Bell & Howell - and a few hundred of its closest competitors -want to clean off your desk.
After several low-profile years, the Skokie-based company istrotting out new products as it tries to tap into the growing"paperless office" trend.
The firms are targetting everyone from the manager with aburgeoning in-box to the auto mechanic who works with hundreds ofparts catalogs and the telecommuter feeling isolated from the office.
This year alone, companies are expected to spend nearly $6billion on computerized document and information systems. By 1996,that will be $10 billion, according to the Association forInformation and Image Management.
The trade group is sponsoring an exhibition for the industrythis week at McCormick Place that's expected to draw 40,000 people.About 330 companies are displaying everything from scanners thatconvert magazine articles into computer files to completework-at-home desktop systems.
The idea is to put every piece of office paper, down to eachpiece of mail received, on a computer's software system.
"Office paper is growing at 30 percent a year," said JoanAndrew, marketing vice president for Bell & Howell. "We're going tobe buried in it by the year 2000. So a great way to deal with thatis to miniaturize everything."
Two years ago, the company revived its consumer label in alicensing agreement with retailer Montgomery Ward to sellvideocassette recorders and other equipment.
Now, it is beefing up its microfilm business. In June, thecompany will begin shipping new software that converts documents -checks, medical histories, academic records - into electroniccomputer files, as well as microfilm.
By adding electronic data storage, users can more easily passforms back and forth within standard personal computer networks.
Bell & Howell's microfilm software is one of many changes underthe direction of Chairman William J. White, who took the helm in 1990after several unprofitable years and a leveraged buyout. During histenure, he said, the top management turnover rate has been 50percent, and middle management turnover has been 35 percent. Formany, he said, it's been a painful transition.
"Everybody remembers the golden years of the late '40s and'50s," White said Tuesday. "But we have to react to the changes inthe business."
Most of those changes came in the form of competition fromforeign companies, which captured the market for Bell & Howell's mainproduct line, home and school movie projectors. Except for 1991, thecompany has lost money every year since a private investor group tookcontrol in 1988.
But the new markets are no less competitive. Vendors at theimaging trade show this week will announce 112 new products and 102product upgrades.
And Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it named GTE Vantage Solutionsto perform its order-entry and accounts payable software work afteran aggressive, year-long vendor competition.
"A lot of people looked at imaging as a way to eliminate paper,but that's only a component of what we're talking about," said TomMagazzine, president of GTE Vantage.
Spurred by government calls to reduce commuting because ofenvironmental concerns, companies are now beginning to use imagingsoftware to create work-at-home offices that are equipped as well astraditional offices, Magazzine said.
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