STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 1999--In a first-ever study of household messaging or communication practices, technologies or volumes, Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) has found that the boundaries between business and home communications are fading and no longer defined by time and space. The Pitney Bowes Household Messaging Study examined how the growing volume of information, managed through new technology tools, has altered the definitions of work and personal communications or messaging.

In the knowledge economy project staffs are comprised of independent and interdependent contributors: workers who regularly contribute to projects at home, in the office or on the road, often collaborating with peers across locations and time zones. The technology-driven ability to work anytime, anywhere has in turn, resulted in a work-related flow of messages, technology and practices into and out of the household like never before.

"Messaging technology and practices that have changed the way we work are now showing up in the home," said Meredith Fischer, co-author of the research findings and vice president, Corporate Marketing, Pitney Bowes Inc. "Although the volume of messages a household sends or receives is significantly less than in the typical workplace, we've seen a good deal of evidence of how technology has changed the balance of what used to be considered work communications as opposed to personal communications. They have become intertwined, as people check their voicemail on a cell phone away from the office, check the status of home repair projects from the office, participate in conference calls at midnight with colleagues in another time zone and use electronic personal organizers to keep track of it all."

The study identified some of the similarities and differences between the workplace and home messaging environment. The average household sends and receives significantly fewer messages than today's average worker. While this contributes to their view of messaging activity - only 7% reported feeling overwhelmed by messages as opposed to 25% of office workers - it is also driven by their desire for rich, interpersonal communications, and their ability to control the pace and response to incoming messages.

Households seek to control as much of their time as possible in order to manage and coordinate busy school and social schedules. This desire for control also extends to their perspective on when and how businesses should communicate with them, relegating those solicitations not in sync with the patterns and preferences of a household as annoyance or intrusions. Unlike the messages coming into the workplace environment, there is less pressure for the household to respond immediately to incoming messages, giving them the freedom to erect temporary barriers to information flow with little downside.

One way that households are continuously creating and modifying barriers to control information flow is through the use of technology. Take the in-home answering machine for example. Answering machines became a popular household messaging tool as a way of making sure the members never missed an important phone call when they were out. Increasingly, much like the coping strategies that office workers sometimes employ with voicemail, households are using answering machines or caller ID to screen access to their time, even when they are at home.

The High-Tech Household

The study found a significant category of households that may show what the average household's communications will look like in the future. "High volume" households send and receive more than double the number of messages a week (240) as the average household (115). These households use nearly twice the communications tools (six) as the average household, and their email usage is almost four times higher.

The characteristics of the high volume household provide some insight into what is generating much higher levels of messaging. These households are twice as likely to have knowledge workers (i.e.: individuals with professional, managerial or executive positions), have a higher percentage of teenagers who are more likely to use electronic communications, and would require more communications to coordinate active schedules. They also are much more likely to include at least one adult who works at home, whether regularly as a telecommuter or home business owner, or after hours away from the office, as compared to other households. The study also found that high volume households have at least double the amount of communications with work contacts or associates as the average household.

High volume messaging households have higher levels of education, greater discretionary income and more access to computers. These households not only communicate more, but they search more for information, spending three times as many hours online as the average household does. These demographics and attitudes make high volume households logical targets for businesses and even non-profits, and also for family and friends seeking social contacts and information. The study found businesses send nearly twice as much mail to these consumers than average households. The high volume household receives almost three times as many messages as they send, which is an indication of the volume of messages that are sent from business to households.

According to Fischer, where and how business develop and honor the transactions and the social contracts they make with individuals -as employees of their companies and as consumers of their products -are no longer bounded by time and space.

"Successful businesses will need to adapt how they communicate to their customers considering the new trends in household messaging practices. They must acknowledge that householders are both customers and employees," Ms. Fischer concluded. "People have complex needs that can no longer be treated as 'just personal' and somehow separate from business and work realities. Yet, this offers new opportunities for building loyal, long-term relationships with households."

The Pitney Bowes Household Messaging Study was conducted for Pitney Bowes by an independent think tank, the Menlo Park, California, based Institute for the Future (IFTF).

Pitney Bowes Inc. is a $4.22 billion global provider of informed mail and messaging management. For more information about the company, please visit our Web site at: http://www.pitneybowes.com