STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSNESS WIRE)--August 16, 2000--Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) today announced that it has received CIO magazine's 2000 CIO-100 Award for customer service excellence. The award program recognizes organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence. This year's program focuses on excellence, innovation and improved business performance through the use of customer-oriented practices.

"Pitney Bowes is delighted to be recognized by CIO magazine for our ongoing efforts to enhance our service offerings to better meet the needs of our more than 2 million customers," said Russell P. Wilson, Vice President, Customer Process Reengineering at Pitney Bowes. "One key initiative that has led to significantly higher customer satisfaction is providing our field sales force with laptop computers to remotely access our order entry system. This enables our representatives to configure, price, and submit orders electronically thereby ensuring customers accurate and expedited order fulfillment."

To provide a vision of ever-changing business trends, the focus of the CIO-100 changes annually. This year CIO honors 100 companies that make the customer central to doing business and set the benchmarks for others to follow. Complete coverage of this year's CIO-100 Awards is featured in the August 15 issue of CIO magazine and at www.cio.com.

According to Abbie Lundberg, CIO Editor-in-Chief, "Customer relationship management (CRM) is a way for large organizations to gain the depth of understanding of their customers that comes naturally to smaller, local businesses. It helps them build customer satisfaction and loyalty, better focus marketing effort, and significantly increase sales. However, while the promise of CRM is tantalizing, it takes a tremendous commitment to get there. This year's CIO 100 honorees have demonstrated excellence in one or more of the critical areas of managing the customer relationship."

The recipients of this year's CIO-100 Award were selected through a three-step process. First, companies filled out an online application form. Next, a judging panel of nine industry experts reviewed the companies and nominated those they felt best showed an expertise in customer service/customer relationship management. Finally, a team of ten CIO magazine editors and writers reviewed the applications, the expert recommendations, and then voted on the final 100.

Pitney Bowes Inc. is a $4.4 billion global provider of informed mail and messaging management. It serves 118 countries through dealer and direct operations. For more information about the company, visit www.pitneybowes.com.

CXO Media, Inc. (formerly CIO Communications, Inc.) publishes CIO magazine. CXO Media is an executive reach company, serving CIOs, CEOs, CFOs, COOs and other corporate officers who use technology to thrive and prosper in this new era of business. The company strives to enhance partnerships between CIOs and CXOs, as well as create opportunities for IT and consumer marketers to reach them. In addition to publishing CIO magazine, CXO Media produces Darwin magazine, the www.cio.com and www.darwinmagazine.com websites, as well as CIO and Darwin Executive Programs, a series of conferences that provide educational and networking opportunities for corporate and government leaders.

CONTACT: Pitney Bowes Mailing Systems

Van Lawrence

203/351-6098