Chicago-Based Provider of Digital Document Management and Delivery Technology Tops 200 Industry Leaders (Xerox, Kodak, IBM North America, Etc.) On 13 Service Metrics CHICAGO, Oct. 9 -- Oce-USA, a leading Chicago-based supplier of digital document management and delivery technology, won the First Annual Excellence in Service Business Optimization Award at the 32nd annual Association for Services Management International (AFSMI) Summit and Expo held in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday.  The award was presented to Oce by AFSMI and D.F. Blumberg Associates, Inc. (BAI) -- a leading management consulting firm dedicated to helping companies develop new strategic directions for their service businesses -- which conducted a comprehensive service optimization study among nearly 200 organizations to identify the best in class across 13 key service metrics.  These benchmark categories included call management, logistics operations, commitment to quality, field force utilization/automation and overall service revenue contributions to the company. The 2002 AFSMI/BAI award is for S-Business Optimization where S-Business refers to the expanded definition of service and support delivered by today's high technology companies.  Oce was recognized for best in class delivery on all 13 criteria -- competing against participating industry leaders including the Hewlett Packard Indigo Division, IBM North America, IKON Office Solutions, Kodak, Pitney Bowes Inc., Ricoh Company Ltd., Sony, and Xerox Corporation, among others.  This prestigious honor marks a milestone in Oce's long heritage as a customer-focused, service-driven company with a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction based on excellent response times, continuous parts availability, and an overall assurance of reliability. We're excited to be recognized among a distinguished set of the country's most reputable service organizations.  This substantiates Oce's commitment to continually improving our business practices and applying the latest technology to the delivery of reliable service and support to our customers, according to Dan Krzesinski, Vice President, Operations and Customer Service for Oce.  Critical to this achievement is our development of consistent procedures, a central experience knowledge base, and the integration of partner organizations to enhance our service offerings.  Adding these strategic partnerships to Oce's internal capabilities has allowed us to achieve tremendous operational efficiencies, cost savings and higher customer satisfaction ratings. Among the strategic partnerships, Oce utilizes Nextel phones to provide real-time information about local parts inventory through online data transfer and to enhance voice communication between representatives.  Through an agreement with NCR, Oce is now able to provide true coast-to-coast service coverage using NCR technicians in areas where Oce does not have branches. Sykes Enterprises has helped to expand and optimize Oce's call center operations. As the first extensive study in S-Business Optimization, BAI and AFSMI conducted an independent and objective analysis of the survey results of approximately 200 small, medium and large service organizations.  To determine the best-in-class for the latest in service optimization, 13 service metrics were evaluated.  Oce received top ratings on the following measures: --   Call initial response time --   Total call closure time --   Efficiency of field force ratio (ratio of direct service time to total service time available) --   Average completed calls per day per field engineer --   Logistics operating costs as a percent of total costs --   Parts DOA (dead on arrival) when received in field from logistics --   Percent of calls or orders closed incomplete or extended due to a lack of parts --   Fill rate of logistics pipeline (central, regional, local) --   No trouble found (NTF) percent of returned materials at depots --   Inventory turnover --   Profit margin as a percent of revenue --   Service revenue contribution to corporate revenue --   Service profit contribution to corporate revenue We set stringent criteria for judging participating service organizations, and Oce excelled across the board, said Michael R. Blumberg, Chief Operating Officer at D.F. Blumberg Associates, Inc.  As companies continue to weather today's tough business climate, it's becoming more and more critical that they increase customer satisfaction, and therefore profitability, through a stronger focus on strategic service.  Oce is an excellent role model because they have invested heavily in process and technology to optimize their service and support delivery.