STAMFORD, Conn. - Pitney Bowes, a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, today announced the winners of its 2016 Brilliance Awards. The annual awards honor leading print and mail organizations - innovators, early adopters and creative problem solvers - who are finding new ways to streamline workflow, anticipate changes, increase competitiveness and blend physical and digital technologies to obtain the greatest value from their customer communications. The winning businesses demonstrate world-class capabilities using Pitney Bowes solutions to help achieve operational excellence, ensure industry-leading compliance, create higher value communications and deliver omni-channel customer engagement.

The 2016 Brilliance Awards winners include Barton & Cooney, FIS, HM Health Solutions and Security First Insurance. Each honoree was formally recognized today at the 2016 Pitney Bowes Innovation Summit at the company’s Global Technology Center in Danbury, Connecticut.

“We are thrilled to honor this year’s Brilliance Award winners for how they’ve embraced innovation to improve client communications, increase productivity, provide more value to their customers and grow their businesses,” said Debbie Pfeiffer, president, Pitney Bowes Presort Services. “From using the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud and Industrial Internet to improve the performance of their print and mail operations, to leveraging personalized interactive videos as part of a tightly integrated customer communications campaign, this year’s winners are changing the way businesses communicate with their customers. Their examples offer us a glimpse of the future of customer communications.”

2016 Brilliance Award Winners

Higher-Value Communications: Barton & Cooney, Burlington, New Jersey

Over the past four decades, Barton & Cooney has provided a broad range of mailing and lettershop services to local, regional and national firms and, in recent years, the company has made significant strides in growing its business. The company was recognized in the Higher-Value Communications category for providing an expanded range of printing and mailing services locally, regionally and nationally. They earned this award by successfully transforming their operation into a White Paper Factory featuring a Pitney Bowes IntelliJet 20 Printing System to create higher value communications for their existing customers and winning new business. The Pitney Bowes IntelliJet 20 printing system has allowed them to increase competitiveness, move monochrome work from toner to color lowering their costs and improving their service level. And, through “versioning on the fly,” Barton & Cooney is able to substantially reduce their clients’ postage and handling fees.

“Pitney Bowes helped us transform into a White Paper Factory operation to create higher value communications for our existing customers and win new business,” said Pat Doyle, owner and president, Barton & Cooney, “Very few companies can offer our breadth of capabilities and the White Paper Factory transition helped position Barton & Cooney as a major player in the marketplace.” Barton & Cooney has also embraced Pitney Bowes APS and Rival inserters, Client Success Services and Presort Services to improve productivity, as evidenced by operational cost savings and a 50-percent increase in throughput.

Operational Excellence: FIS, Jacksonville, Florida

FIS is a global leader in financial services technology, with a focus on retail and institutional banking, payments, asset and wealth management, risk and compliance, consulting, and outsourcing solutions. Its Output Solutions arm provides a full contingent of computer output solutions/outsourced statement printing, mailing and rendering with unparalleled technological expertise and first-rate customer service. In the Operational Excellence Category, FIS was recognized for the operational efficiencies the company has created in recent years – reducing operational costs and improving measures of control, while consistently providing quality customer service, ultimately allowing the company to expand offerings beyond the financial market.

“Operational excellence is something all high-performing companies strive for, but it is a particularly relevant topic in the high-volume mail business”, said Tom DeRosa, senior vice president, FIS Output Solutions. “We have been able to achieve operational excellence in our business thanks to the hard work of our employees and the relentless dedication to creativity and innovation at the heart of our partnership with Pitney Bowes.”

Industry Leading Compliance: HM Health Solutions, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

HM Health Solutions (HMHS) is a subsidiary of Highmark Health that provides innovative, technology-based solutions to enable health plans to achieve top-line revenue growth, reduce costs and gain economies of scale. Launched in 2014, the organization provides multiple product lines, including Medicare, Medicaid, commercial, and individual. Pitney Bowes is proud to be a key strategic partner of HMHS as it continues to grow, transitioning from an in-plant operation to a for-profit organization renowned for security, integrity and industry-leading compliance. HMHS was recognized in the Industry Leading Compliance category for its use of DC Verify file-based processing, DFWorks production workflow and productivity reporting, Client Success Services and Presort Services to stay ahead of its competition. As a demonstration of its ongoing commitment to innovation and technology, HMHS is participating in beta testing of Pitney Bowes Clarity solutions suite, a cloud-based IIoT solution for production mail available via the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud. By connecting industrial sensors, machine data, people and processes, Clarity helps clients access new intelligence to drive higher levels of operational performance. HMHS depends specifically on Clarity Advisor to proactively monitor trends and patterns in order to diagnose and resolve issues before they occur, resulting in increased runtime capacity and reduced risk of downtime.

“The Pitney Bowes Clarity Solutions Suite will improve our productivity by running diagnostic tests and preventing production issues before they occur,” said Paul Jorgensen, director of output services, HM Health Solutions, “Clarity has been instrumental in enabling us to provide the highest quality of service to our customers.

Omni-Channel Engagement: Security First Insurance, Ormond Beach, Florida

Security First Insurance is a privately held, family owned homeowners insurance company based in Ormond Beach, Florida. The company earned its recognition in the Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Category as an early adopter of Pitney Bowes EngageOne Video. As a result, the company’s net promoter score and word of mouth have increased significantly. 55 percent of new customers watch their personalized videos and more than 75 percent of those spend an average of four minutes with the technology to better understand their insurance policies. "For the first time, thanks to the EngageOne video technology, we are able to deeply engage with our customers and create a meaningful experience that resonates across demographic groups,” said Marissa Buckley, vice president of marketing, Security First Insurance. Customer service, engagement and loyalty – the already strong hallmarks of its business – are all improving. “And beyond customer engagement, Pitney Bowes’ technology has been the catalyst to shifts we’ve made culturally to embrace the confluence of information technology and marketing, which has become a requirement to survive in today’s digitally connected, always on world.” said Ben Bomhoff, vice president of enterprise systems, Security First Insurance.

The 2016 Brilliance Awards will be presented at the Pitney Bowes Innovation Summit at the Pitney Bowes Global Technology Center in Danbury, Connecticut. More than 125 clients and partners from more than 15 countries attended the Summit from April 27 – April 28.

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