Hackensack, NJ – Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), the world's leading independent evaluator of document imaging hardware and software, today announced its Summer 2011 "Pick" awards honoring the top-performing solutions evaluated in BLI's lab during the previous six months. From a field of very strong contenders in the period, editors selected 10 software products that proved to be outstanding in their respective categories.

The Summer 2011 BLI "Pick" winners are:

Canon uniFLOW Serverless Secure Print
Outstanding Document Security Solution

Kofax VRS Elite 5
Outstanding Image Processing Solution

Konica Minolta PageScope Enterprise Suite 2.1
Outstanding Device/Print Management Suite

Nuance eCopy ShareScan 5
Outstanding Document Capture/Routing Solution

Nuance OmniPage 18 Professional
Outstanding OCR Solution

Nuance eCopy PDF Pro Office 5
Outstanding PDF Creation Solution

PaperCut MF V11.2
Outstanding Cost-Recovery Solution

Prism Software DocRecord 3.3
Outstanding Enterprise Document Management Solution

Samsung CounThru 2 Professional
Outstanding Managed Print Services Solution

Square 9 Softworks SmartSearch 3.1
Outstanding SMB Document Management Solution

"In forward-thinking organizations, MFPs act as the workflow hub and the digital on-ramp to a company's information systems. But they can also prove to be a significant cost center," said Jamie Bsales, senior product editor for solutions at BLI. "So it is imperative that customers take advantage of the advanced document imaging solutions available to leverage their hardware investment, improve the productivity of knowledge workers and lower their hardcopy output costs. These 'Pick' award recipients do that and more."

Canon uniFLOW Serverless Secure Print, developed by NT-ware, delivers secure print release and "follow me" printing features for a range of Canon imageRUNNER MFPs. And unlike most other secure print release products, Canon uniFLOW Serverless Secure Print does not require a server, making it ideal for small businesses and workgroups with limited IT resources.

Kofax VRS Elite is a scalable image processing program that cleans up scanned images and converts them to various file formats. It delivers unique features that made it stand out in BLI's testing, such as device health monitoring and an auto profile feature that allows the program to associate certain scan settings or profiles with recognized document types.

Also in BLI's testing, Konica Minolta PageScope Enterprise Suite 2.1 proved to be an impressive suite of tools with an ambitious scope. Consisting of five integrated modules-Net Care Device Manager, PageScope Account Manager, PageScope Authentication Manager, PageScope My Print Manager and PageScope My Panel Manager-the suite offers features that include remote device monitoring and management, meter reporting, complete user management (including the ability to set quotas and restrict function usage), accounting functions, secure pull printing and "follow me" printing, customized control panel screens and much more.

Nuance eCopy ShareScan 5 lets almost any networked MFP serve as the entry point for paper documents to merge into an organization's digital workflow, allowing end users to easily capture documents and integrate them into more than 100 leading business applications. eCopy ShareScan 5 distinguished itself as a significant upgrade that delivers a range of new features and enhancements such as Nuance's Personalized Scanning innovation, which allows scanning menus to be tailored to specific individuals or workgroups after they log in at the MFP.

Nuance eCopy PDF Pro Office 5 is an enterprise-class PDF-creation solution designed for organizations that depend on PDF files to communicate, share information or archive business documents. The software can be used not only to create PDF, searchable PDF and PDF/A files, but also to convert static PDFs into editable, searchable files in popular file formats including WordPerfect and Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Nuance OmniPage Professional 18 is an unparalleled document-conversion solution designed to help businesses make scanned documents and digital image files text-searchable to streamline workflow processes. The standout feature in the new version is its ability to perform OCR on documents that reside in popular "cloud" repositories such as Evernote and Dropbox.

PaperCut MF V11.2 facilitates tracking and charging for copy, print, scan, and fax jobs through authentication cards, user login or PIN-code access at the device. BLI technicians were especially impressed with the platform's stellar ease of use. The software also offers extensive reporting capabilities and advanced features such as the ability to enforce quotas by user or department, restrict printing from particular applications (such as Web browsers), and to re-route jobs to lower-cost devices

Prism DocRecord 3.3 is a scalable document management platform that can incorporate both electronic files and scanned hardcopy documents so users can index, categorize, annotate and store critical documents in much less time than paper-based workflows entail. BLI technicians found DocRecord 3.3 to be one of the most feature-complete systems BLI has evaluated to date, and the platform's hardware compatibility is also impressive. Prism has also made DocRecord exceedingly easy to use for knowledge workers, with a UI that resembles Microsoft Outlook and a range of conveniences to keep keying of data to a minimum.

In BLI's lab tests, Samsung CounThru 2 Professional proved to be an impressive print management tool ideal for resellers looking to track and report on output device status, usage and costs for devices under an MPS contract at client sites. It can also help reduce hardcopy costs by allowing companies to set usage limits and permissions by user or department. And unlike other print management tools from device OEMs that BLI has evaluated, CounThru 2 Professional offers more complete reporting on third-party MFPs and printers at a client site, making it more useful to dealers whose clients have mixed fleets.

SmartSearch 3.1, from Square 9 Softworks, is a robust solution for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) looking for an affordable document management system. SmartSearch allows end users to easily incorporate scanned hardcopy documents and import existing electronic files. After being indexed, documents can be retrieved in a variety of ways; annotated with "sticky notes," signatures, highlighter or redaction tools; printed; or distributed via the MFP's fax driver or via e-mail as a PDF. The solution also incorporates image-processing and workflow capabilities and can be augmented by a range of optional modules, including full-text indexing to enable keyword searches.