TODAY'S BUSINESS CHALLENGE:

Susan is an executive recruiter who specializes in finding fund-raising and management personnel for nonprofit arts organizations. Her clientele includes the most famous symphony orchestras, museums, opera and ballet companies in North America. She has always made a point of visiting her clients each time a new job search was initiated and, because most of her clients are old friends, this habit has enabled her to underwrite the costs of a social visit.

Although emotionally fulfilling, these trips have evolved into a costly indulgence. But as someone who lives a frequent flyer lifestyle and works from a "virtual office," Susan regards such visits as one of the "perks" of her profession -- a benefit which compensates for the fact that she spends most of her time in airports, hotels and conference rooms. In recent months, Susan's top clients have been hit hard by competition for donor dollars and renewed hostility against government funding for the arts. The fabulous growth of the Internet and many dot.com enterprises has not been shared by many of the nonprofits Susan must service.

As a result, some of her clients have starting asking if there isn't some way Susan could scale back her billable travel costs in order to reduce the expense of bringing forward job candidates who can be interviewed by their search committees. With travel having always been an essential part of her lifestyle, Susan can't imagine how this would be possible.

TOMORROW'S BUSINESS SOLUTION:

On one of her rare nights at home in San Francisco, Susan dines with some old friends who are opera lovers. Over the years they have all traveled to Europe on cultural expeditions which provided them with many fond memories. One of the people at the dinner table is a neurosurgeon who asks Susan a strange question: "Does Susan make a lot conference calls as part of her work?"

At first, Susan is dumbfounded by his question. But the neurosurgeon quickly explains that one of the growing applications of telemedicine consulting is the ability to patch a conference call into a digital dictation system and have the entire conversation recorded so that a transcript can be produced.

Susan's friend refers her to Alert & Oriented Transcription Services, whose management team explains how she could use some of the new telecommunications technology to her advantage. Four months later, Susan can't stop laughing at the dramatic changes she has made in her professional lifestyle.