Bowne & Co. - Document Management - Category Directory

212-924-5500

345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014

www.bowne.com

Sales

$1.1 billion

Business Description

Bowne & Co., Inc., established in 1775, is a global provider of high-value document management services. The Company has grown from a financial printing company to an integrated document and information management company. The Company is the world’s largest financial printer, a market leader in outsourcing document management services for law firms and investment banks and a market leader in providing globalization, localization and translation services. The Company built its diversified business in the following three segments:

Financial Print — Historically Bowne’s principal segment, it encompasses:

Outsourcing / Document Management — This segment consists of Bowne Business Solutions (“BBS”), which provides on-site document management services for law firms, financial institutions and large companies that choose to outsource these functions. The outsourced services that BBS offers cover the spectrum from basic document reproduction and distribution services, to medium skilled services such as word processing and desktop publishing, to highly technical and specialized services such as litigation consulting. The Bowne document management segment generated revenue of $254.7 million in 2003 and $233.9 million in 2002, representing approximately 24% and 23% of total revenue, respectively. Outsourcing generated segment profit of $14.0 million and $15.6 million in 2003 and 2002, respectively.

The Company’s document management outsourcing business has greatly expanded since 1998 through acquisitions, and Bowne Business Solutions has grown to become the industry leader in providing outsourcing services primarily to the legal and financial services communities. BBS has sought to expand its business to existing and new clients by broadening the range of services that it provides. BBS is also growing its existing customer base through increased penetration of the legal and investment banking industries. Furthermore, BBS seeks to expand its business through its efforts to reach potential clients in new industries, such as the consulting and pharmaceutical industries.

The Company’s outsourcing services include:
• on-site management of document creation, reproduction and distribution operations at its clients’ facilities, and off-site backup of those same services;
• specialized applications of graphics and presentation technologies, such as pitch books, charting, flow charts, conceptual diagrams and maps and multimedia applications such as animation, video and sound;
• information technology management, desktop support services, data center support, technical training and telephone system support; and
• litigation support services, including litigation resource management, which involves ongoing case and project management; electronic data discovery processing; litigation software application support and training; document imaging, optical character recognition, coding and high-speed, high-volume printing; custom database management; creation and implementation of litigation support procedures best practices; creation and conversion of PDF files; and creation of CD-ROMs.

BBS’s acquisition of DecisionQuest in December 2002 allowed the Company to deliver litigation support services spanning the entire “litigation lifecycle”TM, from inception of the case through trial. These additional services include trial consulting and jury research, advanced strategic communications and marketing, courtroom graphics and presentation technologies, litigation support and case evaluation software, and custom case strategy Web sites.

Outsourcing allows BBS clients to focus on their core businesses, gain access to the latest in technological innovations without making direct investments, and reduce the operating costs of investing in and managing non-core business activities. Initially, the Company must earn the confidence and trust of its clients by demonstrating its competency, efficiency and quality of service in the more basic functions. Once BBS has proven its reliability, the Company believes that many of its clients become more comfortable with outsourcing other more skilled and complex functions to them.

A joint venture agreement with Williams Lea, one of the United Kingdom’s leading providers of document management solutions, has helped BBS to extend its services to Europe and Asia. Together, BBS and Williams Lea provide global outsourcing services to multinational corporations, international law firms, commercial and investment banks, and financial institutions around the globe.

• Bowne Financial Print, the Company’s traditional financial printing services and the world’s largest financial printer, offers a comprehensive array of transactional and compliance-related services to create, manage, translate and distribute documents. Bowne provides these services to its clients in connection with capital market and corporate transactions, such as equity and debt issuances and mergers and acquisitions, which the Company calls “transactional financial printing”. Bowne also provides these services to public corporations and mutual fund clients in connection with the fulfillment of their compliance obligations to produce and deliver periodic and other reports under applicable laws and regulations, as well as in connection with general commercial and other printing needs.

• Bowne Enterprise Solutions (“BES”), the Company’s newest financial printing business, provides a communications solution that gives its clients an efficient and cost-effective system for producing and delivering personalized and customized communications to their customers. From desktop editing to digital on-demand printing, Bowne offers the capability for “just-in-time” delivery of communications that can be both individually personalized by the client and professionally produced and distributed.

Overall, the financial print segment generated revenue of $590.9 million in 2003 and $638.3 million in 2002, representing approximately 55% and 64% of total revenue, respectively. The Company’s financial print segment generated segment profit of $61.9 million and $66.6 million in 2003 and 2002, respectively. The Company’s segment profit is measured as gross margin (revenue less cost of revenue) less selling and administrative expenses. The largest class of service in this segment, transactional financial printing, accounted for $244.7 million, or 23% of total 2003 Company revenue.

Globalization — This segment consists of Bowne Global Solutions (“BGS”), which provides globalization, interpretation, translation, localization and technical writing services to adapt the Company’s clients’ products and communications for use in targeted countries in a manner that is both translated to the specific dialect for the target region and culturally appropriate. The globalization segment generated revenue of $219.2 million in 2003 and $131.2 million in 2002, representing approximately 21% and 13% of total revenue, respectively. Globalization generated a segment profit of $13.1 million for 2003 and a segment loss of $4.4 million in 2002.

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