July 18, 2012 – Hackensack (NJ) – Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI), the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging products and solutions, today announced its Summer 2012 “Pick” awards honoring outstanding color A3 MFPs from Xerox, Ricoh and Konica Minolta. 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.

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Xerox Corporation Xerox WorkCentre 7125 Series Outstanding 21- to 30-ppm A3 Color MFP Ricoh Americas Corporation Ricoh Aficio MP C3502 (Also sold under the Savin and Lanier brands) Outstanding 31- to 40-ppm A3 Color MFP Ricoh Aficio MP C4502 Series (Also sold under the Savin and Lanier brands) Outstanding 41- to 50-ppm A3 Color MFP Ricoh Aficio MP C5502 Series (Also sold under the Savin and Lanier brands) Outstanding 51- to 60-ppm A3 Color MFP Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. Konica Minolta bizhub C654 Outstanding 61- to 70-ppm A3 Color MFP Konica Minolta bizhub C754 Outstanding 71- to 80-ppm A3 Color MFP

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Xerox Distinguished For Great Image Quality and Outstanding Value
The 25-ppm Xerox WorkCentre 7125 Series earned a Summer 2012 “Pick” Award for “Outstanding 21- to 30-ppm A3 Color MFP” for reasons including superior print quality, excellent ease of use and exceptional overall value. “The WorkCentre 7125’s image quality was really impressive,” said Lynn Nannariello, BLI’s assistant managing editor. “Not only is it extremely rare for any MFP to earn top marks from BLI in the color business graphics print category, but it is also a truly a noteworthy accomplishment to do that and still have the lowest price of comparably-equipped models in the group.”

BLI also gave the WorkCentre 7125 high scores for its user-replaceable components, such as the drum unit, which help keep service calls to a minimum, and for its stellar reliability performance during BLI’s exhaustive durability test.

Ease of use is another strong suit, thanks to a large color control panel that lets users intuitively program copy jobs, bidirectional print drivers that provide feedback on consumables and job status, and professional-level administrative utilities.

“The recognition from Buyers Lab is a tribute to the value and performance the Xerox WorkCentre 7125 delivers in one of the most competitive and fastest growing segments in the market,” said Siddhartha Bhattacharya, worldwide senior product marketing manager, Xerox Enterprise Business Group. “From small to large enterprises, customers are benefitting from Xerox’s leadership in office color printing – simplifying the way they create and share business-critical information.”

Ricoh Lands Triple Crown for Exceptional Performers
Top-notch print productivity, outstanding reliability and impressive ease of use have placed the Ricoh Aficio MP C series of color A3 MFPs a step above the competition, earning them Summer 2012 “Pick” awards in each category from 31 ppm up to 60 ppm. During intensive lab tests conducted by BLI, the MP C Series exhibited excellent reliability, generating a combined total of more than 350,000 impressions between them with only one misfeed and no service calls.

“Tested productivity across the range was a high point for the Ricoh products,” said David Sweetnam, head of European Research and Lab Services for BLI. “We were also impressed by the improvements in image quality, as well as in ease of use, courtesy of the new control panel that can be customized on a user-by-user basis, greatly improving the walk up experience.”

“Ricoh’s new tiltable control panel is so much more than a cosmetic improvement,” said Sweetnam. The operator interface allows its home screen to be customized for individual requirements. Up to 72 shortcuts can be added, providing one-touch access to common hard copy and soft copy workflow activity, and Ricoh has introduced a new services-led platform for access to cloud-based solutions. In addition, a Web browser option offers URL storage of up to 50 favorites including integrated cloud environments (ICE) and HotSpot printing. BLI technicians were also impressed by the security feature set, which now includes Unauthorized Copy Control in the drivers, and by the standard Data Overwrite Security and Encryption Kit that supports the latest encryption algorithms.

“We’re thrilled BLI has had a chance to validate our newest technology platform, which was engineered specifically to help customers address their rapidly evolving business challenges,” said Mike Dane, vice president of marketing for Ricoh Americas Corporation. “We put a workstation-class computing platform inside these MFPs and designed the interface to focus that power on the individual user’s most important work. In our view, the MFP should be a full-fledged, two-way engine of the corporate information ecosystem, which today includes the Web, cloud services and a broad range of mobile devices.”

Konica Minolta Dominates High-Speed Color Arena with Two “Pick” Awards
For their impressive overall performances, including excellent reliability and some of the fastest tested copy, print and scan speeds among competitors in their market sectors, the Konica Minolta bizhub C654 and bizhub C754 have earned Summer 2012 “Pick” awards for “Outstanding A3 Color MFP” in their respective speed ranges.

“Both the bizhub C654 and bizhub C754 proved highly reliable over the course of more than 200,000 impressions each, and proved to be among the most productive models we’ve ever tested in their respective speed ranges,” said George Mikolay, BLI senior product editor for A3/Copier MFPs. “Not only did these models deliver scanning times up to twice as fast as competing units, but they were also much faster than average in all copy and print tests we ran.”

Other strong points of the bizhub C654 and C754 include excellent ease of use, thanks to the standard MyTab print driver customization feature, as well as an impressive control panel that gives users a choice of three different user interfaces so they can choose the one best for their needs. BLI technicians also had high praise for the color scan preview feature that not only lets users view scanned documents, but also rotate and delete pages when needed.

“Receiving these 'Pick' awards from BLI further supports the leading innovation, proven performance and exceptional capabilities of the bizhub MFP family of products and solutions,” said Kevin Kern, senior vice president of marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. “We are always striving to ensure that customers can count on Konica Minolta for their entire scope of document management needs, and these awards further demonstrate our commitment to innovation that is necessary in obtaining this objective.”

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

About Buyers Laboratory LLC
Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) is the world's leading independent provider of analytical information and services to the digital imaging and document management industry. For over 50 years, buyers have relied on BLI to help them differentiate products’ strengths and weaknesses and make the best purchasing decisions, while industry sales, marketing and product professionals have turned to BLI for insightful competitive intelligence and valued guidance on product development, competitive positioning and sales channel and marketing support. Using BLI’s web-based bliQ and Solutions Center services, 40,000 professionals worldwide create extensive side-by-side comparisons of hardware and software solutions for over 15,000 products globally, including comprehensive specifications and the performance results and ratings from BLI’s unparalleled Lab, Solutions and Environmental Test Reports, the result of months of hands-on evaluation in its US and UK labs. The services, also available via mobile devices, include a comprehensive library of BLI’s test reports, an image gallery, hard to find manufacturers’ literature and valuable tools for configuring products, calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) and annual power usage. BLI also offers consulting and private, for-hire testing services that help manufacturers develop and market better products and consumables.

For more information on Buyers Laboratory LLC, please call (201) 488-0404, visit www.buyerslab.com, or e-mail info@buyerslab.com.