FOSTER CITY, Calif.--June 9, 2005-- EFI, the world leader in digital imaging and print management solutions for commercial and enterprise printing, today announced that Digital StoreFront(TM) has won BERTL's Best Innovation Award, and Command WorkStation, Balance(TM) and OneFlow(TM) software have won BERTL's Best Production Print Workflow Utility Suite Award. Now in their tenth year, the prestigious annual BERTL awards have become an essential resource for customers seeking the best devices and software in the digital imaging marketplace.
BERTL's Best award winners are selected after rigorous analysis of the hundreds of solutions from world-wide sources. BERTL's analysts review current product lines and new product introductions to identify the select group of devices and software. They consider numerous factors, including overall value for money, competitive advantage, design and build quality, network management utilities, standard functions, value added software, return on investment and more. BERTL's Best award winners have the superior features set, functionality, performance, and overall business process value.
According to BERTL's 2005 Award Winners Report: "Innovations can take many forms, from using technology in a new and novel way to creating something with the potential to change the way business might be done in the future." EFI Digital StoreFront won BERTL's Best Innovation Award for providing a critical yet previously missing piece in the print center workflow.
EFI Digital StoreFront provides a complete, streamlined workflow from the document creator, through the print production environment, to finishing and delivery. By providing a robust, personalized interactive intranet or Internet presence 24 hours a day, Digital StoreFront enhances customer relationships and improves profitability. Recent enhancements to Digital StoreFront (in Version 2.3, now shipping) include stronger VDP capabilities, advanced integration with other EFI solutions, including Command WorkStation, Balance and OneFlow, and improved PrintMessenger Drivers. With more than 400 systems sold worldwide, Digital StoreFront is the industry's leading web-to-print solution.
For the third year in a row, EFI Command WorkStation has been awarded BERTL's Best. In 2003 and 2004, the solution won "Best Print Queue Management Utility." Still the number one print management software product in 2005, Command WorkStation is joined by EFI Balance and EFI OneFlow this year, and the three have been collectively named "Best Production Print Workflow Utility Suite." The solutions are seamlessly integrated with each other as well as with Digital StoreFront.
According to the BERTL's 2005 Award Winners Report, "EFI Command WorkStation, Balance and OneFlow offer high-level graphics and production users powerful print management and workflow solutions. The simple interfaces and powerful functionality will increase the productivity and efficiency of any production print shop."
EFI Command WorkStation provides centralized print job management of one or multiple EFI Fiery(TM)-driven devices. It automatically identifies Fiery servers on the network, and offers customization options so users can most efficiently choose how to display information about connected Fiery servers. The intuitive interface provides a gateway to a variety of sophisticated, productivity-enhancing tools.
EFI Balance maximizes print production capacity and underpins EFI job control and workflow software in larger print enterprises. Balance provides automatic load balancing and makes up to 16 printers appear as a single "virtual" printer. Balance includes features/modules for splitting of color and black-and-white pages with automated collation, imposition, composition and pull scanning to facilitate printing even the most complex documents.
EFI OneFlow is the industry's first PDF-based prepress software to provide centralized management of multiple digital, offset, laser and inkjet printing devices. Incorporating industry-leading Best Technology, OneFlow provides advanced digital prepress capabilities in an easy-to-use, cost-effective software solution. The solution allows users to build custom workflows and automate formerly labor-intensive steps with an intuitive, icon-based graphical user interface. Users can easily design a workflow path to handle prepress functions, including preflighting, trapping, RIPping, imposition, and soft proofing.
"We are proud to be recognized by BERTL as an innovator, driving the industry with best-in-class digital imaging technology," said Frank Mallozzi, vice president, worldwide marketing and sales, EFI. "Having four of our products win BERTL's Best awards reflects the extraordinary ingenuity and dedication of our employees and our commitment to providing the highest level of customer value -- improving their productivity and profitability with integrated solutions that are easy to use yet highly functional."