ITEX, Las Vegas - Feb. 3, 2005 - EFI, the world leader in digital imaging and print management solutions for commercial and enterprise printing, today announced its intent to work with BEI Services to deliver service benchmarking data through EFI's Automated Dispatch Systems (ADS). The intended objective of this joint effort is to deliver to ADS users, including field technicians, service management, dispatchers and others, real-time access to industry-wide service data to improve customer service quality and expediency. Service data extracted from BEI's North America-wide subscription base would be combined with the dispatch, technician, parts and credit data managed by the ADS system daily for thousands of users nationwide. ADS users would be better informed to make business decisions that impact their service operations' profitability. In addition, robust reporting would allow service managers to identify the key strengths and weaknesses of technician activity, providing empirical data from which dealers can best plan service department growth. Instead of receiving BEI data and reports on a scheduled basis, ADS users would have immediate access to information they need. "BEI has long provided mission-critical information to optimize customer service departments' operational efficiency for some of the industry's top dealers and distributors," said Mike Stramaglia, General Manager of EFI's Service Automation Group. "Incorporating this data into the ADS system would allow EFI to provide dealers with the most comprehensive service knowledge base available today. We look forward to confirming our strategic relationship in order to bring this functionality to the market, further enhancing the value ADS already delivers to our customers." "In addition to empowering service employees with the most detailed industry information available, the combination of BEI and EFI technologies would dramatically strengthen a dealer's ability to increase profitability," said Wes McArtor, President of BEI Services. "This relationship would leverage the expertise of two perfectly complementary systems and evolve our industry's service management and execution." Anticipated functionality for ADS' BEI module includes automated methods for prioritizing and routing service calls based on the cost of servicing specific makes and models of imaging equipment, as well as the revenue derived per engagement. Other business critical data that would be made available from the BEI module includes: • profitability of service engagements per customer • effectiveness of service calls per technician • prioritization of "problem" (costly to service) devices • unit parts cost per device compared to local and national benchmark • maintenance time for specific devices compared to industry benchmarks. In addition, ADS would provide a wealth of system-specific information that allows technicians to be better prepared before arriving at a customer site. This would include the expected issues a technician may encounter based on the service history and meter read of a specific device, as well as suggested parts to have available to minimize service time and improve first-call effectiveness. A cornerstone of EFI's Service Automation Group, ADS's focus is to improve the operational efficiencies of service organizations within the copier channel to boost productivity and profit. In its 12-year history, ADS has closed more than 50 million service calls and currently supports approximately 16,000 users across North America. A turnkey and scalable system, the ADS solution automates and optimizes industry-standard processes such as service dispatch, field service management, help desks, parts replenishment, credit collections and meter billing. BEI Services is an industry leader in the delivery of copier and service department benchmarking, tracking every service call for more than 1.3 million devices across North America and the world. In addition, BEI provides dealers with a turn key technician compensation program, extensive reporting, and a wide variety of data sets and methods to compare the efficiency and profitability of copier and printer service departments.