STAMFORD, Conn., June 22 -- Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) today announced it is implementing a new Electronic Statement Presentment (ESP) capability for its popular Postage By Phone^® meter resetting service. This new capability is provided by docSense, a business of Pitney Bowes and a world leader in developing web-based business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and business-to-employee communications. 

"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 capability, which encompasses business-to-business, business-to-consumer and internal messaging applications. The Postage By Phone ESP application helps users better analyze and manage postage expenses by providing instant access to both historical and daily account data. DocSense has already implemented Internet billing, payment and statement solutions for leading utility, insurance and telecommunications firms. 

"Postage by Phone is a prime example of how the electronic presentment of bills and statements benefits both billers and their customers." 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." 

"That's an immediate and immense advantage-especially for larger billers that process more than a million statements each month, the majority of which are multi-page statements," says Schumacher. "Customers benefit as well from ESP, because they get virtually 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." 

"In line with our corporate strategy to web enable our products and services to add value for our customers, we added ESP capability to our Postage by Phone system," says Brian Baxendale, President of Pitney Bowes Production Mail. "Our commitment is to focus heavily on services as the central value offering for our customers. Pitney Bowes will help them achieve and maintain the highest possible productivity and profitability in this increasingly complex environment with a mix of digital and e-business products and professional services." 

"Tens of thousands of businesses rely on the speed and convenience of our 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." 

Initially, the Postage by Phone ESP solution will include the current and past two 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. 

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." 

docSense is a Pitney Bowes business providing pioneering software and services that enable enterprises to custom-tailor and deliver traditional and newer forms of critical customer communications via the Internet and other electronic channels. For more information visit www.pbdmt.com. 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. 

 

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