BOULDER, Colo., June 18, 2003 … Better Buys for Business, a leading authority on office imaging equipment, has selected IBM's Infoprint 2000 MS1 and Infoprint 2000 AF1 to receive the 2003 “Editor’s Choice” award. After rigorous analysis of all current high-volume printers and digital duplicators, IBM was awarded the coveted “Editor’s Choice” award for offering two clearly distinct versions of the same printer, to help meet the various needs of publishers and back-office printers. The awards will be featured in Better Buys for Business' new 2003 High-Volume Printer and Digital Duplicator Guides, which are scheduled to be published this month. "We've looked at the full range of high-volume on-demand printers, and IBM's printing and publishing solutions are among the best," said Steve Hannaford, editor, Better Buys for Business. "IBM's proven back-office know-how adds great value to a robust, very-high-volume network publishing solution [MS1] and a back-office machine [AF1] that can run tens of thousands of pages of data reports. The two IBM models present pricing in a more logical manner than competitors, allowing customers to readily identify what features they will receive and how much the features will cost." IBM Infoprint 2000 customer saves more than 20 percent in first year Having saved more than $300,000 in the first year of operating IBM’s Infoprint hardware and software solutions, Penn National Insurance is supportive of IBM’s award. “Due to the flexibility and dependability of the IBM Infoprint 2000 printers, we were able to replace three of our 92 ppm (page per minute) printers with two Infoprint 2000 110 ppm printers, while still meeting our various printing requirements,” said Kathy Mader, operations manager, Penn National Insurance. “This reduction in hardware and consumables, coupled with the implementation of RSA M.I.S. Print software for on-demand printing capabilities, allowed our organization to realize a printto reduce our print budget by an savings in excess of $300,000, or 23%, in the first year alone.” The Infoprint 2000 Multifunctional System Printer (Model MS1) is designed for publishing and general printing applications, while the Infoprint 2000 Advanced Function Printer (Model AF1) is a back-office printer aimed at running mainframe print jobs in a distributed environment. Both heavy-duty production printers are able to print up to 110 impressions per minute (ipm) at 600 dots per inch (dpi) resolution with up to 8,000 sheets of input capacity in six paper trays. Additionally, the Infoprint 2000 is compatible with IBM's Infoprint Manager software, which can connect multiple printers and data streams in high-volume production environments. Infoprint Manager enables customer to manage their production printers by providing load balancing capabilities, intelligent job routing, error notification and data stream transforms when needed. “Due to the flexibility and dependability of the IBM Infoprint 2000 printers, we were able to replace three of our 92 ppm (page per minute) printers with two Infoprint 2000 110 ppm printers, while still meeting our various printing requirements,” said Kathy Mader, operations manager, Pennsylvania National Insurance Company. “This reduction in hardware and consumables, coupled with the implementation of RSA M.I.S. Print software for on-demand printing capabilities, allowed our organization to realize a print savings in excess of $300,000 in the first year alone.” "This award confirms what our customers such as Penn National Insurance and many others already know -- the Infoprint line provides a total solution to help manage the print process from data entry to delivery, with cost savings along the way," said Jim Tramontana, business line manager, cut-sheet products, IBM Printing Systems. "Furthermore, our professional services and network integration capabilities support our array of competitively priced, high-volume production printers." Better Buys for Business evaluates products from all major office equipment manufacturers, and researches customer and dealer feedback. The evaluations include a combination of hands-on testing, user surveys and worldwide visits to manufacturing facilities and trade shows.