Email Fax Call

Circa 1998. Kumar looked at the bulging telecom bill and proposed, "Email services will be introduced in an effort to reduce the communication costs. At a time when our company is seeking to cut costs, through STD calls or VSAT lines, communication costs are sky rocketing. With the factory and the main office in different places, it is a cost that has to be cut down and we see email as a tool that will help us in achieving that target."

Dheeraj read the memo. Within a few days, email was available at everyones desks. Soon, the email included POWA (Please Open When Alone) mails, following which Dheeraj longed to be alone until he read saw the said mail. Junk also included astrological forecasts, chain mails, hoaxes, spam and the odd real work related email in between which nobody bothered to read.

After that, heres how a typical conversation went...

"I sent you an email"
"When?"
"9 am"
"There is nothing in my inbox"
"But I sent it to you at 9"
"Ok, what is it about?"
"It is about order 3429"
"What about it?"
"It is a long story. Anyway, I will fax a print of the mail to you."

Next Stop: IT department

"My mail has not reached the factory"
"We had a problem with the server"
"Why did you not inform us?"
"We ourselves came to know of the problem only now"
"Sigh! Each day you have a server problem. God knows how we can resolve this"
"Technical issue sir, cant help"

15 minutes passed and a fax was sent - this was an STD. And promptly a telephonic discussion ensued.

"Did you get my fax"
"Yes"
"We will ship it soon, as you wanted it"
"Keep me posted on the status on an hourly basis and bother with the mail"
"Sure"

Meanwhile Kumar in Finance wondered what was wrong with the skyrocketing telecom bill.

"Strangely, it shows an upward instead of a downward trend after making email available. This is completely absurd. I need to investigate..."