Lisa McIlvoy was in a bind. She was flying out of town the next morning to deliver a presentation but didn't have the time or the equipment in her home office to make the 500 hard copies she needed to bring with her.

Using File, Print FedEx Kinko's, a free software tool that gives users a virtual printer cable to more than 1,100 FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Centers across the United States, McIlvoy placed an electronic order from her home computer.

"The copies were all ready when I arrived and they were sorted correctly with tabs and everything," said McIlvoy, a sales manager for W.P. Hickman Systems Inc. "It was like having my own personal assistant. It was convenient and a real time saver."

FedEx Kinko's has long been the trusted back office of remote workers like McIlvoy. With a digitally linked global network, FedEx Kinko's offers copying and printing, Internet access, video conferencing and other crucial services for the growing ranks of mobile business professionals.

The File, Print FedEx Kinko's tool, developed with Microsoft, works from the menu inside Windows desktop programs. It's just like sending a file to the printer, except the printer is at whichever FedEx Kinko's location you choose — even in another city. It's no wonder that usage is growing at the rate of more than 10,000 downloads per week.

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