DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2000--Ajay Ghia has been named Vice President of Marketing and Product Development for the Document Factory Solutions business unit of Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) Document Messaging Technologies.

Previously, Mr. Ghia served as Vice President of Manufacturing and Engineering for the division. "Ajay has been instrumental in accelerating our product development activities and compressing the manufacturing cycle times for our high speed, high integrity inserting systems," says Brian Baxendale, President of the Division.

"In his new role, he will continue with our strategic effort to shorten overall 'time to market' by more tightly focusing on the emerging needs of key market segments and speeding our ability to respond to those needs with highly-targeted solutions."

Document Factory Solutions' new focus on strategic marketing will also expand the role of the Product Management Team, which will now have fiscal responsibility and be more fully involved in both strategic and technology planning.

"We will still be concerned with the key features, strengths and functionality of individual components," explains Ghia. "But we will also continue to focus on a market and customer-oriented view on how our products and services are being used in real world situations. This will include an expanded view of key operational issues for customers like ease of use, reliability and serviceability, modularity, compatibility with other components and systems, and the entire life cycle of the product and technology involved."

The Engineering Staff will also be more actively involved with customer programs to develop a deeper understanding of market needs. A greater emphasis will be placed on other vendors involved in print/mail finishing solutions. "Our future success as a business hinges on the ability to furnish total solutions that satisfy the full range of our customers' needs," continues Ghia. "This includes solutions that integrate hardware, software, systems and services as seamless offerings."

"We intend to be the best at identifying customer needs quickly, and developing and bringing to market just as quickly the products and technologies -- whether developed internally or by our partners -- that our customers require."

Other key managers involved in the new marketing effort include: Maureen Anderson, Director of Tactical Marketing; Mark Proft, Director of Strategic Marketing; and Diane Robbins, Director of Strategic Sourcing.

Document Factory Solutions is a business unit within the Document Messaging Technologies family. Document Messaging Technologies is a division of Pitney Bowes, Inc. and is a leading provider of hardware, software, professional services and systems integration which enable high-volume mailers to create, manage and deliver highly personalized customer documents via hard copy and digital format.

Pitney Bowes Inc. is a $4.4 billion provider of informed mail and message management. Visit the website at www.pitneybowes.com for more information.

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