Content area
Full text
Two years ago, Thomas J. Conwell, CEO of Rockford-based SpectraFax Corp., was manning his company's booth at the gigantic Las Vegas Comdex Show, trying to interest the crowd in his company's color scanner, when he got a great new idea.
Although many attendees at the largest American computer trade show were curious about the scanner, which can digitize both color and black-and-white images and load them into a computer memory, few could see how they might use it.
Recalls Mr. Conwell, "I was wondering, 'What will it take to make them see the potential?,' when suddenly, the idea hit me -- a fax card that could go into a personal computer and give it direct fax capabilities -- computer-to-computer faxing; fax-machine-to-computer faxing; fax transmission printout on high-quality computer printers.
"A card like that would revolutionize business communications throughout America -- throughout the world!"
Preliminary research by SpectraFax colleague David Rae confirmed that the company had the technology resources to design a computer fax card. Such a card, when slipped into the board slot of a personal computer, would give that computer the ability to transmit and receive as a facsimile machine.
However, the research also uncovered potential competitors -- other small U.S. firms that had been hit with the same idea and were struggling to develop such a card for use with personal computers.
The central question became, could SpectraFax, whose color scanner sales weren't exactly booming, pay to develop the new product and introduce it to a worldwide marketplace?
Like a growing number of smaller companies, SpectraFax solved its dilemma by forming a strategic alliance with a larger company, one with the resources to pay for research and development of the fax card as well as an interest in using it.
Throughout American business, strategic alliances are on the rise. One estimate predicts that more than 2,100 such alliances will be formed in the U.S. during the 1980s.
...