Gary M. Siegel, President, Anchor Software

Gary Siegel is responsible for directing Anchor Software’s overall operations including marketing, sales, product planning and development.

He has extensive accomplishments as a senior corporate manager and has held various chief executive positions in the information sciences and direct mail/marketing industries. Prior to his tenure with Anchor Software, Mr. Siegel was President and owner of Vista Systems, Inc., a company that provided direct mail and Internet based database management solutions, e-commerce applications, and direct mail production services.

As a senior executive at Comnet Corporation, Mr. Siegel’s vision was instrumental in establishing and leading the effort, as President of Group1 Software Corporation, to become a leading provider of computer software for the direct mail and marketing industry. His efforts were instrumental in establishing Group1 as a public corporation with worldwide sales in excess of $80 million annually.

While President of Computer Network Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Comnet Corporation, which specialized in computer time-sharing and professional services, Mr. Siegel established the strategic plan and organization that led to awards of major Federal Government and commercial contracts including the then largest outsourcing contract to provide data processing and related services for the General Services Administration (GSA), as well as contracts with the Department of Transportation, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Justice, Department of Education, and the U.S. Navy. Computer Network Systems was later sold to Mr. Siegel and other investors. To capitalize on the expanding capabilities of Computer Network Systems, Mr. Siegel established a new company; Pinnacle Software Corporation that successfully provided software solutions for newly developed ink-jet technology as well as performance and capacity planning products for various computer platforms and operating systems.

Tell us your view of XPLOR.

Due to the high level of attendance by the business community we service and since we offer integrated solutions for every aspect of mail management, data enhancement and, of course, document design and printing, the XPLOR Conference is the best forum to present Anchor Software’s products to the marketplace. In this challenging economy we feel that our complete line of software products offers the best alternatives to meet the overall needs of our clients in the most cost effective fashion.

What’s new with Anchor’s products?

Anchor developers have been working diligently to develop enhancements to our fully integrated line of software products for mail management and document creation. Most notable has been the release of MaxPrint 2.0, which includes many enhancements to our premier WYSIWYG document design system, which was introduced as a newly developed document design system in 2000. In addition, we recently provided a new full release of our entire SBS system including easier using GUIs, and many enhancements to our USPS PAVE Gold Certified Presort to complement our USPS CASS Certified address standardization package.

What are the features of MaxPrint 2.0?

Using the 100% WYSIWYG MaxDesigner Module, users can design documents with no additional programming required. Documents that are designed with the MaxDesigner can be modified using the MaxPrint Script Language, which is automatically generated at the time of document design. This unique feature optionally permits fine adjustments to the design that was created. MaxDesigner also offers such features as 360 degree rotation in 1% increments, any barcode, any font, sizing in tenths, archiving in PDF, variable graphics and automatic adjusting and sizing – just to name a few.

With the MaxViewer Module, you can view the actual documents, including the data for proofing prior to printing.

Additionally, with the MaxOperator Module, print jobs are controlled and protected from inadvertent operator error and using the MaxEmail Module, you can send, via e-mail, over the Internet, the exact document you print.

Specifically, what will be happening at your booth?

Anchor’s staff welcomes all attendees to demonstrations of our entire line of software products (Booth #2151), which aside from document design, printing, CASS and presort also include our very popular Do-Alls and General Purpose Utilities for just about any routine needed to process files and information prior to printing. Anchor also offers solutions for on-line interactive Address Standardization, in-house USPS FastForward change of address processing, file conversion, merge-purge and an assortment of data cleansing systems.

Tell us about the technical support new customers can expect from Anchor Software.

To meet the needs of our customers, we staff a broad array of computer professionals for technical support, training, and equipment resolution. Since our product development and technical support are entirely based in the United States, we provide 24 hour 7 days a week support by calling 800-826-4787. Training is provided either in a classroom environment at our facility, or at a customers site, as requested.

How do you compare your offerings to niche companies who focus on one area of document management?

Unlike most of our competitors, Anchor offers a total solution as opposed to organizations that may only offer document preparation and print systems or only portions of mail management or utility systems. This advantage provides users with the opportunity to work with one software company as opposed to many. That in turn provides a cohesive relationship with our customers that translate into better products and service at a lower cost.

What about those who claim they have features not found in MaxPrint?

Since Mirus (which was later acquired by Anchor) was the first company to offer PC based solutions in our marketplace, experience in developing and supporting our products is proven. Even though certain competitors claim that their WYSIWYG capability is unique, the transition from our LetterWriter to development of MaxPrint was a natural one that affords our customers the ability to take advantage of their knowledge and use of LetterWriter with a minimal learning curve. While the competition claims to be unique in providing advanced features and other capabilities that are not available with MaxPrint, we provide those capabilities – and more. Notable is the fact that MaxPrint efficiently data streams documents to optimize the speed of the printers and works extremely well with TCP/IP connections as well as bus and tag; and works with a large array of printers (i.e. PCL5/6, Oce, Xerox, Xeikon, etc.) and handles TIFF, PCX, BMP, AFP, PDF, IDPS, Xerox Spot color, postscript and full color.

Overall, give us your view on current business conditions for Anchor and are your LetterWriter customers converting to MaxPrint at a satisfactory pace?

Our revenues have increased, we are adding new customers for all of our products every month, and we’ve successfully upgraded many of our LetterWriter customers to MaxPrint. The acquisition of Mirus by Anchor has added technical know-how for software development as well as presence in additional geographic locations. We currently have offices in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Texas, and Florida.

Even though we recognize the recent tragic events and the overall condition of the economy will affect all business segments, since we intend to provide the best solutions for our customers, we anticipate significant growth in 2002.