Another satisfied user!

This company prides itself on staying sharp when it comes to technology -- with full staffing for IT, continuing education and plenty of attention paid to users' complaints, reports a pilot fish on the scene.

"If there's an issue, we tend to move and solve it quickly," fish says.

"There had been the usual grumblings about the fax machines. One was that faxes did not go through. Upon further investigation, most of the time this was because users didn't key the number in correctly -- not that a user would blame the equipment for their issue, of course."

Still, the easiest way to deal with the problem is to cut fat-fingered fax dialing out of the loop by implementing computer-based faxing. Fish's team researches efax systems, does the due diligence on six vendors, picks one and signs the contract.

And in short order it's implemented and ready for employees to use.

Fish knows from experience that his users tend to accept a new application once they know -- or act like they know -- more about the minutiae of it and its importance, and a clear and to-the-point email is sent to all potential users explaining the benefits of the efax system and how to use it.

And when there are no calls for a few days after the email is sent, everyone figures it's all going well.

"After another day or so, I saw someone walking with a fax cover sheet, headed away from his work area -- and away from the scanner for using the efax," says fish.

"I asked what he was up to. He said he was on his way to fax the packet he had.

"I reminded him of the efax program and the email he had received.

"He said he just liked to walk to the old fax machine on the other side of the building."

Don't try to fax Sharky your true tale of IT life. Just email it to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll get a stylish Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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