November 30, 2009 – Hackensack (NJ) – Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging products and solutions, today announced its Fall 2009 “Pick” winners honoring outstanding print management, security, and device management solutions from Print Audit, Ricoh (and its Savin and Lanier brands), Canon and Samsung. BLI’s semi-annual “Pick” awards are given to the hardware and software offerings that measure up as the best in BLI’s comprehensive evaluations, which assess a wide range of the most important features and performance factors for buyers. The Fall 2009 solutions “Pick” winners are:

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Print Audit Corporation Print Audit 6 Outstanding Print Management/Cost Recovery Solution Ricoh Americas Corporation Ricoh Print Copy Scan Director 6 (Also sold as Savin Print Copy Scan Director 6 and Lanier Print Copy Scan Director 6) Outstanding Print Management/Cost Recovery Solution Canon Inc. Canon imageWARE Secure Audit Manager Outstanding Document Security Solution Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. Samsung SyncThru Admin 5 Outstanding Network Device Management Solution

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“The fastest growing market in the document imaging arena is in software solutions, but the range and sheer volume of solutions on the market, both from hardware OEMs and third-party developers, is daunting,” said BLI Managing Editor Daria Hoffman. “With this collection of ‘Pick’ winners, we’ve identified standout entries in several categories that should be of particular interest to those within an organization charged with tracking device usage, ensuring document security, and managing MFPs and printers on the network.”

Print Audit 6 Raises The Bar For Print Management Solutions
Print Audit 6 is the latest version of Print Audit Corporation’s flagship print management and cost recovery solution. Comprising a trio of modules that are sold in various bundles, Print Audit can track output sent from PCs as well as copy, scan and fax activity at MFPs on the network. Print Audit allows for accurate cost allocation and billing while also enabling businesses to monitor usage, optimize their output fleets and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). “Print Audit 6 supplies organizations with an abundance of information to help them make decisions on equipment rightsizing,” said BLI Associate Editor Carl Schell. “What’s more, administrators can configure rules-based messaging to promote cost-efficient and eco-friendly printing.” The core Print Audit software enables tracking of print output, and organizations can implement accounting of walk-up jobs at MFPs via an external terminal of MFP-embedded application available for select Ricoh family and Sharp MFPs. Advanced features include “page by page” color analysis that accurately tracks black-only and color pages in a mixed document, as well as the ability to limit color usage based on the number of color pages in a job, the device being utilized, the application being printed from, and more. In addition, Print Audit 6 delivers a range of graphical reports that can be scheduled to be run automatically and delivered to designated recipients. “We are honored to receive a Fall 2009 ‘Pick’ award from Buyers Lab,” said John MacInnes, president and CEO of Print Audit. “Winning this award and earning a 5-Star rating is a great way to launch the new version of our flagship print management solution, Print Audit 6.” Print Audit 6 earned top marks for ease of administration, ease of use, and data analysis and reporting. Print Audit 6 is sold worldwide by the dealer and direct-sales channels of equipment manufacturers as well as by select IT VARs. The company also sells the solution directly.

Ricoh Offers Flexible Print Management/Cost Recovery Solution
Ricoh Print Copy Scan (PCS) Director 6 is an extremely flexible print management and cost recovery solution. A private-label version of Print Audit Corporation’s Print Audit 6, PCS Director is also carried by Ricoh’s Lanier and Savin brands, which share in BLI’s “Pick” award. PCS Director’s various modules can track print output along with the copy, scan and fax activity centered around networked MFPs. For the latter, the company offers PCS Director Embedded for many Ricoh-family devices equipped with the company’s Embedded Software Architecture. “PCS Director 6 has copious strengths, with superb ease of administration and use at the top of the list,” said BLI’s Schell. “The solution is self-managed and nearly transparent to end-users. Adding to the package’s ROI proposition is rules-based messaging that helps organizations lower output costs and operate in a more environmentally friendly manner, plus comprehensive chargeback capabilities that lets businesses recoup hard-copy costs from clients where appropriate.” Also noteworthy are PCS Director’s “page by page” color analysis, whereby pages in a mixed color-and-black document are accurately recorded, and automation of reports that can be e-mailed to multiple users. The solution comes with 37 canned reports, while administrators can customize a virtually limitless number of other reports, all of which help with better fleet deployment, monitoring usage and reducing TCO. In BLI’s evaluation, PCS Director 6 earned impressive marks in feature set, value and ease of use. The solution is sold in North America, Latin America and the United Kingdom by Ricoh, Lanier and Savin dealers and Ricoh’s direct sales organization.

Canon imageWARE Secure Audit Manager Proactively Monitors For Document Security
Canon imageWARE Secure Audit Manager is an information-security solution that captures job log information, text data and images in a company’s print, scan, copy, fax and send job streams to create a complete audit trail of all activities centered around Canon imageRUNNER MFPs. Moreover, imageWARE Secure Audit Manager software automatically performs an OCR conversion of each file and notifies a designated administrator if particular keywords or phrases set by the administrator are detected. In that way, imageWARE Secure Audit Manager puts companies in a position to discourage the leakage of information before it occurs, and provides an audit trail of where the leak came from in the event that one does occur. The solution is designed for government, legal, finance and education practices, as well as any business or department that handles sensitive information. “Most businesses now have systems in place to protect their valuable electronic data from hackers and other outside intruders. But the bigger threat to a company’s confidential and closely held information—intellectual property, customer data, proprietary product information and other sensitive material—comes from careless or unscrupulous employees within an organization,” said BLI Associate Editor Jamie Bsales. “Canon imageWARE Secure Audit Manager is a unique solution that can audit all activity centered around imageRUNNER devices and alert the appropriate personnel within an organization should a data breach occur.” The system captures all data and images in a company’s print, copy, scan, send and fax streams, then performs OCR in the background and checks the results against any keywords or phrases set by the administrator. For example, the copying or faxing of a memo headed “Confidential” or containing the name of a product still under development could trigger an alert, and the administrator could check the job log to see the user ID and other information associated with that suspect job. The solution is completely transparent to the end user, and easy to administer thanks to Canon’s intuitive System Manager Web-based administration utility. Canon Secure Audit Manager earned top marks in the majority of areas evaluated, such as feature set, security, and customer support and training. The solution is available from the Canon Professional Services organization, Canon Business Services agents and authorized Canon equipment dealers.

Samsung SyncThru Admin 5 Makes Monitoring And Managing MFPs Easier
Samsung SyncThru Admin 5 is a network device management utility that provides network administrators and help-desk staff with centralized management, maintenance, auditing and support capabilities for networked MFPs and printers. SyncThru Admin 5 allows administrators to remotely discover devices on the network, quickly discern the status of devices and consumables, group devices for streamlined management, clone settings to like devices, distribute printer drivers over the network and update firmware. Users can also generate detailed reports showing device settings and usage. “While all of the network device management utilities BLI has evaluated deliver the same basic discovery and monitoring capabilities, advanced features vary widely from one solution to the next,” said BLI’s Bsales. “Overall, Samsung SyncThru Admin 5 is superior to almost every other utility BLI has tested, and on par with the best in the class.” BLI technicians were particularly impressed with the utility’s Dashboard top-level view, drag-and-drop functionality and customizable user interface. SyncThru Admin 5 can be accessed via a Web browser, and the utility works with networked and locally connected Samsung devices as well as SNMP-compliant output devices from other manufacturers. Two add-in modules expand the functionality of the core product. With the SyncThru Admin 5 Device Map Plug-in, administrators can organize devices based on location and create maps showing where each device is located. With the SyncThru Admin 5 Job Accounting Plug-in, users of the utility can track, analyze and allocate the costs of every document that any employee sends to any networked device. This can help a company eliminate unauthorized jobs, enforce quotas on color output, allocate output costs to departments or clients, and analyze exactly what jobs have been performed by the devices. “We are honored that Buyers Lab has chosen Samsung SyncThru Admin 5 as the ‘Pick’ award winner for ‘Outstanding Network Device Management Solution for Fall 2009,’” said YH Park, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics’ Digital Printing Division. “SyncThru Admin 5 allows IT managers to easily manage and monitor all digital printing devices on the network. The award reflects our legacy of innovation to develop tools that help our customers improve the performance of their printing environment and decrease the time spent managing it. Customers can count on SyncThru Admin 5 for simpler operation and efficient print management in a more secure print environment.” SyncThru Admin 5 is available as a free download from the company’s Web site.

Stay tuned for upcoming Buyers Lab “Pick” award announcements in the following categories:

About Buyers Laboratory
Since 1961, Buyers Lab has been the leading independent office-equipment testing lab and business consumer advocate. In addition to publishing the industry's most comprehensive and accurate test reports on office document imaging devices, each representing months of exhaustive hands-on testing in BLI's US and UK laboratories, the company has been the leading source for extensive databases of specifications and pricing on copiers, printers, fax machines and multifunctional products. The company's databases cover over 10,000 products and have a long-standing reputation for being the industry's most trustworthy and complete source for global competitive intelligence. They are available to BLI subscribers online via the company's bliQ competitive information service. This encyclopedic resource also provides quick and easy access to BLI's First Look Reports, Field Test Reports, Lab Test Reports, Solutions Reports, and BLI-produced articles. In addition to the testing of office equipment for its subscribers, Buyers Lab provides consulting services to buyers and a vast array of confidential for-hire private testing services that include document imaging device beta and pre-launch testing, performance certification testing, consumables testing (such as toner, ink and photoconductors), software and solutions and print media testing (including virgin and recycled papers). Twice a year with its “Pick” awards, BLI gives special recognition to the hardware and software products that provided the most outstanding performances in BLI’s exhaustive lab tests. For MFPs, printers, scanners, wide-format devices and digital duplicators, BLI’s awards stand alone in that they are based on a rigorous battery of lab tests that includes an extensive durability test, which uniquely qualifies BLI to assess reliability, which is a critical factor for buyers and IT directors. Software solutions undergo an in-depth hands-on review that focuses on key attributes for a solution’s target market and compares how well the product stacks up against leading competitors. Pick winners rise above the competition in key areas such as value, feature set, ease of use, ease of administration, hardware compatibility, software integration, security and support. Software solutions earn an overall rating based on a five-star scale, and “Pick” contenders are culled from those that earn the highest ratings. Consequently, a BLI “Pick” is a hard-earned award that buyers and IT directors can trust to better guide them in their acquisition decisions. For more information on Buyers Lab, please call (201) 488-0404, visit www.buyerslab.com, or e-mail info@buyerslab.com.