Service bureau

Company that provides business services for a fee
A service bureau is a company that provides business services for a fee. The term has been extensively used to describe technology based services to financial services companies, particularly banks. Service bureaus are a significant sector within the growing 3D printing industry that allow customers to make a decision whether to buy their own equipment or outsource production. Customers of service bureaus typically do not have the scale or expertise to incorporate these services into their internal operations and prefer to outsource them to a service bureau. Outsourced payroll services constitute a commonly provisioned service from a service bureau.

Data processing service bureaus were opened by IBM in 1932, first just in major USA cities, then internationally. The purpose was to provide access to then state of the art Tab Equipment rather than own basis. Keypunching (a term that long preceded "data entry") was often part of what was offered. As Batch processing systems replaced Tab Equipment, service bureaus, from the mid 1950s, could offer this too. A few decades later, sharing of mainframes via Timesharing was a step forward. These concepts already existed advertising and Ad agencies. Initially newspapers sold space in bulk to print space brokers; they resold the space, but individual customers made their own ads. Subsequently, the concept of having someone else write your ad took over.

Although Landart Systems, Inc (LSI) opened in 1973 as a DECsystem 20 based timesharing bureau that also did computerized typesetting, it was the 1977 introduction of the Xerox 9700 high end laser printer which was Landart's subsequent mark of distinction. The 9700 could accept input via direct computer link or from magnetic tape, thus allowing the next step: a service they called Laserlink. Founded by John Gilmour, a data processing manager whose Wall Street employer folded, the initial goal was to have the various services needed to perform typesetting, financial computer graphics, word processing and general timesharing under one roof. Laserlink and another specialty, electronic publishing (which was then uncommon) allowed Landart to advance.