Oce is a global leader in digital document management and delivery technology. The company’s solutions are based on Oce’s advanced software applications that deliver documents and data over internal networks and the Internet to printing devices and archives -- locally and around the world. Supporting the workflow solutions are Oce digital printers and scanners, considered the most reliable and productive in the world. Oce also offers a wide range of consulting and outsourcing solutions. Marv Pollack is Vice President, Corporate Communications for Oce-USA Holding, Inc. Mr. Pollack is responsible for advertising, public relations, and e-commerce activities for all seven of the Oce operating companies in North America. He joined Oce in 1999 with more than twenty-five years of experience in advertising and marketing. He has extensive advertising agency background with Leo Burnett and Grant/Jacoby as well as marketing management experience in with Midway Airlines and Hyatt Hotels. Marv has a degree in economics from Princeton University and a MBA from Stanford University. He works at the US headquarters office in Chicago. Carl Joachim is the Vice President of Marketing for Oce Printing Systems USA, Inc., (the Production Printing business unit of Oce USA.) In this role he oversees all the company's product and strategic marketing efforts and he has a key role in guiding the company's evolution from a provider of printing systems to an integrator of broader information management solutions. He joined the company in 2000 and has more than 17 years experience in marketing and operations. Prior to joining Oce he held the position of vice president of marketing operations, and vice president of solutions marketing for the Global Solutions Group of Xerox Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for development and execution of strategic programs and new market expansion. Prior to that, he had world-wide responsibility for marketing of Xerox’s Printing Systems Group. Oce has experienced significant growth over the past couple of years. What do you attribute that to? Carl Joachim: Oce has been a consistent leader in the digital document revolution. It pioneered the digital printing devices and has backed them with powerful software solutions that provide significant productivity gains for our customers. Marv Pollack: Because the company was involved in the digital marketspace early, Oce's solutions are well-developed and, in many cases, exceed competitive offerings. This is true across all of the company's business units-all of which enjoyed double digit growth last year. In addition, Oce takes a consultative selling approach with its customers, which builds strong relationships. Oce can provide this support across all the printing environments in a company-the office, the data center, the engineering department, the graphics areas, and the reproduction department. Carl Joachim: Yes, in addition, 'diversification' has been a strong contributing factor to Oce's growth. Oce has been able to target appropriate growth markets and it has also simultaneously diversified its product offerings to accommodate today's evolving needs. Specifically - the Production Printing market has been strong for Oce for many years. Oce has been able to continue its growth trend due to its modular PRISMA architecture which as an Open Systems offering which gives customers improved flexibility over that of competitive offerings. In addition, Oce has been able to leverage its success in the production printing market and used that to target the evolving Digital arena. Oce's strength in variable data printing perfectly positions it as a viable option for customers who are searching for a cost-effective replacement to offset production." Will Oce continue to gain market share with new products and where do you see future growth? Marv Pollack: Yes. Oce's market share still has room to grow in all segments. Also in 2001, Oce is bringing a vast number of new products to market including some color technologies through its own developments and its partnerships. An example of this is the recent Xeikon agreement which enables Oce to market its color printers. See a Demo of Engineering Exec 3.0 In addition, the Wide-Format product line has been updated. This is the product line that helped transform the engineering and architectural world from analog to digital documents in five short years. Now, the new TDS line (standing for Technical Document Systems) with the Oce Engineering Exec 3.0 software, expands digital document management capacity beyond a company's own network to a truly global stance as all the devices and software solutions provide internet connectivity. Worldwide collaboration and access to documents is now a reality. We also have introduced a new, eight color wide format inkjet printer. What other products will you launch this year? Marv Pollack: In narrow format, a powerful new solution for central reprographic departments is being launched with the combination of the DPS400, 6000 page per hour printer, with Oce DocWorks Exec software which finally ties the CRD to the rest of the organization, facilitating the electronic submission of print jobs. Late this summer, the long-awaited, Oce-developed, seven-color copy press device, the CPS700, will begin customer deliveries. This revolutionary direct imaging technology sets new standards in image quality, ease of operation, and low operating cost. Many traditional suppliers are also entering the software market to provide better workflow integration. Your thoughts? Carl Joachim: In addition to the Oce Production Printing Unit's PRISMA family of offerings for the digital printing market, Oce offers systems for the office environment as well. Oce's Office Exec manages document flow with a number of productivity benefits and a significant ability to shift printing load from slow and expensive desktop printers to more efficient workgroup copier/printers. Also, the combination of Oce Scan Logic and Oce Find Logic provides a simple means to eliminate paper files. Documents can be quickly scanned on an Oce digital copier/printer and automatically archived. They can then be quickly retrieved with the power of the Oce Find Logic search capabilities. In addition, Oce's DemandStream digital printers, specifically developed for the Print On Demand and Publishing environments, continue to be well received by the evolving market." Can you gain market share in a slow economy? Carl Joachim: What we have found in these challenging economic times is that our customers look to us to provide solutions which will give them greater productivity and reduce their cost of operations. The Oce digital solutions enable them to do this. Therefore, this challenging market is also one that provides opportunity for both us and our customers to improve productivity within organizations. The productivity gains made possible by Oce digital solutions are very attractive to companies, especially at a time they are very interested in cutting costs. In most of our markets, the adoption of digital workflows still has room to grow. Will the new TDS800 allow you to sell to additional industry segments within the graphic arts industry or is the plan to simply upgrade 9800 users? Marv Pollack: The TDS line should allow us to do both. The Oce 9800 has been an extraordinarily well-accepted product, and it appears that current owners are adding new TDS800 units to augment their installed Oce 9800's. We expect that the TDS800 with Oce Engineering Exec software will find even wider acceptance in the manufacturing industries like aerospace and automotive as well as utilities, telecom, and transportation. The power of the hardware/software combination to provide enterprise-wide print management, collaboration, document transmission, and digital archiving is very attractive to these organizations. Many of the "web based" companies, also known as e-publishers, are slowing due to slow adoption rates of their overall solution. Was this market ever a focus for Oce? Marv Pollack: Oce has been able to provide Internet solutions to both the new web-based companies and to our traditional customers. Our digital document management solutions have enabled many of the web-based companies to link their internet services with Oce and other digital printing devices. Oce has always built the software solutions on an Open Architecture principle so they work with Oce printers as well as others. We also have built Internet connection capabilities into our devices and software so our "end" customers have internet-enabled capabilities on their own. They can share documents between their locations around the globe as well as with customers and partners, via the web. In terms of specific areas within Oce, which division will grow the fastest? Marv Pollack: All of Oce's business units are structured with groups targeting growth segments to augment the established business. Fortunately, the established businesses are finding opportunities to increase market share at the same time the new business segments are beginning to contribute. We view all of our segments as growth areas due to the wider adoption of digital solutions and the addition of color offerings. Asia has been a growing area for other manufacturers. Have you expanded into those areas? Marv Pollack: We established an operating company in China several years ago which is doing quite well. Oce now has manufacturing capacity in China for the local market. We also have operating companies in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Almost every other equipment maker has suffered tremendous challenges this year. How did you avoid the same trouble? Marv Pollack: Oce frequently seems to be marching to its own drumbeat. The company has a strong culture and strong management. We recognized the need to control our costs when it appeared that the market growth was slowing in late 1999. That helped maintain our profitability through 2000, along with our topline growth. Oce also approaches the market with an expectation of working closely with customers. The richness of the relationships and the significant new solutions we are able to deliver, working in concert with customers, distinguishes Oce from other companies. Would Oce consider acquiring or investing in one of these troubled companies? If so, which is most appealing? Carl Joachim: We cannot comment on specific acquisition plans except to say that Oce has built its business over time with a number of very successful acquisitions. There is a good possibility that there will be acquisitions in the future which fit strategically and represent a good value." We have heard several say that customers in your space are not only after quality equipment, but they also expect significantly more training and support from their vendor. What has Oce done to enhance customer training? Marv Pollack: The demand for training by customers is growing each month. Customers want to know how to get the most out of their new digital solutions which comes from training. We have organized the Oce Business Services group as well as a specific Consulting Services group within Oce Printing Systems USA, Inc (the Production Printing business unit) to deliver training and consultation services to customers. In addition, developing our own people is critical as the US organization grows and the technological complexity of our products increases. To that end, we have created the Oce National Management Development Center in Chicago to provide the technical and management skill our associates need to develop their careers.