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The presses at Bowne & Co. Inc., the largest printer of financial documents in the United States, have been running for more than two centuries. Printing prospectuses, financial statements and other legal documents have been Bowne's bread and butter since 1775, one year before the Declaration of Independence was signed. But since Chairman and CEO Robert Johnson arrived at Bowne in 1996, that's all started to change. Through acquisitions and investments in Internet technology, Johnson has begun laying the groundwork for the day when Bowne will not have to rely on keeping its presses running to keep its revenue flowing-and with good cause. The growth prospects for financial printing are limited, and many traditional products are moving online.
By law, public companies and providers of financial instruments such as mutual funds are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to print prospectuses and other financial data for investors. The SEC now requires public companies and those filing IPOs to file electronically through EDGAR, the SEC's site for securities filings, but still mandates that they print financial documents as well.
Bowne is the largest provider of EDGAR filings and does twice the number of filings of its two closest competitors--Merrill Corp. and R.R. Donnelley & Sons--according to investment bank Nesbitt Burns Inc. Nesbitt Burns says Bowne is the leader, with 39 percent of market share. In June, Bowne performed the first EDGAR II filings, which will allow for the publishing of financial data on the Internet in HTML and PDF formats.
Since arriving at Bowne, Johnson has moved to transform the company from a traditional printer into a high-tech provider of document creation and distribution services. And yes, even Bowne's presses, which Johnson insists will not slow down anytime soon, are getting a makeover using intranet technology.
Bowne's distributed printing network lets employees schedule, track and distribute print jobs throughout multiple plants around the world. Bowne is in the process of rolling out a pure Web-enabled version of its project management and tracking systems, which includes workflow management. It will allow the company to distribute print jobs, so part can be run on a press in New York and another part can be printed in Atlanta. The system will be implemented worldwide over the next...