VALLEY FORGE, Pa.--Oct. 26, 2004-- IKON Office Solutions, the world's largest independent channel for document management systems and services, today announced an expanded relationship with EFI that brings two print management control solutions to IKON's integrated portfolio of document management solutions. IKON, through its global services organization - IKON Enterprise Services - will employ EFI Digital StoreFront(TM) and EFI Balance(TM) to help production customers maximize productivity, increase customer collaboration and reduce manual steps in document workflow, resulting in faster turnaround times and lower production costs. "IKON Enterprise Services was formed to meet the growing industry demand for comprehensive end-to-end document management solutions," stated Michael Kohlsdorf, Senior Vice President of IKON Enterprise Services. "When it comes to workflow enhancement and management tools, EFI offered the most scalable and easily integrated solutions for a wide range of customer needs." As print centers and business environments increasingly require streamlined, digital print file management, the EFI Digital StoreFront creates an in-house, company-branded website and transaction server that manages, automates and streamlines the entire print procurement and production process. With Digital StoreFront, print providers can leverage the Internet, allowing their customers to submit and proof printing jobs faster, easier and more accurately than ever. Elon University Print Services in North Carolina has been using the Digital StoreFront solution for nearly three years. "The Digital StoreFront solution has been a big hit with the University, especially with student organizations who can now submit flyers and brochures to be printed over the Internet," stated James McCall, Print Services Manager of Elon University Print Services. "It's quick and easy to use, and the students love it. Productivity has increased, and the quality of work we deliver has improved because we are printing from an original file." IKON selected EFI Balance for the scalability and flexibility it offers as a printing output management solution. EFI Balance (formerly EFI Velocity) is an integrated, modular software solution that provides complete, device-independent workflow management for organizations doing distributed digital printing. EFI Balance maximizes print production capacity by managing multiple devices as a group, providing centralized management of up to 16 print devices with efficient job ticketing and composition of complex documents. "EFI's successful partnership with IKON continues to bring innovative document management solutions to customers," stated Fred Rosenzweig, President of EFI. "With this strong combination of integrated offerings, customers will be able to easily and effectively implement a complete document management solution that will increase productivity, cost efficiency and end user satisfaction." For over five years, EFI has been an established product development partner for IKON. In addition to the two newly added software solutions, the IKON document solutions portfolio also includes IKON-exclusive solutions that feature EFI's leading MicroPress(TM) technology - IKON PowerPress(TM), a production front-end system to streamline workflows and make-ready tasks for B&W and color documents, and the IKON DocSend(TM) document capture-and-delivery system that converts hard copies to digital files for easy delivery or storage. "What sets IKON apart from the competition is our commitment to helping customers build a document workflow blueprint that can effectively address total document spending without disrupting core business functions," Kohlsdorf explained. "Our Enterprise Services offerings leverage partnerships with world-class solutions providers like EFI that allow us to offer our customers the best technology available in the market today."