destroyed in a windstorm. But these dealer partners managed to keep their customers rolling in the months following, and they came up with a service facility anyone would like.