Sostilio Forms New Consulting and Research Company for Office Equipment Market

32-year veteran analyst and manager forms group to provide strategic analyses for office equipment products, technologies, distribution and support programs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sostilio Forms New Consulting and Research Company for Office Equipment Market

32-year veteran analyst and manager forms group to provide strategic analyses
for office equipment products, technologies, distribution and support programs

OCALA, Fla., February 1, 2002 -- Office equipment industry analyst Bob Sostilio has formed Sostilio & Associates International (SAI) to provide office equipment manufacturers and resellers with highly accurate and straightforward products and market analyses.

SAI will focus on black and white and color copiers; laser and inkjet printers; facsimiles, networkable multifunctional peripherals, digital duplicators and document management software.

SAI services will include strategic analyses of evolving technologies, studies of end-user acceptance issues, and product launch preparation, including planning and implementation. The company will also create strategic business plans to increase market penetration, develop methods to migrate sales strategies and analyze of marketing and product plans.

SAI has been formed to provide manufacturers and resellers with a more up-to-date model and a more useful understanding of the market within which they operate. The office equipment market is becoming more complex by the day," said Sostilio. The conventional approaches of looking out five years and making assumptions no longer applies. End user attitudes can change direction suddenly. Today, the end-users chief priority may be to optimize an existing investment in digital equipment. At the same time manufacturers and resellers want to sell more new equipment. Reconciling these attitudes is critical. I expect to be working with manufacturers and resellers who want to immediately improve their ROI and channel growth by taking advantage of converging functionalities."

Bob Sostilio has 32 years in the office equipment industry, holding senior management positions with leading manufacturers and research and publishing organizations. Most recently he was the senior group service director at CAP Ventures a market research firm where he established and managed the Converging Digital Peripheral Service of North America and Europe. At CAP Ventures he also established the multifunction market segmentation by environment and core functionality. Joining CAP Ventures in July of 1996 he managed teams of industry analysts and senior consultants in the U.S. and Europe, focusing on conducting research in the area of convergence of office equipment. Along with managing client inquiries and providing customized consulting on black and white and color digital copiers, facsimile, network printers and multifunctional devices, his Converging Digital Peripheral Service provided forecasts of unit sales, populations and other trends in the personal, workgroup and production environments in the US and Europe

Mr. Sostilio has expertise in strategic planning, manufacturing, marketing, service, product development and product planning within the office automation market, including copiers, printers, duplicators and multifunctional products. Prior to joining CAP Ventures, he held several positions at Ricoh Corp., including director of strategic planning, director of product marketing and product program manager. At Ricoh he organized and managed the initial launching of high-speed analog, digital full color, and workgroup multifunctional copier-based products.

Prior to his tenure with Ricoh, Mr. Sostilio was the associate director at Dataquest's Copying and Duplicating Industry Service, and national OEM manager for Panasonic Industrial Company's Office Automation Group. He was also senior product manager at Kyocera Mita, national copier service manager for Monroe Systems for Business, copier service manager for Cybernet International, international service manager for Saxon Export Corp. and product assurance manager for Saxon Copystatics.

SAI is headquartered in Ocala, Florida. Robert Sostilio can be reached at
Sostilio & Associates International, Inc.
                PO Box 830190
                Ocala, Florida 34483-0190
                Tel: 352-624-2625     Fax: 352-624-0910
                email: sostilio@flash.net

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