This is a no-brainer for a lot of us. I think a lot of universities saw this trend and got on the trend long before it was widespread. And the problem is that printing things out on a laser printer is far more expensive than making a one-penny Xerox copy. Running modem pools is much more expensive than postage. These servers can let users pick the ways that messages from a central organization reach them, whether by phone, fax, e-mail, pager, or other device.
Some airlines use such services to give passengers flight updates.
All I have to do is send a message to faculty and the server knows which faculty should get e-mail, or which should get fax, and so on. This question of how should we notify people is messy, but there are solutions out there and they work.