B usiness success in the 1990s–whether you're a huge auction house or a small art gallery–requires doing more with less, doing it smarter, and thinking globally. Often that means taking advantage of technology.

Consider Christie's November auction of contemporary art collected by Victor and Sally Ganz. The New York couple acquired the works by Picasso and other moderns for less than $2 million, and sold them at auction for $206.5 million.

T echnology may have played a part in boosting the price tag. Along with providing information to potential buyers all over the world, today's fax machines, photographic copiers, and electronically transmitted computer images help to kindle pre-sale excitement.

But high-end auction houses aren't the only ones to benefit from technology. Some small and medium-sized galleries are using high-resolution TV screens, digital sound systems and computerized lighting to enhance their selling environment. Internet and CD-Rom technologies--still in their infancy–are changing the way many dealers and publishers interact with their staff and their customers.

W hen organizations downsized earlier in the decade, profit margins also dwindled. Despite the return of a buoyant art market–at least in the U.S. and the U.K.-- Steven D. Addi, president of Addi Galleries and Addi Fine Art Publishing in Reno, Nev., doesn't equate today's conservative buyers with the high rollers of the 1980s.

"When interest rates were high and the stock market was in a slump, we were enjoying some really profitable times," he says. Now that people are more reluctant to part with their cash, galleries must be more savvy about marketing and cost control.

Addi, with galleries in Reno, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and Maui, handles a mix of originals and limited edition prints. The company uses email to increase efficiency, lower mailing and printing costs, and centralize communication between corporate headquarters and the eight galleries in the chain. Special orders and requests for information are received at corporate and instantly processed.

The Reno corporate office, which maintains a large image library on computer, can send out images as email attachments. "An image of a new original piece of art in our San Francisco gallery can be in Maui in 20 minutes–even before we have had time to hang it," says Addi.

These electronically transmitted images are usually bitmap files. Each local dealer has a standard brochure format on computer. Once the bitmap file is received, it can be dropped into the existing brochure format.

"It might be an original or one-of-a-kind piece we wouldn't normally make a brochure for," Addi explains. But with the advent of ink jet color printers, the individual gallery can instantaneously print out a brochure for this special piece. The chain also transmits price changes electronically.

In addition to creating instant brochures, galleries can offer up electronically transmitted images as a slide show for collectors. If, say, a California client is interested in Leroy Neiman, the Reno Gallery can forward a broad selection of Neiman images to Addi's San Francisco showroom. By pulling up these scanned-in images on a Sony Trinitron color monitor, "It helps us narrow down what the client wants and what specific pieces they like," says Addi.

Another source of images for Addi clients to peruse–perhaps in the privacy of their own home or office--is on the chain's web page. The Addi web site includes biographical material and low-resolution images for several artists. A section on David Miller, for instance, includes color images, edition sizes, and dimensions for some of his limited-edition marine prints.

At Virtual Gallery, with locations in Palo Alto and Los Gatos, Calif., they're building an ambitious web site with 400 images and a search engine for locating specific artists and subjects. A search engine is a kind of online index that helps users navigate their way through cyberspace.

Gallery owner Lynda Wijcik reckons that "99 percent of looking at art is ruling out the things you don't like. " Virtual Gallery handles limited edition prints in the $1000-$5000 range and original oils and acrylics from $3,000-$70,000. In addition, Wijcik recently launched Arcetype publishing, which produces limited edition giclees by artists Bo Newell and Katya Dyla.

When a client phones or visits Virtual Gallery, "We can ask specific questions such as, what did you see on the Internet that you liked?" explains Wijcik. Virtual is based in Silicon Valley, where Internet surfing is as familiar as breathing. But sooner rather than later, Wijcik contends, every gallery owner–"unless you consider your gallery a hobby instead of a business" will have to set up an online ordering system. "It's the "fastest, easiest and cheapest way to conduct a business transaction," she says.

Wijcik and other Internet users neither expect nor want online sales to replace pressing the flesh, visiting art galleries, or attending live shows and exhibits. But the Internet, she says, is a useful buying venue for collectors who already know your gallery, and a useful selling venue for images by known artists such as Peter Max.

Furthermore, says Wijcik, a web site is a good tool for courting a new type of customer: someone who's young, well-to-do, comfortable with technology, and pressed for time. This isn't necessarily the sort of person who goes to Aspen and unfailingly makes the gallery circuit. But once he or she finds you, your artists, and a calendar of upcoming shows on the net, a personal visit to your gallery might seem like a good idea.

To lure that sort of client, Virtual Gallery recently ran an ad on the San Francisco page for America Online, announcing an upcoming gallery show and a chance to participate in a free drawing for an Alexander Nikita print. The announcement drew 300 responses.

Mitch Meisner, director of Meisner Gallery, in Farmingdale, N.Y., uses his web site to facilitate communication with overseas clients. "If I'm talking to people in Japan, I can have them browse the site during our conversation," he says. That's in lieu of sending out a $24 mailing piece. Meisner Gallery includes sculpture and print publishing, worldwide sculpture distribution, an acrylic casting facility, and a retail showroom. The monthly maintenance cost for the 190-page web site is about $200.

Still to come is an Intranet or private portion of the Meisner web site, for the exclusive use of the company's dealers and salespeople. Users will log on with an access code to reach an online training manual with descriptions of the sculptures and tips on how to talk to clients about the pieces.

At present, Meisner Gallery lacks the critical mass of dealers with online access that would justify an Intranet. When it comes to technology, says Meisner, "Most galleries are behind the times." In general, he finds, mom and pop retailers are more apt to be computer literate than larger operations, which aren't providing their salespeople with computers.

CD-ROM technology offers higher-quality images than the Internet can provide and faster access to them. Mill Pond Press, Inc., in Venice, Fla., is producing a CD with over 900 images for dealer use. It's simpler to update than a print catalogue, contains far more images, and has expanded biographical material. A slide show feature enables the dealer to project the images onto a large screen–provided the gallery has one.

Another publisher, Bruce McGaw Graphics of West Nyack, N.Y., rolled out its first CD-ROM late last year. It's currently available free of charge to anyone who buys a print catalogue. While it's an excellent tool for selecting images and narrowing down the choices, company President Bruce McGaw doesn't expect it to replace the printed catalogue anytime soon–and possibly not ever.

A small customer who only orders a few posters a month, may not want to go through the learning curve associated with the CD-ROM. On the other hand, a dealer who needs large horizontal landscapes within a certain color pallet for a hospital will appreciate the sophisticated searching tools. For foreign dealers with sketchy English skills, The English-language search engine limits the CD's usefulness.

At trade shows, the CD-ROM is a premier attention-getter. Even if it doesn't sell product, "it sells us and positions us as a leader," says McGaw. "The world is changing, and we saw the CD-ROM as a technical necessity for our company."

At Red Roof Art and Framing, Hot Springs, Ark., owners Jean and Garry Brown are using the McGaw CD to wow shopping-mall crowds and position the business as "aggressive and progressive. It legitimizes us as a professional frame shop and gallery," says Jean. Located next to JCPenney in a busy mall, the shop has open and limited-edition prints from $45-$450.

A 21-inch Panasonic monitor faces into the mall and provides slide shows from the McGaw CD. Teenagers come into the store to manipulate the mouse and to buy the art. "It's a revelation to us to see what they like; Escher, Dali and Picasso," says Jean Brown. "The slide show attracts an audience, and other people come by to put in their two-cents worth."

Older mall strollers, many of whom came to Hot Springs after retirement, have a hard time reading the small print in the catalogue and actually prefer working with the CD. "Many of these folks have computers of their own and are learning how to use them," says Brown.

Another mall-based gallery, Harris Fine Art in Pompano Beach, Fla., finds that the McGaw CD is a good technique for getting the customer involved. People in a hurry appreciate the quick access to information that electronic media provide.

Computerized, low-voltage lighting is another resource that galleries are using to hone their marketing edge. At Addi Gallery's new San Francisco showroom, the lighting system drew so many raves from art collectors and gallery-owner colleagues, that Addi recognized a new business opportunity. Its new Addi Lighting Division is headed up by Michael Stankard, who configures systems for home and commercial use.

By adjusting timing and intensity settings for various days of the week, hours of the day, and special events, "you can get your environment to look exactly the way you want it to," says Addi. Some galleries are installing complete new lighting systems, while others are retrofitting fixtures with low-intensity bulbs. By programming systems for maximum efficiency, galleries can lower their electricity costs.

In Addi's San Francisco gallery, a switch panel with eight easy-to-operate square buttons is used to program the system, and there are special settings for shows and unveilings. For maximum drama during a ceremony, Addi uses a one-button control to dim the room lights while the light on the featured piece of art intensifies one hundred percent.

At Richardson Gallery of Fine Art in Reno, which sells limited edition and original oils in the $500 to $25,000 range, owner Mark Richardson recently replaced his fluorescent lighting with a $10,000 low-voltage track lighting system. Formerly, he says, the art in his 3700-square-foot gallery had a sterile look to it.

The dimmer systems allow for spot or flood lighting or a combination of the two. Richardson can demonstrate to the client what the work would look like under various lighting conditions. Each piece in the gallery is individually illuminated, and whenever he rehangs the pieces, it is easy to readjust the lighting.

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