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Xplor Recognizes 2009 Award Winners

Monday 16. February 2009 - Lifetime Achievement, Innovator and Technology Application of the Year Award Winners Recognized at Thursday Ceremony

Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today recognized the recipients of its annual 2009 awards. The three annual Xplor Awards recognize the individual Lifetime Achievement, Innovator and Technology Application of the Year and will be presented at Xplor’s opening ceremony on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at the Xplor Global Conference and Exhibition in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Lifetime Achievement Award—this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, formed in 2007, goes to Max Pucher, founder and Chief Architect at ISIS Papyrus Software. Pucher’s career reflects a record of achievement, ingenuity and leadership within the digital document industry since the founding of ISIS Papyrus Software in 1988, a $100 (USD) million global software business serving Fortune 1000 companies. Max was one of the first individuals to become an AFP expert in Europe and went on to invent ISIS AFP-Designer that fully emulates IBM OGL and PPFA formats. Max also holds various software patents in the area of machine learning as well as an author of two controversial novels on artificial intelligence. Max Pucher joins Frank Delfer and Brain Platte, whom Xplor’s Lifetime Achievement Award is named in honor of the former CTO of IBM and also known as the father of AFP.

Innovator of the Year Award— each year, Xplor International recognizes an individual or organization in the Xplor community that has made a significant contribution to the electronic document systems industry. This year, the award is being presented to Océ North America for the Océ JetStream full color ink jet printer with integrated MICR. The Océ JetStream is a powerful combination of multi-level printing, speed, quality, ink, MICR and media options unmatched in today’s high-speed-inkjet market. Introduced less than a year ago, the high-speed Océ JetStream full-color inkjet product family has redefined productivity and quality standards for ultra-high-volume variable data production printing.

Due to the large number and high quality of award submissions, honorable mentions in the Innovator of the Year Award category will also be given to Prinova Technologies for their “messagepoint” product and DocuLynx, Inc. for their Mercury Web software.

Technology Application Award—Xplor also recognizes organizations for their imaginative application of current technology that establishes an industry’s direction. For the first time, Xplor recognizes three organizations, which in the true spirit of Xplor, came together to develop a transpromo campaign aimed at promoting targeted, personalized imagery and messaging, designed to drive fall reservations as well as increase awareness for the world’s largest hotel chain’s co-branded credit card. The eight-week pilot campaign encouraged hotel guests to stay during a set time period to earn double points or miles, which could be used on free nights, airline miles, gas cards and more. Within just a four-week lead-time, the team comprised of InfoPrint Solutions Company, GMC Software Technology and client Best Western International, though the CMO Council’s Precision Promotional Campaign, identified a target group of 100,000 Best Western customers, half serving at the “control group” receiving their usual rewards statements with the other half receiving personalized color transpromo statements.

As a result, Best Western experienced significant results in just eight weeks, highlighting the effectiveness of the transpromo campaign. The transpromo group drove 15 percent more registrations from the mailing versus those in the control group. More than one third (39 percent) of that group then went on to stay at a Best Western location after signing up for the promotion, stayed for a longer duration than the control group and generated 30 percent more in incremental revenue during their stay. The most surprising increase came from the applications for the Best Western credit card, an amazing 500 percent over the control group.

In addition to InfoPrint Solutions Company, GMC Software Technology and Best Western International award winners, honorable mentions in this category will be given to Pitney Bowes Business Insight, for their e-mail and SMS application utilizing the e-Messaging solution and ISIS Papyrus for their energy bill application utilizing the ISIS Papyrus platform.

All award winners will be honored at Xplor’s Award Ceremony, Thursday, March 5, 2009 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at the Xplor Global Conference and Exhibition in Tampa Bay, Florida. In addition, the Xplorer of the Year, President’s and Chairman’s Award winner will also be recognized.