A SMARTER WAY TO DO BUSINESS

There used to be business cards and business brochures. Now you can have them both together as one card-sized CD-Rom

'We started producing CD-Rom business cards last year, and the idea has been catching on steadily as more and more people have dis covered that the service is available in Gibraltar/ said Peter de la Rosa as he showed me around MBS's records management depot at the Europa Business Centre.

MBS (Micro Business Systems) made a name for itself when Peter introduced microfilming of docu ments to Gibraltar in 1989, since when he has continued to add serv ices for the business community here. But first, those palm-sized brochures: how much information can they hold — and how much do they cost?

Peter elaborated; 'The cards fit into existing CD drives, they are used just like CD-Roms — there's no modification required — and hold 45MB each, compared with 650MB on a normal CD.This capac ity is easily enough to hold a few minutes of video,speech files, am ple text files and a good few pho tos,' he said.'They are a neat and novel way of giving or sending someone a company brochure,and say a lot more than a paper busi ness card could ever do. So far lo cal banks as well as Image Graph ics and the Gibraltar Magazine itself are amongst those who have taken them up,'he continued,adding that delivery time is normally three to fourteen days,depending on quan tity.

But what about the price, I in sisted.They sound brilliant but are they affordable to most small busi nesses?

'Prices?'Peter replied,'They start at £1.90each for 10.Customers give us the graphics along with what ever else they want on it, perhaps part of their website,and we'll bum the info onto the miniature rectan gular CDs. And that includes the customised labels printed in full colour.'

I was still blinking at the low prices — and the fact that rewritable versions are available as well for customers to do their own updating — as Peter went on to tell me that MBS also provide a print ing service for normal-sized CDs, whereby a company or an indi vidual can have their own design or logo on their disks,'This service

Right: John Dury, Operations Manager has been taken up by a lot of people and organisations,'he continued. 'The Ombuds man's annual report was brought here for CD print ing, and Global Directory Services did the same for their CD version of the Gi braltar Yellow Pages and tel ephone directory. And,' ho added,'we have also printed audio CDs — complete with the jewel case inserts and shrink wrapped for retail outlets. We did this for the locally produced music CD Gib Connec tions last Christmas.'

And I thought MBS just did mi crofilming, a breathtaldng service in itself, given its scope compared to Gibraltar's size. Reducing docu ments to a fraction of their original size as a space-saving device is wel1 known globally, to the extent that microfilm copies are accepted as evidence in legal disputes whereas normal photocopies are not. In Gi braltar MBS provides this service to banks, medical clinics and the Gi braltar Health Authority.The com pany also has a secure archive stor age facility as well as other systems for document imaging,such as dig ital scanning. The latter has proved a boon to local banks in the scan ning and clearing of cheques.

'Last year we completed a job for the MoD,' Peter expanded;'We scanned and converted to digital form all of their personnel files. One million pages, in a format suitable for an electronic filing system,' he said,adding that the Mod was then able to destroy the million sheets of paper, having in their place just sixty CDs, all instantly accessible from any of their PCs. That's a pile abouteight centimetres high — you could hold them in one hand.

A further development by MBS (a member of the Records Manage ment Society of Great Britain) has been the design and production of a dedicated Records Management System software package called Imis ImageManager, which is sell ing in the UK and Spain,and about to hit the South and Central Ameri can market.'Did you have to go to South America to make the ar rangements?'I wondered.'No;'Pe ter replied,'but I'm still hoping I'll be wanted.'

The MBSstaff is made up of three managers,two administrators,four operators and one delivery/ Storeman,apart from Peter,and the range of services they provide is quite staggering. There's far too much to reproduce here(unless we got MBS to scan it, of course) but all is on the website www.mbs.gi and includes,amongst other things, a secure archive storage and re trieval service (9,000 boxes taking up 3,700square feet), mail handling equipment and services, colour coded filing systems, disaster re covery, and bar code file tracking. Microfilming or scanning can also be carried out at the clients' place of business, so documents don't have to leave their premises, and there is a call-in bureau service. There's a lot more,including equip ment by Canon, TAB, TouchMate Computer Products and others.

After checking out the website, further help can be obtained from Peter and his team by calling 42723 between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday, or by fax 40612 or email sales@mbs.gi