FOSTER CITY, Calif. & BURLINGTON, Mass.--April 17, 2006-- EFI, the world leader in digital controllers, superwide format printers and inks, and print management solutions for commercial and enterprise printing, and Nuance Communications, Inc., a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today announced a licensing and collaboration agreement to provide office workers and design professionals with the most complete scan-to-desktop and document routing solutions. EFI will standardize on ScanSoft PaperPort from Nuance as its desktop component for its industry-leading EFI Fiery and SendMe(TM) solutions, under the brands EFI Desktop SE and EFI Desktop Professional. Both solutions provide easy-to-use scanning, image enhancement, PDF and document management capabilities to automate a wide range of document processes. EFI SendMe is the premier digital document distribution and management solution for paper-intensive businesses, and more than 14 million users depend on Fiery technology for precision color, consistent high quality output and workflow innovation. ScanSoft PaperPort is the world's most popular scanning and document management application for personal computers, with patented features that are used by millions to scan, store, search and manage their paper and digital documents. The new EFI Desktop products enhance the EFI Fiery and SendMe solutions by bringing professional-grade scanning, office document assembly and PDF capabilities to every desktop - in an integrated application that is easy to deploy and requires no end-user training. "As the use of digital copiers for scanning continues to increase, so does the need for cross-platform, non-proprietary solutions that address this niche," said Ralph Gammon, editor and publisher, Document Imaging Report. "The collaboration between Nuance and EFI represents a powerful alliance of independent vendors. It creates a versatile solution that can be deployed in conjunction with the multiple hardware lines and software applications that typically exist within a single organization." The collaboration between EFI and Nuance will allow organizations to leverage EFI's imaging and print management solutions with virtually any digital copier, scanner or multi-function peripheral (MFP), making it easier to get paper into enterprise systems, while also increasing worker productivity and reducing operating costs. The two companies are also cooperating in various sales and marketing activities, and plan to collaborate on future product releases. "Combining the powerful PaperPort desktop management and scanning technologies from Nuance with EFI's market leading print and imaging solutions gives our customers a potent combination: an intuitive desktop management tool and a highly productive document printing capability," said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president, worldwide marketing and sales, EFI. "The EFI Desktop SE and Desktop Professional solutions enable customers to distribute, archive and print documents from a single, unified interface. Now, managing the deluge of electronic documents corporate workers face everyday will be a lot simpler." Unlike alternative scan-to-desktop solutions that deliver features limited to scanning and are proprietary to the vendor server environment, PaperPort provides EFI Desktop SE and Professional users with powerful scanning, TIF, PDF and document management capabilities that add value to existing investments in enterprise solutions, including email and enterprise content management. EFI Desktop SE * One-Button Scan-to-Desktop - Scanning from an EFI Fiery-enabled copier and EFI SendMe is easier than ever with the patented One-Button scanning capability pioneered by PaperPort * Fast and Easy Office Document Assembly - Using patented drag & drop stacking capabilities, users can easily combine multiple scanned pages into single custom PDF document that is easier to view, print, store and email * Image Enhancement Tools - Includes Scanner Enhancement Technology (SET), which eliminates the need to re-scan a crooked document or poor quality scan. SET tools deliver professional enhancement capabilities with point & click simplicity, including de-skew, de-speckle, contrast adjustment and color-to-grayscale conversion * SimpleSearch - Allows users to search and find scanned and digital documents via file name and meta data * Drag & Drop Document Workflow - The PaperPort SendTo bar makes it fast and easy to send documents - even sets of different types of documents - to any desktop application, including email, fax and print, as well as to enterprise applications such as Oracle iFS, Microsoft SharePoint and a wide range of WebDAV content management systems. EFI Desktop Professional * All EFI Desktop SE Features * Robust PDF Creation and Security - Provides every user with the ability to create PDF from all of their PC applications, and adds full PDF viewing, annotation and security features to the EFI solution * Advanced Office Document Assembly - Dramatically expands document assembly capabilities as well, enabling users to combine scanned documents with documents and photographs of nearly any other format, including Microsoft Office and Corel WordPerfect documents * Built-In OCR - Stop retyping and use EFI's solutions to convert paper into documents that you can edit in seconds * All-in-One Search(TM) - Nearly every kind of document, photograph and media file can be managed by the EFI Desktop Professional. A powerful desktop search and indexing engine is tightly integrated with OCR, meaning that all your documents - scanned and digital - can be easily found using a single keyword or phrase * Revolutionary Split Desktop - Enables users to work in multiple folder locations at the same time, and move and assemble documents from disparate folders quickly and easily * FormTyper - This feature instantly converts scanned paper forms into fill-able electronic forms, with a simply drag & drop. Form fields are automatically identified and created, allowing the user to fill, save and email the form online, or to print the completed form for submission * Link Agents - Organizations and VARs can extend the SendTo workflow within the EFI Desktop solution using the Link Agent SDK, allowing them to connect scanning and document processes to their existing investments in content management, rules-based workflow or in-house document processes. "Network scanning delivers real benefits to organizations in a wide range of industries, but only if it is affordable, easy to use, and able to connect to existing hardware and enterprise software investments," said Robert Weideman, senior vice president, Nuance Productivity Applications. "The combination of EFI and Nuance results in an integrated solution that makes it easier than ever for everyone to put their paper processes online. We are proud to join with EFI, an organization renowned for their innovation and leadership in document imaging." Availability EFI Desktop SE will be included as the de-facto desktop component for Fiery print controllers, with EFI Desktop Professional offered as an optional desktop component for EFI SendMe, and as an optional desktop upgrade for Fiery users. Both solutions are available through authorized EFI resellers and distributors. SendMe is sold through IKON branded as DocSend.