FOSTER CITY, Calif.--Jan. 25, 2005-- EFI, the world leader in digital imaging and print management solutions for commercial and enterprise printing, is proud to announce that ten of the top 12 honorees named to NAPL's "best managed graphics arts companies" list are EFI print management system customers. The NAPL 2004 Management Plus Awards recognize management excellence in all phases of operation, with companies judged on how they perform against industry standards in nine key areas. Each of the five Gold Award winners are EFI MIS users: Action Printing, of Fond du Lac, Wis.; Omaha Print, of Omaha, Neb.; Pacific Printing, of Fresno, Calif.; The Sheridan Press, of Hanover, Pa.; and Western Graphics, Inc., of St. Paul, Minn. EFI customers also dominated the Silver category, receiving five out of seven awards. These customers use solutions such as EFI Hagen(TM) OA, Logic(TM), PSI(TM), Auto-Count and PrintFlow(TM) to automate and integrate everything from estimating and costing to accounting, production management and more. "EFI has a powerful suite of MIS software solutions to help customers of all sizes connect all of the pieces of the printing process to gain efficiencies and better manage their business for profitability," said Marc Olin, Vice President/General Manager, EFI Commercial Print Systems. "We're proud that our MIS offerings have played a part in the success of so many companies, and that ten of these companies were recently honored by the NAPL. We strongly believe there is a link between award-winning operations like these and managing the business of print using EFI MIS solutions." Commercial printer Omaha Print has been using EFI Logic and Auto-Count for six years, and recently added PrintFlow to the mix. Said Chuck Kinzer, CFO, "As a direct result of having better estimating standards, we've increased our profit margins by about five percent, which is big when you're talking about an average industry profit of three percent. With our combination of EFI solutions we've also lowered our makeready sheets, compressed our delivery time, reduced paper consumption and waste, and improved inventory." The Sheridan Group is comprised of seven printing companies focused on journal, magazine, catalog and book markets. Doug Ehmann, VP and CTO, commented, "Over the years, the printing industry has experienced a continuous evolution of the printing process, driven by advancing technology. Sheridan Group has been an early adopter of technology, and relies on Print MIS systems from EFI at several of its companies. These management systems allow the operation to be more efficient, providing better visibility into costs and finances, and ultimately increasing profitability." For more information about the NAPL Management Plus program, please contact Robin Schabacker, program coordinator, at (800) 642-6275 ext. 1307 or [email protected].