TODAY'S BUSINESS CHALLENGE:

With a territory covering the 13 Western states, Waldo is one of FYI's top customer service representatives. Known throughout FYI as its ace trouble-shooter -- he's the man who can calm the most irate client and smooth the roughest waters. Waldo's "people skills" are legendary among his peers.

When traveling to a major city, Waldo tries to visit four clients a day. After each client visit, he must generate a detailed account of the problems he encounters at the client site, the solutions that he recommends and the satisfaction level he thinks can be produced by the results of his trouble-shooting visit.

Although Waldo may have great presentational powers and superlative "verbal" strength in communicating with people, his editing skills are much stronger than his writing talent. When confronted with a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen, he develops a severe case of writer's block. Each time this happens, Waldo becomes paralyzed with fear and wastes a lot of time trying to get started. The experience shatters Waldo's otherwise successful day (and his self esteem as well).

TOMORROW'S BUSINESS SOLUTION:

Working with Alert & Oriented Transcription Services, Waldo learns how to dictate a rough draft of his reports over the phone as soon as he leaves each client's site. With continued practice, he realizes that in less than five minutes he can dictate a fairly detailed synopsis of what was discussed during his visit and cover all of the basic information before hanging up the phone and traveling to his next appointment. Total cost for spending 20 minutes online dictating four reports? Approximately $45.

The following night in his hotel room, Waldo logs on to America OnLine, and downloads a batch of electronic files that were sent to him by Alert & Oriented Medical Transcription Services. Each file contains his transcribed notes (formatted in an electronic template which reproduces FYI's letterhead). With a little bit of careful editing, Waldo can make any necessary revisions and affix his electronic signature to the finished reports in less than 20 minutes. Using the modem in his notepad computer, he then faxes the finished report to his client contact. His clients (who know he won't be home for another two weeks) are continually amazed that Waldo's meticulous and detailed reports can reach them within 48 hours. They all keep wondering: Where's Waldo's Secretary?