Pitney Bowes 2004 Annual Report Download - page 6

Microsoft’s solutions, including its customer
relationship management application.
Another example is a field known as business
geographics, where Group 1’s solutions pinpoint
the latitude and longitude of specific addresses and
provide detailed information about these locations,
such as whether they lie in a flood plain or
within a municipality’s special taxing district.
MapQuest, a leading provider of directions via the
Internet, also uses Group 1 technology to help answer
millions of inquiries each day.
We anticipate double-digit growth in package
management. More and more large organizations
are deploying our Web-based, networked shipping
systems that allow individual users to select the best
carrier and service based on required delivery time
and cost, then create shipping labels right at the
desktop. We also recently launched a shipping system
that caters to small and midsize shipping customers.
Package delivery is a growing and increasingly
important competitive category for postal administra-
tions around the world. In that regard, we have forged
an innovative partnership with Canada Post to develop
an automated shipping solution. Using Pitney Bowes
technology, shippers print labels with
detailed shipping information, thereby
gaining access to Canada Post’s
robust tracking and reporting capa-
bilities. Manifests are also transmit-
ted electronically, shipping rates are calculated
automatically and evidence of payment is added to the
shipping label. Pitney Bowes and Canada Post jointly
launched this service in the fall of 2004 with a direct
marketing and sales campaign targeted to our meter
customers. Our partnership with Canada Post is also
an example of the international opportunities we are
pursuing. Another is the acquisition of Groupe MAG,
which makes us the largest provider of high-volume
mail handling solutions in France. We also opened
direct operations in India and Brazil, the latter through
a joint venture with Semco Participações Limitada.
In Pitney Bowes Management Services, we took a
number of steps to strengthen our offerings. We
upgraded our off-site document solution centers to
support value-added services like short-run color
printing and digital document conversion. These off-
site capabilities complement the mail and document
management services we provide on-site for more
than 1,000 customer accounts. We began to see
growth in Management Services in the fourth quarter
that we expect to continue into 2005 and beyond.
Finally, with the acquisition of Standard Register’s
equipment service operation, we are creating a
third-party equipment service business that we expect
to perform at double-digit rates. The increased
reliability of our own products, as well as more remote
support for customers, has decreased the number
of routine service calls our technicians must make,
freeing them for other, higher-value activities.
4
THE GROUP 1 ACQUISITION
POSITIONS US AS A LEADER IN
CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT