BLI Announces Winter 2014 Award Winners in Solutions

Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI), the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging hardware and software, today announced its Winter 2014 “Pick” and “Outstanding Achievement” award recipients in the document imaging solutions category. Bestowed twice a year by the editors of BLI, these awards honor the most impressive solutions evaluated by BLI during the previous six months. Solutions from Brother, Canon, Nuance, Ricoh and Xerox were selected as standouts in their respective categories from among the dozens of eligible products.

The winners among document imaging solutions are:
Brother International Corporation
Web Connect
Outstanding Achievement in Innovation

Canon U.S.A., Inc.
imageWARE Remote
Outstanding MPS Solution

uniFLOW v5.2
Outstanding Output Management Solution

Nuance Communications, Inc.
OmniPage cSDK
Outstanding Achievement in Innovation

OmniPage Ultimate
Outstanding OCR Solution

Ricoh Americas Corporation
GlobalScan NX Server Edition 2
Outstanding Document Capture and Routing Solution

Personal Paperless Document Manager 3
Outstanding Desktop Document Management Solution

Xerox Corporation
Mobile Print Solution 2
Outstanding Enterprise Mobile Print Solution

Scan to PC Desktop Professional 12
Outstanding Desktop Document Management Solution

“All products look good on paper, but it’s no easy feat to be a standout in your category after exhaustive hands-on evaluation,” said BLI Senior Editor Jamie Bsales. “These ‘Pick’ and ‘Outstanding Achievement’ award honorees proved themselves in BLI’s lab to be among the best in their fields thanks to a winning mix of productivity-enhancing features, value for the dollar, ease of use for end users and IT administrators, and other key attributes.”

Brother Web Connect Brings the Cloud and the MFP Together
With Web Connect, end users can quickly scan paper documents at the MFP and deliver them to services including SkyDrive, Box, Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox, Facebook, Picasa and Flickr. “This is a wider array of services than is supported by any scan-to-cloud MFP feature BLI has seen to date,” noted Bsales. “Users can also print files from those services, download files from the cloud to storage media on the MFP, or upload files from such media onto the services.”
“More and more of our customers are taking advantage of the cloud to store and share critical business information,” said Brother Vice President of Marketing John Wandishin. “Brother is committed to providing convenient access to leading cloud services from our all-in-ones and scanners, to support the rapidly evolving need for end-user mobility,” he added. “Our exclusive Web Connect interface provides intuitive, direct access to popular cloud storage sites, right from a Brother machine—without the use of a computer. We thank BLI for recognizing our dedication to customer-focused innovation.”

Canon Solutions Remain Impressive in Latest Versions
Two entries from Canon—imageWARE Remote and uniFLOW—are repeat BLI “Pick” award recipients, with the previously tested versions of each also having been recognized. Canon imageWARE Remote is a comprehensive fleet management platform designed for the manufacturer’s authorized dealers and service providers. Tested in version 4.4 by BLI, this solution automates meter read collection, enables remote diagnostics for consumables status and device warnings and errors, and much more—all at no cost.
“Having evaluated imageWARE Remote twice before, we can say without hesitation that it has evolved into one of the preeminent fleet management platforms available to equipment resellers and MPS providers,” said BLI Associate Editor Carl Schell. “Along with improving comprehension of device usage and aiding in equipment rightsizing, imageWARE Remote gives service providers the tools to be proactive rather than reactive—crucial in today’s rapidly changing business world. At the end of the day, the solution benefits customers, as remote support reduces downtime and lowers costs.”

“Canon is pleased to be recognized by the BLI Winter ‘Pick’ awards not only for our hardware products, but for our solution offerings as well,” said Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager of marketing for Canon U.S.A.’s Business Imaging Solutions Group “Our managed document service offerings are designed to increase business efficiency, and imageWARE Remote is no exception. In the event of a printer error or jam, it delivers sufficient data for the service provider to make a technical dispatch decision without needing to involve the customer.”

uniFLOW V5.2 is an extensive and feature-rich solution that addresses a number of output management needs. More than a dozen dedicated modules are available to handle document security, print routing, scan routing, print management, mobile printing, and cost control/recovery, among other needs.

“The breadth of output management needs uniFLOW v5.2 can fulfill makes it unique among document imaging solutions BLI has tested to date,” said BLI’s Bsales. “The modular nature of the platform means customers can tailor the product to their particular situation, paying only for the functionality they need and adding additional capabilities as needs evolve and budgets allow. Indeed, the key advantage of uniFLOW is that it allows customers to have a single, unified solution to handle a range of tasks that would otherwise require multiple software packages.”

“Our customers have used and praised our uniFLOW solution and uniFLOW v5.2 strongly builds on this legacy, helping them continue to reduce costs and improve productivity,” said Canon’s Yoshida. “Canon is extremely pleased that the BLI Winter ‘Pick’ awards have also recognized the solution’s effectiveness.  uniFLOW v5.2 can be scaled to fit an organization of any size, providing effective controls over their entire printer and multifunction printer fleet.”

Nuance’s OCR Proves Impressive in all its Forms
OCR technology is what turns static image files, such as scanned documents, into electronic file formats (Microsoft Word and Excel, or searchable PDF, for example) that can be searched and edited by end users. And Nuance’s OmniPage OCR engine has proven itself to be second to none. Two iterations of the engine—one for developers and one for end users—are being honored with awards from the editors at BLI.

With the OmniPage cSDK, Nuance has put its OmniPage OCR engine into the hands of application developers and has enabled partners to develop MFP-based solutions that can create searchable, editable documents for end users. For example, the OmniPage engine powers partner solutions that allow users to capture hardcopy documents at the MFP and enable the delivery of editable documents to a range of online storage and collaboration services. The OCR processing happens in the cloud, so there is no need for the customer to have a desktop- or server-resident OCR solution to handle the processing and delivery. The OmniPage cSDK’s impressive array of available output formats and class-leading OCR accuracy helped garner it a Winter 2014 “Outstanding Achievement in Innovation” award.

Nuance OmniPage Ultimate is a desktop program that gives end users the ability to convert static images and captured documents, including complex forms, into editable digital documents, saving users from having to manually recreate them.

“Nuance OmniPage Ultimate gives credence to its name by offering ultimate desktop OCR functionality,” noted BLI Senior Editor Lisa Reider. “It includes all of the features buyers of an OCR solution are likely to need. In addition to its higher than average accuracy rate when scanning BLI’s color documents, the latest version offers automatic camera image detection, support for the ePub e-reader file format, enhanced text-to-speech tools for turning documents into audio files, and several conversion and accuracy improvements.”
“OCR solutions are a critical component of a strategic document management workflow process that increases security, productivity and efficiency while reducing costs,” said Jeff Segarra, senior director of product management for Nuance Communications. “Nuance OmniPage cSDK and OmniPage Ultimate continue to deliver the industry’s premier OCR solutions. As these awards from BLI illustrate, no one can match our OCR solutions in head-to-head comparisons for their accuracy, breadth of features and workflow integration, making it the pre-eminent OCR solution for enterprise deployments.”

Ricoh Repeats with GlobalScan and PPDM
Also returning to the BLI “Pick” winners circle are Ricoh’s GlobalScan NX Server and Personal Paperless Document Manager (PPDM) solutions. GlobalScan NX is a scan capture, processing and routing solution that allows end users to incorporate paper and electronic documents into an organization’s electronic workflows. Administrators can create specialized scanning workflows—accessed by end users via intuitive one-touch icons on the MFP’s touch screen—to automate the distribution of critical documents, which streamlines internal communication and reduces the risk of manual errors.

“Ricoh’s GlobalScan NX Server is a very strong solution for organizations that need customizable, easy-to-use document capture, processing and routing abilities for critical functions such as accounts payable, human resources and general business process automation,” explained BLI’s Bsales. “Programmable document workflows can be associated with customizable one-touch buttons on the MFP’s control panel, hiding the complexity from walk-up users. This not only increases productivity and efficiency, but also minimizes the training needed for employees to accomplish scanning tasks.”

Ricoh PPDM combines three core functions—desktop document management, OCR and PDF creation—into a single package. Routing options are plentiful: Scanned images can be sent directly to Microsoft SharePoint and other ODMA-compliant databases, as well as email applications, network folders, FTP sites, mobile devices and cloud services. The program can even create files compatible with Amazon Kindle e-readers or convert text to audio files for playback on popular audio players.

“Ricoh has upped the stakes with this latest iteration of PPDM, and it should now meet the expectations of most buyers seeking a complete document capture and desktop document management solution,” said BLI’s Reider.

“Making the right information available when and where it’s needed is a key requirement for our customers,” said Jason Dizzine, vice president, Technology Marketing, Ricoh Americas Corporation. “We call it ‘information mobility’ and the two Ricoh solutions chosen for BLI’s Winter 2014 ‘Pick’ awards directly address that growing need.”

Xerox Garners Two Solutions Product Awards and More
A pair of Xerox solutions, Mobile Print Solution 2 and Scan to PC Desktop Professional 12, have won awards in their respective categories. And announced separately, the company also took home honors as BLI’s “2014 Document Imaging Solutions Line of the Year” award recipient.

Increased use of mobile devices as a part of everyday workflows has boosted the need for enterprises to provide their employees with an easy way to print on the go. While some organizations opt for standalone apps, many are turning to enterprise mobile print solutions as a way to provide access to an entire print fleet rather than a subset of devices. Xerox Mobile Print Solution 2 seeks to address that need by delivering print functionality from any mobile device to any output device on the network, regardless of the printer’s brand or age.

“Xerox Mobile Print shines by offering compatibility with output devices from any manufacturer, a marked advantage over single-user OEM mobile print apps that only work with only a subset of the maker’s own devices,” explained BLI Managing Editor Daria Hoffman. “What’s more, unlike other tested solutions, Xerox Mobile Print allows printing to devices located at multiple sites, which is convenient for organizations with offices in multiple cities.”

“The marketplace is demanding seamless integration between  mobile devices and peripherals MFP’s/printers – and we’ve taken the mystery and anxiety out of wireless printing so our customers can stay focused on their jobs and not worry about the technology,” said Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Marketing manager, Global Office Products and Solutions, Office and Solutions Business Group, Xerox. “Buyers Lab’s selection of the Xerox Mobile Print Solution as their Outstanding Enterprise Mobile Print Solution is a solid endorsement of our product.”

Xerox Scan to PC Desktop Professional is a desktop productivity suite that is designed to reduce or eliminate paper-based processes in everyday business environments, help better organize digital documents and, ultimately, bring about more efficiency in the workplace. Scan to PC Desktop’s class-leading range of features includes one-touch custom scan workflows, advanced image editing tools to clean up documents, the ability to preview scans before routing, and all-in-one search capability (which allows users to find virtually any document in the system through text searches). The package also provides industry-standard PDF creation, batch scan capabilities, send-to-fax and the ability to accept files from a digital camera.

“Xerox understands customers are looking for ways to reduce their printing and streamline everyday processes. Our Scan to PC Desktop solution was designed to do exactly that,” said  Bhattacharya. “BLI’s recognition will be important to our customers who are looking for ways to simplify work. Xerox’s Scan to PC offers an all-in-one solution package that can fit into any type of business environment. This allows a novice or an advanced user to find cost and efficiency savings very quickly.”

(Source: BLI)