Print Audit Wins BLI Summer 2010 “Pick” Award for Output Assessment Solution

Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging products and solutions, has announced its Summer 2010 “Pick” winners honoring outstanding document imaging software solutions. BLI’s prestigious “Pick” awards acknowledge the top-performing document imaging solutions evaluated in BLI's lab during the previous six months. The Print Audit Rapid Assessment Key v2, from Print Audit, has been named Outstanding Output Assessment Solution by the editors at BLI.

“Document imaging solutions are proving to be the lifeblood of the industry,” noted BLI Managing Editor Daria Hoffman. “From the capture solutions that digitize and route hardcopies to the management software that helps customers retrieve files to the assessment and print management tools that enable a dealer to deliver managed print services, these solutions help resellers engage and retain customers in an environment where hardware alone has been a tough sell.”

Speedy, Accurate Device Assessment from Print Audit

In BLI’s labs-based tests, Print Audit’s Rapid Assessment Key v2 proved to be an easy-to-use USB device designed to give equipment resellers an at-a-glance view of an organization’s document imaging hardware, as well as the meter counts of and general information about discovered devices.

“The Rapid Assessment Key v2 is a class-leading output assessment solution,” said BLI Associate Editor Carl Schell. “This handy tool helps provide resellers with basic yet powerful information about an organization’s fleet—no matter how big—and the volumes the devices produce. In turn, resellers can digest the data and offer up ways to streamline or reposition the business’ imaging equipment to help reduce costs associated with document output.”

Supporting SNMP-compliant networked printers, MFPs and fax machines from every major manufacturer, the USB 2.0 device quickly captures elemental readings such as print and copy totals, color versus monochrome meter reads, and life page counts. Once this data is stored on the key’s 1-GB of flash memory, resellers can run a series of reports that will help them determine whether the client (or potential client) is using its equipment in the best way possible and make recommendations as to how the business could better optimize its fleet to increase efficiency or lower print/copy costs—and potentially open the door to a managed print services engagement.

“We are honored to be awarded a Buyers Lab’s ‘Pick’ for the Rapid Assessment Key,” said John MacInnes, President and CEO of Print Audit. “This award will provide our customers with added assurance that they will receive great value for their investment when they purchase our Rapid Assessment Key.”

About Buyers Laboratory

Since 1961, Buyers Lab has been the leading independent office-equipment testing lab and business consumer advocate. In addition to publishing the industry's most comprehensive and accurate test reports on office document imaging devices (at www.buyerslab.com) and solutions (www.buyerslab.com/solutions), the company has been the leading source for extensive databases of specifications and pricing on copiers, printers, fax machines, multifunctional products and most recently, solutions. The company's databases cover over 13,000 products and have a long-standing reputation for being the industry's most trustworthy and complete source for global competitive intelligence. They are available to BLI subscribers online via the company's bliQ competitive information service. This encyclopedic resource also provides quick and easy access to BLI's First Look Reports, Field Test Reports, Lab Test Reports, Solutions Reports, and BLI-produced articles.

In addition to the testing of office equipment for its subscribers, Buyers Lab provides consulting services to buyers and a vast array of confidential for-hire private testing services that include document imaging device beta and pre-launch testing, performance certification testing, consumables testing (such as toner, ink and photoconductors), software and solutions and print media testing (including virgin and recycled papers).

Twice a year with its “Pick” awards, BLI gives special recognition to the hardware and software products that provided the most outstanding performances in BLI’s unique evaluations. For MFPs, printers, scanners, wide-format devices and digital duplicators, BLI’s awards stand alone in that they are based on a rigorous battery of lab tests that includes an extensive durability test, which uniquely qualifies BLI to assess reliability, which is a critical factor for buyers and IT directors.

Software solutions undergo an in-depth hands-on review that focuses on key attributes for a solution’s target market and compares how well the product stacks up against leading competitors. Pick winners rise above the competition in key areas such as value, feature set, ease of use, ease of administration, hardware compatibility, software integration, security and support.

Software solutions earn an overall rating based on a five-star scale, and “Pick” contenders are culled from those that earn the highest ratings. Consequently, a BLI “Pick” is a hard-earned award that buyers and IT directors can trust to better guide them in their acquisition decisions.

For more information on Buyers Laboratory, please call (201) 488-0404 or visit www.buyerslab.com

This article was originally posted on Buyer’s Laboratory.