STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 26, 2000--

Pitney Bowes' Study Reveals That Established Protocols and

Stable Environments are Crucial for Enhancing Innovation

While e-business workers receive the same number of interruptions in their workdays as their traditional company counterparts, they find these interruptions much more distracting, according to research findings released by Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) today. The findings are a result of Pitney Bowes' fourth annual study on messaging practices in the 21st century workplace, entitled "Messaging for Innovation: Building the Innovation Infrastructure Through Messaging Practices." This year's study gave additional focus to workers in Fortune 1000 companies who work in e-commerce, online or Internet development organizations.

According to the study, e-business workers are experienced technology users who are much more likely than counterparts in traditional organizations to use mobile devices such as cellular phones, laptops and pagers. They are also three times as likely to use hand-held devices such as personal digital assistants (e.g., Palm Pilot) to manage their workflow.

Usage Rates

• 62% of e-business workers, versus 47% of traditional workers, regularly use a cellphone

• 59% of e-business workers, versus 28% of traditional workers, regularly use a laptop

• 37% of e-business workers, versus 20% of traditional workers, regularly use a pager

• 44% of e-business workers, versus 12% of traditional workers, regularly use a handheld device

Despite employing these technologies more regularly than non e-business workers, however, e-business professionals actually receive fewer messages than their counterparts in traditional organizations. E-business workers receive fewer messages per day -- 178 total messages for e-business workers as compared to 214 total messages for non e-business workers -- and participate in fewer cross-functional workgroups/teams -- 5.5 for e-business workers and 8.0 for non e-business workers.

                                          E-Business       Traditional
Percent who experience six or more             39              38
interruptions per hour
Percent who are "distracted" and               44              27
"very distracted"                              
Percent who "often feel overwhelmed"           33              19
by the volume
of messages they receive each day

But despite this lower overall volume and fewer cross unit teams, e-business workers report they are often interrupted and feel distracted and overwhelmed. Contributing factors to the e-business professional's sense of being "overwhelmed" may include unpredictable work routines, high co-worker turnover, the pressures of building processes and strategies from scratch and a lack of established company protocols for managing and disseminating communications.

"Frankly, we were intrigued by the results of these findings. I think they demonstrate that we shouldn't necessarily dismiss some of the processes and protocols found in established companies as being either just barriers or red tape. E-business workers are far ahead in their daily use of new tools, but they may be working in business environments that have not matured to a degree that provides stable messaging infrastructures and consistent protocols. Without these rules of the road, they will continue to feel overwhelmed and will fail to nurture the messaging infrastructure on which innovation grows," said Meredith Fischer, co-author of the study and vice president, Pitney Bowes Inc.

About the Study

"Messaging for Innovation: Building the Innovation Infrastructure Through Messaging Practices" builds on four years of trend data compiled and examined by Pitney Bowes. This is the first and only study of its kind to examine the complete desktop messaging environment of knowledge workers -- how they use messaging tools to impact their productivity and organizational value. The fourth in a series of studies on Managing Communication in the 21st Century Workplace, the 2000 study was commissioned in partnership with The Institute for the Future -- an independent, nonprofit research firm -- and drew on ethnographic interviews or observational interviews, as well as extensive telephone surveys. The research was conducted between January and March 2000 and consisted of interviews with workers at all organizational levels in small, medium, large and Fortune 1000 companies in Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States.

For more than 30 years, the Institute for the Future, based in Silicon Valley, California, has forecasted critical technological, demographic and business trends to help clients plan successfully for their future, including government groups, nonprofit organizations and major corporations throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

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.

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