Didn’t the techno-prophets solemnly promise that their brave new e-world would liberate the workplace from the purgatory of paper?

So how come every business office is still chomping — and choking — on a self-perpetuating diet of hard copy?

Even as we kid ourselves we’re getting closer, the paperless e-topia recedes like a mirage in the Mojave.

So it’s reassuring to run across a few diligent techies doing their damnedest to divert the Niagara of printouts, statements and invoices which threatens to capsize every clerk and rupture every letter-carrier.

Shannon Oatway, Business Edge
Infocast Hosting's Cathie Johnson, Ross Wickware, middle, and Doug Olson help their corporate clients streamline operations and save cash via the Internet.

Let’s pick three: Cathie Johnson, Ross Wickware and Doug Olson of Infocast Hosting in Bankers Hall.

Using the inevitable Web-world newspeak, Infocast Hosting describes itself as an application services provider.

But what Johnson, Wickware, Olson and their colleagues really do is help their corporate clients to streamline operations, and save cash, via the Internet. Making a dent in the universal paper pile is a beneficial byproduct.

“What the Internet does is show your customer how your business works,” explained Ross Wickware, an inter-disciplinary (sales, marketing, business development) jack-of-all-trades.

“The customer places orders online. Sales reps don’t need to fill out an order sheet. Customers work out their costs online, and print their own invoices,” Wickware continued.

Infocast Hosting has its roots in a Calgary company — HomeBase Work Solutions Ltd. — which was acquired by Hosting’s parent, Infocast Corporation, in May 1999.

Wickware terms the current 100-member Calgary operation a “division” of the parent, and in less than two years they’ve assembled an intriguing mixture of clientele, such as:

* A major trucking company. Its customers can now electronically follow their shipment up every on-ramp, and into every truck stop, as it makes its way down the long, lonesome road.

These particular haulers, pioneer users of the global positioning system (GPS) back in the early ’90s, were seeking a partner to help them leapfrog from day-to-day satellite connections to a big main-frame computer.

Enter Infocast. Result: the haulers’ business process grows leaner, quicker, easier and (huge factor) cheaper.

* Calgary-based EnglishPractice.com, which started out marketing English-language teaching programs on CD-ROM but ran into problems with piracy.

After writing an application to make their content available via the Net, the operators couldn’t find a hosting partner with crash-proof computers.

Enter Infocast, with King Kong on a leash — Sun Microsystem’s Enterprise 10,000, undisputed big dog of an incredibly muscular bank of hardware by Sun, which Infocast uses exclusively.

“We could run National Defence outta this place,” Wickware cracked.

Since the company chummed with Infocast, data centre manager Olson has kept the Web site humming for the last 400 days.

* Imark Corporation, a Toronto publisher of audio books. Led by project manager Johnson, Infocast crafted a business plan which suggested the digitization and compression of Imark’s products.

“Rather than sell the books as a physical product, sell them as a soft product,” Johnson summed up the concept.

So instead of warehousing thousands of CDs and cassettes, the company has been able to store its digital audio in Infotech’s data centre “warehouse.”

The hosting team built a site around that warehouse which allows registered clients to download digital books to a PC, or to transfer them from the PC to a portable device and use it like a Walkman.

Perfectly audible, perfectly portable — and Imark sees a sharp reduction in the need for physical storage space, while saving bucks on shipping and inventory.

“The customer doesn’t have to physically go to the store, or wait for the product to be shipped,” Johnson said.

But not every business is cut out for the full hosting package. Some entrepreneurs dazzle themselves with visions of worldwide, Net-driven markets, when that’s the last thing they really need.

A certain beef jerky producer nursed such a notion — until Infocast’s Wickware brought him to Earth.

“I said: ‘OK, stop. Great idea. But how much jerky is this factory physically able to put out?’ ” Wickware recalled.

Though the producer had a provincewide distribution network, Wickware helped him realize that his production capacity probably wasn’t ready to satisfy a global demand.

By showing him his plan would add no value to his business, Infocast did the producer a favour — and saved him a bundle.

And a bank note is one piece of paper nobody minds collecting.