Our company was solidly profitable in 2009, underscoring the strength of our business model and our ability to manage through worldwide economic uncertainty and pressures within our own industry. While revenues were down, we performed well by other measures. We exceeded our guidance for free cash flow. We were also able to retire $242 million in debt and reduce selling, general and administrative expenses by more than $170 million even while continuing to invest in the business. In a remarkable record of consistency, we were also able to increase an already attractive dividend for the 28th consecutive year. These were all significant achievements.
Equally important, we staked out territory in attractive new markets and launched innovative products and services. We are demonstrating to the marketplace that Pitney Bowes is broadening its value proposition, from simply making customers more productive to also helping them drive revenue growth.
We are moving to establish ourselves as the one company that integrates every customer touch point: mail, the Web, mobile devices, even retail locations. By doing so, we are creating new opportunities for ourselves and our customers. That is the message of our cover: Every connection is a new opportunity.
Mail is a vital business tool for our customers, so profitable growth within our mailing businesses is fundamental to our strategy. At the same time, we are aggressively exploring faster-growing markets not solely dependent on physical mail, areas where our expertise and credibility give us special advantages. Three of the most promising are customer communication management, secure transactions, and records and information management.
Customer communication management (CCM) combines two critical functions: understanding what drives customer buying decisions, then applying that insight to communicating and transacting business using whatever channel the customer prefers — mail, the Web, a mobile device or a retail location. By combining our traditional expertise in mail, data quality, and secure transactions with newer capabilities like location intelligence and predictive analytics, our CCM portfolio offers unique value to the marketplace.
We are also leveraging our expertise in data encryption and funds management to expand our presence in secure transactions to new settings and new services. Some of the biggest names in online retailing use our e-commerce solutions to reach international customers, and this year we added 50 countries to our network. A growing number of corporate, university and retail customers have been purchasing our self-service mail-and-shipping kiosks, recognizing them as a convenience for their employees and students and a traffic-builder for their stores.
Records and information management (RIM), our third area of focus, draws on our document-processing expertise as well as the deep industry knowledge we have gained from years of providing vertical market solutions and consulting services. RIM has long been a key component of risk management in highly regulated environments. Today its importance spans virtually every industry. Customers who already rely on us to manage and process millions of documents are now also turning to us for comprehensive RIM solutions that improve access, protect assets and facilitate regulatory compliance. We were recently named one of the world's top 100 outsourcing service providers by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, marking our fourth straight year on the list.
