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Study Validates VillageFax.com's Solution for Auto Dealers

24 March 2000

Study Validates VillageFax.com's Solution for Auto Dealers

     Students At UC Irvine's Graduate School of Management Conduct Survey
                               Of Auto Dealers


    TUSTIN, Calif., March 24 VillageFax.com, a leading
provider of business-to-business Internet Enabled Fax Services, announced that
a study performed by MBA students at the University of California, Irvine's
Graduate School of Management (GSM), confirmed that the VillageFax.com
automated printing solution is needed and desired by auto dealers to improve
website communication.
    The students surveyed 37 auto dealerships in Orange County, California and
found that 84% devoted an employee to monitor website communications -- 47% of
the dedicated staff were managers and 37% a sales person.  Monitoring website
communication, such as email or standardized inquiry forms, consumes time and
increases labor costs.  Forty seven percent of respondents spend greater than
three hours per day retrieving website initiated communications while another
32% spend from one to three hours per day.  Almost every dealership, 95%,
printed their website communications for further action.
    "The survey results clearly demonstrate the inefficient use of valuable
employee time for non-value added activities," said Susan Moe, one of the
students who worked on the project.  "The majority of respondents, 73%,
recognized this inefficiency and would prefer automatic printing of web
inquiries."
    "VillageFax.com has fax enabled numerous e-commerce sites allowing them to
automatically print documents such as invoices, information request forms, and
purchase orders," said Bill Keller, VillageFax.com's Senior Director of
Marketing.  "Dealerships would be able to exploit the Internet channel without
adding labor costs by utilizing VillageFax.com's Internet fax service."
    Interestingly, 74% of the dealerships are currently in a relationship with
an online auto shopping portal such as Carpoint, Autobytel.com, and
CarsDirect.com.  When asked about their satisfaction with the communication
from these auto shopping portals, the highest satisfaction was measured for
those receiving email and fax communications.
    "Email and fax equates to paper with the only difference being that emails
are printed once they are noticed while faxes are automatically printed with
no labor required on the receiving end," said Francesca Fitchett, another
student who worked on the project.  "The highest level of dissatisfaction was
with portals which communicate via pager devices followed by those
communicating via telephone."

    About VillageFax.com
    VillageFax.com provides Internet enabled, business-to-business fax
services for corporate desktop, broadcast, and production fax applications for
mission critical needs.  VillageFax.com is headquartered in Tustin, CA and can
be reached at (714) 734-1030, Fax: (714) 734-1040, e-mail:
info@villagefax.com, http://www.villagefax.com.