Canon U.S.A. Brings Added Control And Efficiencies To A Variety Of Print Environments With The Introduction Of uniFLOW Output Manager

New Modular Intelligent Print Suite Delivers Powerful Capabilities for Office and Production Printing Environments

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., To support organizations’ growing needs for better control over the efficiency and effectiveness of their print related operations, Canon U.S.A, Inc., a leading provider of digital office imaging systems and solutions, today introduced uniFLOW Output Manager, a modular, intelligent and highly scalable print management software suite.To support organizations’ growing needs for better control over the efficiency and effectiveness of their print related operations, Canon U.S.A, Inc., a leading provider of digital office imaging systems and solutions, today introduced uniFLOW Output Manager, a modular, intelligent and highly scalable print management software suite.

uniFLOW Output Manager is a powerful and versatile solution that delivers a variety of print management functionality to a wide range of businesses regardless of size or industry type. The uniFLOW Output Manager system consists of a primary server that can be configured with a variety of modules to address specific customer needs in the following areas:

# Universal Secure Printing – A feature that allows a knowledge worker to selectively retrieve their print jobs from any properly equipped print device within their network. In cases where the target device is a Canon imageRUNNER device running the uniFLOW Output Manager MEAP Device client, the knowledge worker can not only select their specific print jobs but also apply the imageRUNNER device’s finishing features.
# Rules & Routing – An organization’s administrator can quickly and easily create rules to route print jobs to the most optimal device to ensure that the company’s efficiency and print cost control policies are being adopted.
# Authentication – uniFLOW Output Manager offers a variety of authentication methods including integrations into corporate ID card systems, thereby giving administrators greater levels of control and security.
# Desktop Accounting – This allows an administrator to accurately track device usage to better manage printer and MFP resources on the network.

The system can also be configured with a variety of professional printing modules, allowing interested customers to leverage the same uniFLOW Output Manager server utilized to manage the general office printing needs to also manage all of their in-house print shop projects.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is the exclusive reseller of uniFLOW Output Manager for North and South America. Through Canon U.S.A.’s Professional Services program, Canon Business Solutions and Canon authorized dealers can resell uniFLOW Output Manager directly to interested customers while leveraging Canon’s trained consultants and technicians to scope opportunities and implement solutions at customer locations. uniFLOW Output Manager Certification training is also available for those authorized dealers who wish to take on uniFLOW Output Manager engagements themselves.

“In today’s business world, security and cost control are of critical importance to every customer, and the management and use of their networked printers and MFPs are no exception. uniFLOW Output Manager can deliver real improvements to organizations looking to enhance the control and efficiency of their print devices,” said Dennis Amorosano, senior director, Solutions Business Development, Canon U.S.A. “Whether it is a general office environment or specialty print operations, such as a copy shop or print room, uniFLOW Output Manager will give organizations a tool to better understand and control who is printing what, when and how much it is costing them.”

Through Canon’s pre-launch pilot program, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle recently implemented uniFLOW Output Manager configured with more than one hundred MEAP device ID clients as part of a recent project to migrate its decentralized fleet of copiers to the latest imageRUNNER MFPs. “We chose the Canon solution because it meets the needs of our ever-changing scientific environment better than the competition,” said Mark Burch, director, Materials, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “Our recent rollover from the previous vendor went very smoothly, which speaks highly of Canon’s ability to work with our unique environment.”

According to Burch, “We have Grants opening and ending on a weekly basis. Using the uniFLOW Output Manager solution allows us to keep current budget codes at the fleet level while disallowing charges against closed budgets. The advanced report capabilities give us the flexibility to track different metrics depending upon who needs the information as well as tracking demand and usage so that we move systems to meet the changing usage of our scientific divisions,” Burch added.

uniFLOW Output Manager, developed by Canon partner NT-ware, has already been distributed successfully in Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia. Karsten Huster, president , NT-Ware U.S.A., Inc., states: “I am delighted to announce the release of uniFLOW Output Manager in the U.S. market. We are not only convinced that our solution meets the enhanced requirements of a challenging market, we are also confident that uniFLOW Output Manager will be integrated seamlessly with other existing solutions. A combination of our highly skilled and specialized employees, a high-tech product at the latest state of the technology and our strong partnership with Canon are the basis for this customer oriented approach.”

NT Ware uniFLOW Output Manager will be available immediately through Canon Authorized Dealers. uniFLOW Output Manager is available in four distinct base server configurations, including Workgroup, Business, Corporate, and Enterprise editions, addressing a range of customer environments. Canon and Canon Authorized Dealers can assist customers with determining the appropriate uniFLOW Output Manager modules to deploy within their organization and pricing, depending on the size and scope of the implementation.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2007†, with global revenues of $39.3 billion, is listed as one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in America and is on the 2007 BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company’s RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/pressroom.

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† IFI Patent Intelligence Press Release, January 2008
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