And their far-flung offices would give the bank a "global reach" neither institution has today.

Yet regulators in far-flung offices never joined forces, either to recognize or end these patterns.

Mr. Bullen also pointed to technology systems that allow better communication among far-flung offices.

Worldwide recession, overspending and disorganized business practices forced him to close his far-flung offices and declare bankruptcy in 1992.

The opportunity, he added, was to work with a firm with larger resources and far-flung offices as legal practice becomes more international.

Mr. Volcker will also consider having more of Andersen's top executives, now spread among its far-flung offices, work in one place.

It also became clear that Key would have to undertake a technology infrastructure upgrade to connect its far-flung offices.

He spent almost all the time before the ceremony meeting the assembled executives from Tomkin Industries' far-flung offices.

Mr. Roberts described beaming things like medical images between hospitals, video training materials for corporations and high-speed data links to connect far-flung offices of a company.

From there, a user can start other applications, use E-mail, schedule meetings or work collaboratively on documents with workers in far-flung offices.