STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 8, 2009--
Pitney
Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) issued the following statement today in
response to a news report broadcast on May 7 by WISH-TV
in Indianapolis and its reporter Karen Hensel:
"Pitney Bowes is not guaranteed to receive $37 million a year under its
contract with the State
of Indiana. The language of the contract specifies that the State
can spend “up to” $37 million a year on the contract in total. In fact,
the State has spent far less than this amount, and Pitney Bowes has
received only a fraction of this lower spend.
How much has the State actually spent under the contract? In the
22 months since the contract was signed, the State of Indiana has spent a
total of $29.5 million, broken down as follows:
-
Postage: $14.5 million – This is money that goes to the United
States Postal Service, not Pitney Bowes. By contracting with
Pitney Bowes, Indiana taxpayers have saved money on postage in
two ways. 1) The State is now taking advantage of postage discounts
that it formerly was not enjoying, and 2) Pitney Bowes pays the cost
of the postage up front, and the State reimburses Pitney Bowes about a
month later with no interest charges. The “float” that the State
enjoys for this period of time is typically around $600,000.
-
Vended Print: $5.5 million – Pitney Bowes contracts with
outside vendors, including minority-owned and women-owned local
companies, to handle various printing jobs for the State. These
vendors bill Pitney Bowes and in turn, Pitney Bowes bills the State
for these services at no mark-up.
-
Document Services (Printing, Mailing, Imaging) handled by Pitney
Bowes: $9.5 million – These services are provided to the State at
a lower cost and with more advanced technologies than before due to
efficiencies from consolidating the printing operations of several
agencies.
WISH-TV’s irresponsible claim that the State is spending $100,000 a day
on this contract is false. In addition to this factual error, the report
misrepresented the State and Pitney Bowes in three instances.
1) Pitney Bowes already does some document services work for the State Bureau
of Motor Vehicles, and we are hoping that BMV will increase its use
of Pitney Bowes services in the future. This will increase savings
enjoyed by the State.
2) The company and the State denied WISH-TV access to the State’s print
and mail work site per longstanding and appropriate restrictions in
place to ensure privacy, security and confidentiality. We are quite sure
that no State taxpayer wants a television camera focused on a bill he or
she is receiving from the State Department of Revenue, for example.
3) The money spent to build out the central document processing work
site was more than offset by savings the State enjoyed from space
consolidations from five other existing print and mail operations at
different State facilities. Some of these facilities have been
repurposed by the State agencies, reducing the State’s overall real
estate footprint. The State should be applauded for taking the
initiative to consolidate operations, which not only reduces their
costs, but also their environmental impact.
Pitney Bowes is a proud Indiana employer, with more than 1,000 employees
living and working in the Hoosier State, an increase of 40% since 2006.
We are extremely proud of our work with the State of Indiana, as well as
other state and federal government agencies. In Indiana, we worked
closely with the State to see that all State employees affected by this
outsourcing contract were either placed in other State jobs or provided
the opportunity to succeed as a Pitney Bowes employee.
We have been placed on the “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list by
Corporate Responsibility Officer (CRO) magazine nine times, and last
month the company was named to the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” list
by the Ethisphere Institute for the third consecutive year because our
values of accountability and integrity are ingrained in our culture and
in the way we do business.”
About Pitney Bowes:
Pitney Bowes is a mailstream technology company that helps organizations
manage the flow of information, mail, documents and packages. Our 35,000
employees deliver technology, service and innovation to more than two
million customers worldwide. The company was founded in 1920 and annual
revenues now total $6.3 billion. More information is available at www.pb.com.
Source: Pitney Bowes Inc.
Pitney Bowes Inc.
Matt Broder, 203-351-6347
matthew.broder@pb.com
