STAMFORD, CT--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 2000--Pitney Bowes Inc. announced that it's Electronic Statement Presentment (ESP) capability for postagebyphone.com now provides over 4 million customer statements online, the largest existing application of ESP derived from and integrated with a legacy print stream, according to industry experts.

"Corporations interested in implementing a digital delivery solution should closely look at postagebyphone.com to see the benefits of an integrated solution," says Michael Killen, Founder and CEO of Killen and Associates, a global leader in tracking and forecasting business opportunities created by the Internet. "This is a very efficient application; in terms of customer service and internal processes, they've really reduced manual labor and telephone time."

"Postagebyphone.com is a prime example of how Pitney Bowes delivers solutions that identify customer needs and optimize their operational efficiencies," says Karl Schumacher, President of docSense. "Billers benefit because the billing or account data can be processed, custom-tailored and delivered faster at a lower cost than ever before."

Postage by Phone services more than one million customers and processes more than $13 billion in postage payments worldwide. The Postage by Phone ESP solution is based on the docSense Digital Document Delivery (D3) capability, which encompasses business-to-business, business-to-consumer and internal messaging applications. Postagebyphone.com helps users better analyze and manage postage expenses by providing instant access to both historical and daily account data.

"Tens of thousands of businesses rely on the speed and convenience of Postage by Phone service every day to reset their meters and assure that adequate postage is available to meet projected needs," says Kathleen Bishop, Director, Postage By Phone. "Our new Internet statement capability makes our Postage by Phone service even more convenient. Users will have instant access to detailed account data, so they can review and analyze meter use more effectively and manage postage expenses more precisely."

Postagebyphone.com includes the current and past three months of account activity to aid users in budgeting and managing postage costs. Eventually, users of the online statement service will have the ability to expand the amount of past account data that is available online. More importantly, postagebyphone.com users will soon have the opportunity to pay for postage on-line.

These new capabilities are provided by docSense, a business of Pitney Bowes that provides end-to-end solutions for the creation and distribution of efficient and effective documents in paper and digital form in business-to-business, business-to-consumer and business-to-employee environments. Pitney Bowes docSense implements document-centered strategies, including Internet billing, payment and statement solutions, for leading utility, insurance, financial institutions and telecommunications firms. (more)

"Customers benefit from ESP because they get instant access to account data that in many cases is also more detailed or custom-tailored than paper-based statements, which can help users better monitor, evaluate and manage expenses," says Ms. Bishop.

"Pitney Bowes added ESP capability to our Postage by Phone system as part of our corporate strategy to web-enable our products and services to add value for our customers," says Brian Baxendale, President of Pitney Bowes Production Mail.

Karl Schumacher also points out that a longer-term benefit of ESP comes from the biller's ability to use the electronic bill or statement "as a gateway to the customer for offering highly targeted products and services and for strengthening the business relationship." When the electronic statement is implemented as part of a well-conceived e-commerce strategy, he continues, it can also "help improve internal processes, boost operating efficiency, and improve the bottom line."

Pitney Bowes is a $4.4 billion provider of informed mail and message management. For more information visit www.PitneyBowes.com and www.PostagebyPhone.com.

docSense is a Pitney Bowes business which provides innovative solutions for the creation and distribution of effective and efficient documents in paper and digital form. With the largest Professional Services organization in the nation, docSense provides pioneering end to end solutions and services that enable enterprises to custom-tailor and deliver traditional and newer forms of critical customer communications via paper, the Internet and other electronic channels. For more information visit www.docSense.com

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