Study Reveals U.S. Workers Addicted to Personalized Product Features.

Business/Technology Editors

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2000

Pitney Bowes Study Highlights Best Practices for Using

Communications Tools to Maximize Productivity

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI) today released additional findings from its fourth annual workplace study on messaging practices -- "Messaging for Innovation: Building the Innovation Infrastructure Through Messaging Practices" -- revealing that highly productive workers rely on communications tool features versus complete tools to keep them organized and to enhance thinking. Study findings show that top performers strip messaging tools, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), e-mail and voicemail, to their features "DNA."

In effect, workers learn and use only those features across and within tools that best enable them to juggle their workload -- which for U.S. workers typically entails managing 200-plus daily messages and 17 weekly projects across seven work teams. The study highlights that features learning is highly individualized, citing that while no two workers learn and use product features in the same way, there are common functionality preferences for both individuals and work groups. Furthermore, the study notes that "features migration" is sweeping corporate America as evidenced by the proliferation of "organizing" features such as calendars, reminders and phone books across messaging tools.

"The process of learning features also has a social value for both the individual and the company," said Meredith Fischer, co-author of the study and vice president, Pitney Bowes Inc. "While learning to use tools and features is the kind of `invisible work' that organizations have traditionally dismissed as unimportant, our study shows that learning and teaching feature usage creates important social capital in the workplace and is essential for creating the infrastructure for workers to think and work innovatively."

Pitney Bowes' latest research reveals the important relationship between how workers learn tool features to stay organized and enhance thinking, resulting in the infrastructure that fosters innovation -- an important New Economy metric for success. The study notes that while new features can be taught through formal training courses and manuals, informal training from co-workers, friends and family may be more productive and long-lasting. More commonly, features are self-taught on an as-needed basis, or by accident -- e.g., clicking on the wrong button and discovering new functionality. "Companies should invest in a rich communications infrastructure, including state-of-the-art product features that fit individual work groups, as a way to facilitate the social networks which underpin innovation," Fischer added.

Learning new features is a fluid process, and is highly individualized. Every worker not only learns features at a different pace, they also use them in different ways. While teammates may have the same available "tool kit," each will use a completely individual set of features, picking and choosing the features that fit their workstyle and needs. "Because workers have such unique learning styles, and because they learn and employ features selectively, encouraging workers to rely on one learning resource, such as a help desk or training seminar, is not the most effective way to teach feature usage within a team or company," said Fischer.

According to the study findings, respondents believe that 80 percent of value comes from 20 percent of the available product features. "Our research shows that less is more' when it comes to product features, perhaps indicating why multi-function products have not been as successful as anticipated," Fisher said. Similarly, nearly three-quarters of surveyed workers reported that they do not know how to use all the functions on their office e-mail or voicemail systems.

Pitney Bowes' research revealed that workers mix and match features across messaging tools to fit their workstyle, creating a kind of "features soup" from various "ingredients" in their collective tool kits. While features subsets are highly individualized, the research showed that top performers generally rely on features that support common types of functionality and organization, including:

-- Just-in-time information to provide appropriate information in context, such as pop-up windows for help, alarms or signals in calendars and automated e-mail.

-- Syncing to reconcile with a larger or updated set of information or data, such as PDAs or cell phones that can update workers' information.

-- Screening and filtering to avoid unimportant messages and identify important ones, such as caller ID, message codes and a "do not disturb" key.

-- Customizing to make messaging more personal, such as changing rings, address books, private calendar features and auto redial.

-- Information portability to support the transfer or mobility of data for multiple-location work, such as forwarding features, call transferring, remote retrieval and 800 numbers.

-- Tracking or monitoring flows to allow individuals to become aware of incoming messages or see the flow of messages that relate to other projects or tasks, such as the whisper function on advanced phone services or group calendar features.

"Individuals who want to succeed in the New Economy workplace should recognize that features learning is highly individualized and most effective when done spontaneously or just in time. Furthermore, what works for a co-worker may not work for you, and vice versa. Mix and match the product features that work best for you to create a tool kit that not only keeps you organized, but that can actually help to enhance your thinking," Fischer noted.

The study also reveals key learnings for New Economy organizations of all sizes that want to foster a work culture that spurs innovation. "First and foremost, organizations must recognize that time spent learning features processes is a valuable part of building the messaging infrastructure that supports innovation. Next, understand that there is no cookie cutter approach to learning and teaching features. Instead, allow employees the freedom to embrace their natural learning rhythms, and do everything in your power to encourage the employee interactions in which features knowledge is shared," Fischer said.

About the Study

"Messaging for Innovation: Building the Innovation Infrastructure Through Messaging Practices" builds on four years of trend data compiled and examined by Pitney Bowes. This is the first and only study of its kind to examine the complete desktop messaging environment of knowledge workers -- how they use messaging tools to impact their productivity and organizational value. The fourth in a series of studies on Managing Communication in the 21st Century Workplace, the 2000 study was commissioned in partnership with The Institute for the Future -- an independent, nonprofit research firm -- and drew on ethnographic interviews or observational interviews, as well as extensive telephone surveys. The research was conducted between January and March 2000 and consisted of interviews with workers at all organizational levels in small, medium, large and Fortune 1000 companies in Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States.

For more than 30 years, the Institute for the Future, based in Silicon Valley, California, has forecasted critical technological, demographic and business trends to help clients plan successfully for their future, including government groups, nonprofit organizations and major corporations throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Pitney Bowes Inc. is a $4.4 billion global provider of informed mail and messaging management. It serves 118 countries through dealer and direct operations. For more information about the company, visit www.pitneybowes.com.