It's got all of the elements that make today's Internet investors drool: a business-to-business website promising to cut inefficiencies in a $200 billion national industry.

It's PrintConnect.net, a Boston start-up that just netted several million venture capital dollars to launch a site (www.printconnect.net) aimed at helping customers buy printed material -- marketing brochures, instruction manuals, annual reports, you name it -- from among the 4,000 printers in New England and, should the business plan succeed, the tens of thousands across the nation and the world.

Erik Harrell, PrintConnect.net's founder and chief executive, is an energetic young Harvard Business School graduate who studied the Internet world for a while before launching his venture. He says the Net will revolutionize print buying, from the process of getting quotes for a job to delivering the finished product.

"There's a lot of pain in the purchasing system of the printing industry," Harrell said. "And we're ready to act as the Ibuprofen."

Harrell said most big print orders involve a complex process filled with paper at every step. Buyers must complete request-for-quote orders, clarify orders with printers, make a selection, then notify the winning and losing bidders. And in the Fortune 1000 firms that are the company's target market, several departments might have an interest in the outcome, requiring frequent communication to keep everyone aware of the job status.

PrintConnect.net aims to smooth that process by putting online a series of ordering forms for different kinds of print jobs. Registered customers will be able to complete an order form, wait for printers to respond to their job requirements with bids, then select the most attractive. (Users can already register at the site, and live transactions are scheduled to begin next week.)

Once the deal is arranged, both the customer and the printer can continue to use PrintConnect.net as a platform to communicate job changes, data files or other information. The company will collect from the printer a percentage of each job ordered at the site.

The potential cost and, especially, time savings for customers are obvious. ("When we explain this to them, within 15 seconds the light bulb goes off and they see Nirvana," Harrell said.) And Harrell said printers, too, will benefit, by cutting inefficiencies in the ordering and production processes, streamlining relationships with customers and improving service.

"We can save printers money, yes, but this is not so much a cost savings as it as a revenue generator," Harrell said. "Customer service equals satisfaction equals loyalty equals more business equals increased profits. That's what gets their attention."

Harrell said printers are ready for the Web, in part because the industry has gone through so many technological changes in the past decades, most recently to digital print production.

Other industry observers are less certain.

"Printing is an extremely customized industry, and most printers are more comfortable working face-to-face," said Margie Gallo Dana, a 25-year industry veteran and owner of Dana Consulting, a Brookline, Mass., firm that provides advice for printing customers and suppliers. "The ultimate change to online ordering is inevitable, but I think the industry will be very slow to adapt."

Gallo Dana said the success of any complex print job depends on how well the buyer communicates to the printer a host of variables -- amount and type of ink, type of paper, type of fold, formats, scoring, binding and more. Every detail affects price, so off-the-shelf estimates are next to impossible.

"The idea that you can fill out a form to answer every question on a sophisticated print job -- I don't see it yet," Gallo Dana said. "With online services, I'm afraid people will order by cost alone and end up settling for less. And a lot of mid-sized and smaller printers will have to be dragged along."

Agreed Jim Tepper, president of the industry organization Printing Industries of New England, "A lot of our members say this will speed the industry to more commodity printing, and that we don't need that. And if the fees to use the site are an add-on -- well, this is a small-margin industry and there's not a lot of room for additional cost."

Tepper acknowledged that as large-volume customers (financial and insurance firms, large manufacturers) start to demand ordering efficiencies, Web use will become more ubiquitous. Still, he said, "none of our members have said this is the greatest thing since sliced bread."

Already, more than a half-dozen Web firms are vying to take advantage of the market. At next month's Seybold Seminars Boston 2000 industry trade show, presenters will include auction sites (such as 58K.com of New York), consumer-oriented sites (such as iPrint.com of Redwood City, Calif.) and other Net ordering platforms for business (including Noosh.com, a Palo Alto, Calif., firm that Harrell identifies as his company's most direct competition).

PrintConnect.net has signed up New England printers and customers to use the site, though Harrell wouldn't disclose details. The CEO's pitch, as well as an executive team filled with print industry veterans, has convinced three Boston-based venture capital firms -- Claflin Capital, Reach Venture Partners and Corning Capital -- to provide, along with angel investors, financing that Harrell described as "in the single-digit millions."

"We're looking for business-to-business opportunities in large, fragmented market sectors, and printing is a perfect fit," said Jerry Bird, a Claflin Capital partner. "PrintConnect.net has got a management team that knows the industry and a list of high-volume customers that will provide a good East Coast base. The key will be execution, and we're confident their solution will work."

Busy spreading the word and lining up customers, Harrell has no time for doubts: "We've got the right solution at the right time, with the right backing and the right people in this organization. We're ready to attack the market. The race is on, and we're excited about it."