After testing dozens of imaging solutions and comparing them against their peers, these honorees stood out in their respective categories:
ABBYY Software House, Inc.
ABBYY FlexiCapture 10
Outstanding Enterprise Capture Solution
Hewlett-Packard Company
HP Web Jetadmin 10.3
Outstanding Network Device Management Solution
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.
Konica Minolta Unity Document Suite 7
Outstanding Desktop Document Imaging Suite
Lexmark International. Inc.
Lexmark Scan to SharePoint 2
Outstanding SharePoint Solution
MaxxVault LLC
MaxxVault Enterprise 5
Outstanding Document Management Solution
Notable Solutions, Inc.
NSi AutoStore 6
Outstanding Document Routing & Workflow Solution
PaperCut Software International Pty. Ltd.
PaperCut MF 12
Outstanding Print Management Solution
Samsung Electronics America
Samsung Mobile Print 1
Outstanding Mobile Print App
Xerox Corporation
Xerox DocuShare Enterprise 6
Outstanding Enterprise Content Management Solution
Xerox DocuShare Education 6
Outstanding Vertical Market Solution: Education
ABBYY FlexiCapture 10 Offers Robust, Scalable Document Capture
Taking home the honors as “Outstanding Enterprise Capture Solution,” ABBYY FlexiCapture 10.0 is a data and document capture system that can help organizations transform a variety of document types—forms, invoices, purchase orders, receipts, applications, contracts, letters and much more—into electronic data and export them to the desired folder. ABBYY FlexiCapture is suitable for the centralized production scanning needs of mid-size to large enterprises and is scalable to process up to 1 million pages per day. “FlexiCapture 10.0 is a robust capture system ideally suited for organizations processing heavy volumes of documents,” said BLI Senior Product Editor Lisa Reider. “However, its scalability allows the program to fit into lower-volume scanning environments as well.”
In addition to its scalability, other factors helped ABBYY FlexiCapture stand out among enterprise capture products BLI has tested. Importantly, it offers a full suite of document capture features, including batch scanning and monitoring, barcode recognition, file import from a watched folder or directory, advanced image processing and full-text and metadata indexing. Operators can scan documents directly to Microsoft SharePoint repositories, and the strong ABBYY optical character recognition (OCR) engine can process both hand-written and typed text in 190 different languages.
“We are honored that Buyers Lab has recognized FlexiCapture 10 as the Outstanding Enterprise Capture Solution category winner for the Summer 2012 ‘Pick’ Awards,” said Dean Tang, CEO at ABBYY USA. “Our goal has always been to make data and information easier to work with, and automating the extraction of information from paper documents for use in other enterprise applications and systems is a critical step to this. This award validates FlexiCapture 10’s ability to solve this critical need for enterprise organizations.”
HP Web Jetadmin Still Tops in Device Management
In 1996, HP essentially created the printer device management category with its original Jetadmin utility. Now ten generations later, HP Web Jetadmin 10.3 is still the standard bearer in the class and has been named a BLI Summer 2012 “Pick” winner as “Outstanding Network Device Management Solution.” Web Jetadmin aims to give a global perspective on the quantity and capabilities of a company’s printing and imaging devices and addresses five key areas for administrators: fleet deployment, problem resolution, proactive management, device security and reporting optimization.
“HP Web Jetadmin remains at the front of the pack among device management platforms thanks to its wide-ranging compatibility, advanced management capabilities, robust alerting functions and complete reporting features,” said Jamie Bsales, senior editor for solutions at BLI. “While most other device management utilities do a very good job of monitoring and reporting on the maker’s own devices, none offer the breadth of features and depth of information delivered by Web Jetadmin.”
Notably, the utility works with both HP and third-party networked output devices, as well as with most PC-connected printers and MFPs. Administrators and help desk employees can then use the software to monitor device status in real time (including consumables levels and error conditions), examine and control device usage, automate the sending of e-mail messages regarding device status to the proper personnel, push new configuration settings to devices, produce reports and much more.
Unity Document Suite Nabs a “Pick” for Konica Minolta
Proving that sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Konica Minolta Unity Document Suite 7 has earned a Summer 2012 “Pick” nod as “Outstanding Desktop Document Imaging Suite.” This all-encompassing desktop solution combines the professional versions of Nuance’s excellent OmniPage OCR 17 software, PaperPort 12 document management software, and PDF Converter 7 application. Offered as a companion product for Konica Minolta’s MFPs and printers, the suite is a good fit for smaller companies as well as departments within larger organizations that don’t need a centralized, server-based document capture and management platform.
Handy features spread among the suite’s components include the ability to redact or highlight words within a file, automate and save frequently used tasks, and import and output documents and images in a variety of file formats. Users can also automatically index all PaperPort desktop files at the touch of a button and annotate and modify documents via the ImageView tool. While some solutions only import image files, this solution can import Word and Excel documents, for example, and output them as a PDF. The suite can also be used to scan hardcopy documents directly into Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats as well as scan to a text-to-speech audio file or Amazon Kindle format.
“Extreme ease of use is the hallmark of Unity Document Suite,” noted BLI’s Reider. “The package can be installed without the help of an IT administrator, and users can set up their own folders or simply use one of the pre-set standard folder destinations. This ensures that knowledge workers can be up and running quickly to take advantage of the suite’s productivity-enhancing features.”
“We are always striving to ensure that customers can count on Konica Minolta for their entire scope of document management needs,” said Kevin Kern, senior vice president of marketing for Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. “This award further demonstrate our commitment to innovation that is necessary in obtaining this objective.”
Connect Lexmark MFPs to SharePoint Libraries Easily
Lexmark Scan to SharePoint 2 has earned a Summer 2012 “Pick” award as “Outstanding SharePoint Solution from the editors of BLI. A completely device-resident solution that gets installed on MFPs incorporating Lexmark’s eSF platform, Scan to SharePoint can capture documents in a variety of formats (including PDF, JPEG, TIFF, HTML and TXT) and gives users two-way access to SharePoint repositories directly from the control panel of the MFP.
“SharePoint has proven to be Microsoft’s fastest-selling product ever, with more and more companies employing the storage and collaboration platform to house and share critical business documents,” said Dan DiGiacomo, associate editor at BLI. “But getting paper documents into a SharePoint library can be a frustrating, multi-step process for knowledge workers. Lexmark Scan to SharePoint makes the process nearly effortless.”
Beyond ease of use, the solution is noteworthy thanks to its well-thought-out feature set compared to other MFP-to-SharePoint connectors. For example, in addition to being able to send files to, and print files from, SharePoint libraries, new folders can be created on the fly from the MFP control panel.
“Our vision is to enable our customers to access any content, in any context, to help them streamline their workflow processes,” said Marty Canning, Lexmark executive vice president and president of Imaging Solutions and Services. “Lexmark’s Scan to SharePoint is a great illustration as users can capture any type of document in real time and from anywhere, including remote offices, to make the information immediately available to Microsoft SharePoint users. Lexmark is honored by BLI’s recognition of our Scan to SharePoint solution.”
MaxxVault Wins Coveted Document Management “Pick”
In the competitive document management category, MaxxVault Enterprise 5, from MaxxVault LLC, took the award as “Outstanding Document Management Solution” from BLI’s editors. This scalable document management system delivers a range of features—including capture of hardcopy and electronic documents, indexing, search, workflow, and annotating of stored documents—intended to help simplify document review processes and can eliminate inefficient paper-based workflows.
“MaxxVault Enterprise may be the best-kept secret in the document management arena,” opined BLI’s Bsales. “MaxxVault Enterprise has the benefits of a clean-sheet design and nearly all the features buyers would expect in an enterprise-caliber document management system, but with a modern look and feel that is eminently approachable.” In fact, ease of use—both from an end user’s perspective and an administrator’s—is MaxxVault Enterprise’s hallmark and helped it garner the Summer 2012 “Pick” award. The experience for the end user is completely customizable, so users can be allowed to see just the menu items that pertain to their roles. Behind that friendly facade is an impressively powerful document management system.
“Being named a Buyers Lab ‘Pick’ award winner for Summer 2012 is a great honor,” said Bruce Malyon, CEO of MaxxVault LLC. “It has always been our objective to create a powerful document capture, workflow and records management tool that is easy to use. I am very proud of the entire MaxxVault team, including our network of resellers, who, in just four short years, have helped us shape and build MaxxVault into the scalable, versatile and award-winning document management solution it is today.”
NSi AutoStore 6 Wins in Workflow
AutoStore 6, from Notable Solutions, Inc., has followed up its 5-star showing in BLI’s lab evaluation with a Summer 2012 “Pick” award as “Outstanding Document Routing & Workflow Solution.” AutoStore allows knowledge workers to capture documents, have the program perform the desired processing steps, and route the documents to a range of destinations, from e-mail, fax and folder targets to repositories such as Microsoft SharePoint and line-of-business applications. Like other capture solutions, workflows can be initiated at the control panel of a wide range of supported MFPs. But what sets AutoStore apart from most others is support for incorporating existing electronic documents right from users’ desktops.
“With AutoStore 6, NSi has enhanced one of the leading document capture and routing solutions by enhancing its functionality both at the MFP and on the desktop,” explained BLI’s Bsales. “The result is a robust end-to-end capture/workflow solution that can deliver significant productivity benefits across a broad range of industries.”
“We are very pleased BLI chose to recognize AutoStore for a second time this year as an outstanding document routing and workflow solution,” said Mike Morper, vice president of marketing, Notable Solutions. “At NSi, we are focused on bringing innovative solutions to our customers to help them gain a competitive advantage and remove the delays associated with critical business processes. This latest award is further verification of the success we are seeing in the transactional capture market as we move beyond the MFP umbrella and enable businesses to attain real-time information at its point of origin—either in paper or electronic format.”
PaperCut Honored for Print Management Prowess
Reducing print-related costs, increasing print-job security and recouping print and copy costs where appropriate are the imperatives driving the growth in the print management category. BLI editors have selected PaperCut MF 12 as “Outstanding Print Management Solution” for this Summer 2012 “Pick” season thanks to its robust feature set and affordability.
PaperCut MF facilitates the tracking of (and charging for) print, copy, scan and fax jobs. The solution also includes features such as secure print release and “follow me” printing, as well as cost-saving features such as re-routing of files to lower-cost devices and the ability to enforce duplex printing or restrict output by application type.
“After putting PaperCut MF through its paces, there’s little doubt it’s among the best software platforms in this class on the market,” said BLI Associate Editor Carl Schell. “Not only does the solution have all the necessities for cost accounting, control and recovery needs, it also includes outstanding print management tools that can help organizations better understand their document output and reduce TCO—for a price that’s lower than many other competitive offerings.”
Samsung Mobile Print Enables Smartphone Printing, Scanning
Thanks to its strong set of features and notable ease of use, Samsung Mobile Print has won BLI’s first-ever “Pick” award as “Outstanding Mobile Print App.” Samsung Mobile Print extends the functionality of Samsung MFPs by enabling users to print to and scan from them. A free app, the solution works on any WiFi-enabled tablet or smart phone running iOS or Android operating systems. The app allows users to save scanned documents in a variety of file types to be printed later, emailed to colleagues, or stored in the cloud thanks to a direct in-app connection to Google Docs.
“As mobile employees transition to spending more time using smart phones than workstation PCs, apps like Samsung Mobile Print become more important than ever as a necessary workflow tool,” said Dan DiGiacomo, BLI’s associate editor for solutions. “Samsung Mobile Print excels by extending the usefulness of both the mobile device and the MFP with printing, scanning and cloud support.”
An additional benefit delivered by Samsung Mobile Print—and one not seen in some other mobile print apps tested to date—is social media connectivity. Users can also print images and tweets directly from Facebook or Twitter accounts. The app can also create a connection with a PC for wireless transfer of files directly to the mobile device.
“We are delighted to have received BLI’s Summer 2012 ‘Pick’ award for our Mobile Print App,” said Ron Nevo, senior manager, Printer Solutions & MPS for Samsung EBD. “Samsung developed the Mobile Print App to provide our customers with the mobility and ease of printing and scanning without sacrifice and we’re grateful that BLI has recognized that.”
“Samsung is dedicated to developing innovative and essential solutions to make our customers’ lives easier,” added Todd Bouman, vice president of marketing for Samsung EBD. “Having Buyers Lab name the Mobile Print App a Summer 2012 ‘Pick’ award winner reflects Samsung's position as a leader in the printer industry.”
Xerox’s DocuShare Platform Takes Two BLI “Pick” Awards
Two versions of Xerox’s flagship DocuShare enterprise content management (ECM) platform took top honors in their categories among BLI’s Summer 2012 “Pick” awards. Xerox DocuShare Enterprise 6, evaluated in version 6.6, was named “Outstanding Enterprise Content Management Solution” and Xerox DocuShare Education 6 was named “Outstanding Vertical Market Solution: Education” by BLI’s editors.
In all its iterations, Xerox DocuShare is an impressive ECM and collaboration platform for managing documents and automating business processes that surround them. DocuShare helps knowledge workers capture, create, organize and share digitized paper and electronic documents and easily search for and retrieve information stored in a DocuShare repository. “DocuShare stands out as a uniquely powerful platform,” said BLI’s Jamie Bsales. “The browser-based interface delivers convenient web conventions such as a Home Page and a History list with links to quickly jump to recently opened folders or files in the database. The platform also supports the creation of web documents such as blogs and Wikis, without requiring end users to learn a dedicated web content management system.”
DocuShare Enterprise has several notable strengths that helped earn it the “Pick” award, such as its scalability to accommodate millions of documents, “Workspaces” feature that delivers a team collaboration portal, and Content Rules Manager module that empowers business-level users to create and administer relatively sophisticated work processes. DocuShare Education is a purpose-built version packaged and priced specifically for K-12 school districts and higher education institutions, allowing school systems to deploy an enterprise-class system much more affordably than they could otherwise. One notable feature is the Lifecycle Manager, which helps schools efficiently get rid of unnecessary or outdated content such as student records, application forms and contracts. In addition, the optional Education Server Expansion Kit delivers the Public Web Access feature that provides “guest” users the opportunity to access documents (such as permission slips or school schedules) via a web page, eliminating the need for the school to send paper copies home with students.
“We are honored that Buyers Lab has selected both Xerox DocuShare Enterprise and Xerox DocuShare Education as ‘Pick’ award winners for Summer 2012,” said David Smith, vice president and general manager, DocuShare, Xerox. “Our goal with DocuShare is to automate processes and simplify important day-to-day activities for customers across multiple industries and enterprises—all while saving them time and money. These awards show that we are heading in the right direction to achieve this goal and that Xerox remains committed to delivering proven document management solutions to the market.”
