BLI has honored four document imaging software solutions with Summer 2013 “Pick” awards and one solution with an “Outstanding Achievement in Innovation” award. 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 DocuWare, Epson, Nuance Communications and Xerox were selected as standouts in their respective categories from among the dozens of eligible products.
The winners among document imaging solutions are:
DocuWare Corporation
DocuWare 6
Outstanding Document Management Solution
Epson America, Inc.
iPrint
Outstanding Mobile Print App
Nuance Communications, Inc.
Equitrac Office 5
Outstanding Output Management Solution
Xerox Corporation
Mobile Print Cloud 1
Outstanding Small Business Mobile Print Solution
and...
ConnectKey Share to Cloud 1
Outstanding Achievement in Innovation
“Selecting winners from among the scores of products we evaluate is never an easy task, but these top-notch entries made the decisions a little easier this time around,” explained Jamie Bsales, senior product editor for solutions at BLI. “These five honorees are not only standouts in the test period, but also class-leading solutions in their respective categories among all solutions BLI has evaluated to date.”
DocuWare 6 Raises the Bar for Document Management Systems
DocuWare 6 sets the bar very high for what an integrated document management system should offer thanks to a range of new and enhanced features that make it more powerful and yet even easier to use. One marquee addition in this release is the optional advanced workflow engine that allows organizations to deploy custom business process automation (BPA) workflows to streamline complex tasks. Another new feature is DocuWare’s Intelligent Indexing Service, a cloud-based service that “learns” as each document is stored and uses this knowledge to automate future indexing.
“DocuWare has long been considered one of the preeminent document management platforms, delivering just about every feature one could think of,” said BLI’s Bsales. “But for all its features, DocuWare is surprisingly easy to use. The company has taken the familiar in-basket and file-cabinet constructs of the paper-based world and recreated them in digital form, so even users new to a document management system will be able to understand the workflow.”
Three versions of the platform are available—DocuWare ENTERPRISE Server 6, DocuWare PROFESSIONAL Server 6 and DocuWare BUSINESS Server 6—and this BLI “Pick” award applies to all three.
“Being recognized with a BLI award as ‘Outstanding Document Management Solution’ marks a significant achievement and we are extremely honored to have received this recognition,” said Korbinian Frank, vice president of worldwide marketing at DocuWare. “We remain committed to our clients and Partners to develop innovative solutions in electronic filing and workflow management. With the latest enhancements to DocuWare, we’ve extended the capture and filing functionality, creating a compelling offering for small and medium businesses worldwide.”
Epson Nearly Perfects the Mobile Print App
Epson iPrint offers excellent functionality for a free mobile print app, with convenient Wi-Fi printing and scanning as well as some additional options and extras that help it to stand out from the pack. Available for Android and iOS-based smartphones and tablets for use with compatible Epson All-in-One MFPs, Epson iPrint allows users to check local printer stats and take advantage of the Epson Connect service, which enables remote printing.
“BLI has tested just about every mobile print app from the major printer and MFP OEMs, and Epson’s iPrint comes as close to perfection for a free mobile app as we’ve seen,” said BLI Associate Editor Dan DiGiacomo. “Printing of documents stored on the device or in the cloud was simple, web printing was more reliable than with other apps BLI has tested, and scanning files to email or cloud repositories was straightforward and trouble-free.”
“We are delighted Epson iPrint was selected by Buyer’s Lab as 'Outstanding Mobile Print App' for its Summer 2013 award ‘Pick’ awards,” said Colin Donahoe, director of business imaging, Epson America. “The goal of Epson Connect, which includes Epson iPrint, is to make it easy for our customers to scan and print anywhere, anytime. This award underscores Epson’s long-standing commitment to deliver convenient and powerful productivity solutions that meet our customers' evolving mobile business and lifestyle needs.”
Nuance’s Equitrac Office 5 Expands the Definition of an Output Management Solution
Nuance Communications’ Equitrac Office was already the most feature-rich print management platform available, and version 5 marks a major upgrade that delivers a range of new and improved functionality that puts it even further ahead in its field. Most notable among the myriad enhancements is ‘serverless’ printing—which Nuance brands as Nuance I-Queue—that eliminates the print server from the typical print stream to cut down on network traffic and improve the solution’s Follow-You secure pull print features. Also of note is Equitrac Office 5’s Capture & Send functionality (available now on Ricoh ESA machines and coming soon for additional platforms), which adds document capture and distribution features to the embedded MFP applet.
“Equitrac Office 5 is helping to redefine what a print management solution can be by offering scan capture, processing and routing abilities in the MFP client applet, along with Nuance I-Queue printing to reduce WAN traffic and IT overhead,” explained BLI’s Bsales. “These enhancements push the boundaries for this class of product and deliver an unrivaled integrated print management and document capture platform for customers.”
“Equitrac 5 is the premier print management solution, offering significant benefits across an organization,” said Chris Strammiello, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing & Product Strategy for Nuance Communications. “As the foundation of an MPS engagement or as the centerpiece in a print management strategy, Equitrac provides unmatched control, convenience and choice to IT administrators and office workers.”
Xerox’s Latest ConnectKey Solutions Take Two Top Honors
In conjunction with the launch of its ConnectKey MFP architecture, Xerox released a spate of software solutions that help customers take advantage of the connected nature of the platform. Two of those initial products have earned recognition in BLI’s Summer 2013 awards season.
Xerox’s Mobile Print Cloud 1 is being honored with a BLI “Pick” award as “Outstanding Small Business Mobile Print Solution.” A cloud-based solution, Mobile Print Cloud is hosted by Xerox and requires no on-premise server software, which greatly reduces the barrier to entry for budget- and IT-challenged small businesses.
“Xerox Mobile Print Cloud is an excellent mobile print solution that featured the most hassle-free installation of any similar solution we have evaluated in this category,” said BLI’s DiGiacomo. “It delivers convenience and flexibility with intuitive web-based administration and compatibility with output devices from any manufacturer—a marked advantage over standalone OEM mobile print apps that work with only a subset of the vendors’ own devices.”
The second award goes to Xerox ConnectKey Share to Cloud 1, which is being recognized with an award for Outstanding Achievement in Innovation for its unique document capture, processing and delivery abilities. ConnectKey Share to Cloud empowers knowledge workers to scan hardcopy documents at the MFP, specify scan settings and the desired output format, and have the file delivered to email addresses or one of seven currently supported cloud repository services including Google Drive, Google Docs, Evernote, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint Online and Salesforce.com.
“Unlike simpler capture and delivery MFP apps that can deliver only static PDF and image files to a destination, ConnectKey Share to Cloud can convert files into searchable PDF and editable Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel file formats,” explained BLI’s Bsales. “And unlike traditional middleware packages that also support such document conversion, the Xerox solution does not require any costly, complex server-side software at the customer site. The conversion and subsequent delivery are handled in the cloud—completely eliminating the ongoing IT burden typical of server-based solutions.”
“Receiving the BLI ‘Pick’ awards for two of our new solutions is an acknowledgement of Xerox’s commitment to our customers who are looking for seamless integration between product and solutions and a pathway into leveraging the power of the cloud,” said Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Global Office Products and Solutions Marketing Manager, Xerox Office and Solutions Business Group. “With the launch of the ConnectKey ecosystem, Xerox has delivered on that commitment. With Mobile Print Cloud and ConnectKey Share to Cloud, we offer the market truly alternative print and scan solutions with a low start-up cost, minimal infrastructure requirement and IT knowledge to get started and to use. We are honored that Buyers Lab has chosen our solutions for this special recognition!”
For links to our full coverage of these winners as well as past honorees, visit our "Picks" landing page.
