TORONTO, ONTARIO--IBM Printing Systems, Pitney Bowes and Roll Systems have received top ratings in a new study of leading Canadian document factories released by Prinova Technologies, Inc. The largest study of its kind in North America, the Document Factory Survey captures customer satisfaction ratings for each supplier based on quality of equipment, sales and pre-sales support, service, maintenance and overall relationship. The top supplier again this year was IBM, with highest capacity share, monthly volume share and customer satisfaction. Pitney Bowes had highest customer satisfaction among inserter suppliers, while Roll Systems had the highest customer satisfaction among finishing suppliers. "Very little is known about supplier satisfaction,'' said Prinova President Nick Romano, Professional Engineer. "Yet this is critical information for operations managers and others who are evaluating companies for long-term relationships and significant capital investments. One of our survey objectives was to quantify supplier satisfaction, along with identifying equipment and trends in the industry.'' Ratings are based on overall satisfaction and whether companies would do business with the supplier again. Other vendors included in the survey were Hewlett-Packard, Oce and Xerox for printing; Bell & Howell, Bowe and Kern for inserting; and finishing equipment suppliers Moore and Stralfors. The Prinova Document Factory Survey studied 40 of the top 50 mailing centres in Canada, including billing services, government agencies, utilities, retailers, telecommunications and financial institution sites. Total capacity of sites surveyed was 3.3 billion pages and 1.1 billion documents, representing 60 to 70 percent of the machine-driven letter mail in the Canadian market. Most of the volume goes through print-for-profit service bureaus that either support the general marketplace or focuson financial services. The research surveyed 371 devices involved in document factory processes including printing, finishing and inserting. IBM equipment accounted for 50 percent of monthly print volume, with a 62 percent share of hourly capacity. The IBM 3900 print system led print device inventory with 31 installs. Pitney Bowes had 50 percent monthly inserter volume share and 51 percent inserter capacity share, followed closely by Bell & Howell. Roll Systems captured 59 percent of the finishing equipment inventory of cutters, folders/separators and unwinders. The accompanying chart provides a sample of the results of the Prinova research. Companies interested in more detailed information about the Prinova 2001 Document Factory Survey should contact William Broddy at 416-410-8956 ext. 220 [email protected], or via cell 416-580-8956.