bml, Panasonic, and Xerox Achieve BLI Summer 2015 Pick Awards

Fairfield, NJ, Aug. 3, 2015 – Buyers Laboratory LLC, the world’s leading independent tester of document imaging products, announced its highly anticipated Summer 2015 Pick awards in the scanner category today, bestowing honors upon one scanner from ibml, two scanners from Panasonic and one scanner from Xerox. Announced twice a year, the Pick awards acknowledge the products that gave the best performances in BLI’s extensive suite of laboratory tests in the previous six months.

The Summer 2015 scanner Pick winners are:

ibml ImageTracDS 1085 – Outstanding A3 Mid-Volume Production Scanner

Panasonic KV-S1027C – Outstanding A4 Mid-Size Workgroup Scanner

Panasonic KV-S1057C – Outstanding A4 Departmental Scanner

Xerox DocuMate 5540 – Outstanding A4 Flatbed Mid-Size Workgroup Scanner

Unfettered Innovation

A unique addition to the BLI scanner database, the 85-ppm (170 ipm) ibml ImageTracDS 1085 offers a host of features not typically found with competitive scanners tested, including dual output trays to aid in post-scan sorting and left-justified feeding to remove the hassles of batch preparation. ibml also offers a variety of optional software bundles that help document-intensive capture environments sort, classify, validate, extract and route digital data. Not many competitive scanner vendors provide such a breadth of capture solutions. Notably, ibml offers its customers various levels of help setting up the hardware and software and designing workflows specifically for each customer’s needs, which is partly why the ImageTracDS 1085 earned a Summer 2015 BLI Pick for Outstanding A3 Mid-Volume Production Scanner.

“We are pleased that BLI has recognized our innovative, intelligent capture solution,” said ibml Chief Marketing Officer Dan Lucarini. “The ImageTracDS 1085 with ibml SoftTrac Capture Suite is an ideal solution for mid-volume capture applications in mortgage origination, health insurance claims, invoice capture and payments. No other desktop scanner and software bundle in this class can apply transactional business rules, perform complex data extraction and document recognition, and physically sort documents, all in one lean, labor-saving operation.”

“The ibml ImageTracDS 1085 is a new breed of scanner never before seen at BLI. Its feeding and sorting capabilities, and the company’s commitment to customizing workflows for its customers, help it stand out against the competition,” said Lisa Reider, BLI’s senior product editor for scanners. “We are proud to honor the ImageTracDS 1085 with this award not only for its above average performance and innovative design, but also for its host of optional add-ons, which include a touchscreen, and imprinter and a variety of software options that help to further customize the device for a complete capture experience.

Unrivaled Excellence

Panasonic’s KV-S1057C and KV-S1027C both earned BLI Picks in their respective scanner categories for the Summer 2015 test season thanks to their excellent overall performances during testing. Both devices handle a wider than average range of paper weights through the 100-sheet ADF, which has a higher capacity than those available on some of the KV-S1027C’s competitors. And both devices provide Panasonic’s easy to use Image Capture Plus solution, which provides a variety of features for workflow customization and quality control.

“We’re honored to be recognized as a Buyers Lab Pick for our newest scanners, the Panasonic KV-S1057C and KV-S1027C,” said Joseph Odore, product manager for Imaging Solutions, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. “The small footprint document management system is compact enough to sit on a reception desk yet durable and reliable enough to handle mixed documents for a variety of scanning needs, and we’re proud that they have been recognized for their outstanding performance.”

“Departmental scanning environments need a capture solution that can handle large volumes of documents daily without the hassle of misfeeds, slowdowns and cumbersome scan utilities. The 65-ppm Panasonic KV-S1057C exceeds those needs thanks to its robust proprietary software, easy to use hardware and maintenance design, efficient scan speeds and flawless reliability performance,” said BLI’s Reider. “And the 45-ppm Panasonic KV-S1027C provides the function and flexibility to help most workgroup scanning environments tackle high volumes of documents each day. Panasonic has a history of making high-quality, BLI award-winning scanners and the KV-S1057C and KV-S1027C provide additional examples of the company’s scanner excellence.”

Unencumbered Operation

The 40-ppm Xerox DocuMate 5540 achieved its Pick status due to its robust software bundle that satisfies the imaging needs of most scanning environments; ability to scan a wider than average range of paper weights and sizes through its ADF; and faster than average color speeds when measuring software processing times. The flatbed-equipped device also provides a unique scan utility that includes several features that help to streamline scanning, including location-based redaction to help censor sensitive data.

“An excellent choice for workgroups and departments searching for a versatile, flatbed-equipped capture solution that can scan anything from plastic ID cards to long documents up to 118″, the Xerox DocuMate 5540 proved to be a superb overall performer during testing,” said BLI’s Reider. “And the fact that it comes bundled with Nuance PaperPort, Nuance OmniPage and Nuance PDF Converter—all of which have earned BLI Pick awards for their respective solutions categories—significantly enhances its overall value.”

“We are so glad to see our robust DriverPlus Technology gaining so much attention,” said Jim Tamo, senior vice president of global sales and marketing at Visioneer, a Xerox licensing partner. “There are a lot of capture applications and document management solutions that are benefiting from the value add that we have built-in to this advanced driver. The DocuMate 5540 is a true departmental scanner with wide range media handling and fast throughput speeds. We are thrilled that it is being recognized with this award.”

About Buyers Laboratory LLC

Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) is the world’s leading independent provider of analytical information and services to the digital imaging and document management industry. For over 50 years, buyers have relied on BLI to help them differentiate products’ strengths and weaknesses and make the best purchasing decisions, while industry sales, marketing and product professionals have turned to BLI for insightful competitive intelligence and valued guidance on product development, competitive positioning and sales channel and marketing support. Using BLI’s web-based bliQ and Solutions Center services, 40,000 professionals worldwide create extensive side-by-side comparisons of hardware and software solutions for over 15,000 products globally, including comprehensive specifications and the performance results and ratings from BLI’s unparalleled Lab, S Solutions and Environmental Test Reports, the result of months of hands-on evaluation in its US and UK labs. The services, also available via mobile devices, include a comprehensive library of BLI’s test reports, an image gallery, hard to find manufacturers’ literature and valuable tools for configuring products, calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) and annual power usage. BLI also offers consulting and private, for-hire testing services that help manufacturers develop and market better products and consumables.

For more information on Buyers Laboratory LLC, please call 973-797-2100, visit www.buyerslab.com, or email info@buyerslab.com.