Boston, MA, Booth #647, March 4, 2008 – InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced a new solution that will enable large mailers to continue to receive postal discounts on automated mailings by replacing current POSTNET barcodes with the new Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB). This is a mailing solution that allows transactional mailers to make these barcode replacements without changing their base applications or over spraying finished envelopes to continue to benefit from the automated discounts from the United States Postal Service (USPS).

IMB is being introduced to improve mail tracking and give mailers continuous updates on the location and status of each mailpiece. This tracking system not only applies during the delivery process to the customer, but also responds with initial entry data if a return service is requested.

Large mailers, including financial, healthcare, telecommunications and insurance companies, currently receive a discount on each automated mailpiece sent ranging from $0.03 to $0.23. Without upgrading to support IMB by the time specified by the USPS , these companies will no longer be eligible to receive their postage discounts, which could exceed $1M per month for many large companies. This is currently proposed to be implemented in May 2009, concurrent with the next annual USPS price change. The May 2009 implementation will include separate prices for the full-service and basic option and the Postnet Barcode will remain eligible for an automation price until May 2010.

InfoPrint's IMB offering allows current and new customers to insert a Utility software module into their existing AFP print-preparation job stream, which can be operating under either z/OS-MVS, AIX or Windows platforms. Current applications used by large transactional mailers do not have to change as InfoPrint provides one, centralized capability to enable IMB printing.

"As postal rates continue to increase, the size of each document decreases and the content included becomes more valuable," said Humberto Prospero, Director of TransPromo Solutions for InfoPrint. "Many of our customers distribute more than one billion mailpieces annually, and postal discounts are key to their bottom line. InfoPrint's IMB offering is an extremely valuable tool to enable customers to begin tracking the ROI produced from each piece of mail that is issued."

The InfoPrint IMB offering includes:

    * InfoPrint IMB Utility – a standalone, independent module that cost-effectively and quickly replaces the POSTNET barcode with the IMB in print ready AFP datastreams. The Utility operates in the z/OS-MVS, AIX or Windows environments and is supported by InfoPrint Solutions.

Future offerings that build upon the ability to introduce the IMB will focus on Address Change Service (ACS) and OneCode Confirm.

InfoPrint also announced today its TransPromo Solutions Suite which is comprised of leading-edge hardware and software solutions along with the launch of the InfoPrint TransPromo Consulting Practice. The Practice offers customers the consulting and professional services required to enable their transition to a true TransPromo environment and to ensure its ongoing success. InfoPrint's IMB offering adds another layer to this Suite by providing large mailers an upgradeable solution to help them increase the value of their mail.