"BUSINESS LINK" GOES GLOBAL 

For longer than I care to remember I have been pointing out that the future will be capital intensive, not labor intensive. Some have listened, some have not. Over the years I have had lengthy discussions with Wes Thomas, a New York-based international public relations guru, who has been thinking along similar lines for some time. He, fortunately, moved into the field of high tech when few understood the implications.

News about one of his major clients came across my screen today: Business Link Communications uses all forms of communications, messengers, couriers and standard E-mail modems. But they keep pushing the envelope, as the jargon of the trade describes today's technological avant garde. Even with their "old" (last month's) techniques they were the agency to call. Handling a major segment (1,500) of America's top publishers, designers and advertising agencies, they printed business documents in record time. They built up that business in just four years -- because they knew what quality and service meant.

Now operating around-the-clock, 364 days a year, they are about to make former competitors faint. They can now do a job in Vancouver or Vienna faster than a resident competitor in either city. This may sound unusual but it isn't. Their success signals what will occur in virtually every industry that persists in doing "business as usual".

Business Link can complete almost any high quality printing job in three hours (they term that "standard"). A rush job takes one hour (extra charge). In Manhattan, still home to the top American and world publications their fleet of foot and bike messengers deliver FREE around the clock. They deliver anywhere else in North America and 15 other countries overnight via air: again free in the U.S. on orders over $30.00; overseas costs extra. If it's IN by 9 a.m. it's OUT by noon. Or on any following three-hour cycle. Compare this with your printer's time schedule.

This service covers film, paper, what the trade knows as 4Cast or Phaser III. It applies to any four-color process, 2400/3600 dpi resolutions and paper output at 2400 dpi. Prices seem exceptionally reasonable. Remote on-screen proofing of artwork, remote technical support, online access to designer's portfolios at multiple sites can occur simultaneously. Access to Business Link's 56,000 bps (bits per second) Bulletin Board System for high-speed downloading of font libraries, logos and utilities is also part of the service. Using such a top-notch service from the other side of the continent puts a major printing operation under the control of your desk, for your decisions, but their high-volume, low printing costs and skills, for less money. Who can compete with that? The switched 56 service is generally available in the U.S. at an average monthly service cost of US $100. The speed of their new system is phenomenal, especially in this so-sensitive publishing business. Their clients can transmit material at the rate of one megabyte in three minutes direct to their "instant" image setting facility. This replaces slow modems, messengers and couriers and systems that used to take days and weeks to perform. Now any desktop publisher can compete with anyone in the world -- by dealing with such a new-style production printing operator. They are using the universal switched 56 wide-area network, which enables them to send and receive files 23 times faster than the ordinary, but popular 2400 bps via analog modems. They transmit in three minutes what takes others an hour. Are you getting the message? When the bulldozer of change rolls over your industry, if you're not part of the bulldozer, you're part of the road.

More information: Todd Melet, Business Link Communications, Inc. 312 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10001. Phone: 800/969-TYPE or 212/268-0777. Fax: 212/268-6058. 56 kb/s BBS: 212/268-0151.

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