|  | Ricoh Europe Most Outstanding Colour Printer Line of the Year |
| | London, March, 2010 - Ricoh Company, LTD. has won BLI’s “Most Outstanding Colour Printer Line of the Year” award for the third time in five years, thanks to four of its devices claiming individual “Picks” during the Autumn 2009 season. “Ricoh is a three-time recipient of BLI’s most prestigious honour, thanks to the combination of value, performance and ease of use delivered by its colour printer products,” said BLI Senior Printer Analyst Marlene Orr. “This achievement speaks volumes about Ricoh’s dedication to providing quality colour printers to its customers at every level.” |
“What jumps out at me is the perfect reliability that the “Pick”-winning devices demonstrated over the course of 220,000 cumulative impressions: no misfeeds, no service of any kind required—period,” declared BLI Associate Editor Carl Schell. “This is an amazing accomplishment, and customers should feel with the utmost confidence that Ricoh devices can withstand day-to-day usage in any environment.”
Manufacturers must submit at least one device for lab testing in each of the “Pick” segments—personal through large workgroup/departmental—in order to qualify for this prominent and celebrated award, and BLI considers many factors when selecting the “Line of the Year.” The four devices that helped Ricoh take home this award include: the 50-ppm Aficio SP C821 Series, “Outstanding Large Workgroup Departmental Colour Printer” (BLI tested the “DNX” model); the 40-ppm Aficio SP C820 Series, “Outstanding Large Workgroup Colour Printer” (BLI tested the “DNLC” model); the 20-ppm Aficio SP C232SF, “Outstanding Small Workgroup Colour Multifunction Printer”; and the 10.9-ppm colour/12-ppm black Aficio GX e3350N, “Outstanding Business Inkjet Printer.” During the autumn, BLI also evaluated the Aficio SP C312DN and C232DN, which earned “Highly Recommended” and “Recommended” ratings, respectively; both were highly reliable, with no misfeeds over the course of 30,000 cumulative impressions and no service of any kind required.
“We are thrilled to receive once again the ‘Colour Printer Line of the Year’ Award,” said Bert de Greeff, Manager of Ricoh Europe’s Printer Marketing Group. “It is a recognition that Ricoh offers a strong and competitive Printer portfolio to office users, in addition to our well known MFPs. Our continuous efforts in product development and customer satisfaction pays off, and this BLI Award will help us to convince our customers and sales channels that Ricoh is the best one to partner with for Printers.”
Straightforward Operability
All six devices tested by BLI this “Pick” cycle offer simple procedures for adjusting drawers, loading media and removing misfeeds, and allow for the clean replacement of toner or ink. “Specifying job selections from the desktop via the driver, or at the control panel for walkup activity for that matter, is a snap,” noted BLI Test Technician Tony Maceri. “Also, being able to view toner or ink levels on the display of every device we evaluated is an excellent feature.
“Ricoh devices are simple to set up too,” he continued. “The installation routine is automated; organizations will be practically ready to go by the time the device is removed from the box.”
Serious Value Proposition
Adding to the value proposition and lower overall TCO of the “Pick” devices is that every print cartridge, save for cyan with the Aficio SP C232SF, eclipsed the declared specification. The average for the Aficio GX e3350N’s four colour ink cartridges also exceeded the rated yields.
Productivity Speaks Volumes
Three of the four tested winning devices—the Aficio SP C821DNX and C820DNLC, and the Aficio GX e3350N—earned a very good rating for productivity in their Lab Reports. The BLI job stream, which replicates typical traffic in a multi-user environment, is a key benchmark—and here’s where these devices stood out, yet again. “The trio gave above average performances in our colour and black job streams, regardless of what driver was used,” Schell said, adding that the Aficio SP C821DNX and C820DNLC had faster than average first-print times for all test files.
Consistent Print Quality
“Let’s look at the Aficio SP C232SF, which along with the Aficio SP C821DNX and C820DNLC provided print quality samples that were rated very good,” Maceri began. “Colour output remained consistent throughout testing, while business graphics and photographic images were vibrant and full of life. With black output, characters were clearly readable and crisp, halftones were produced over a broad range, and solids were dark. So clearly, this device and the others will more than fit the bill for the general office use they’re geared toward.”
Adding To The Package
All tested devices include an embedded Web page, Web Image Monitor (WIM), for the simple management of each. Administrators can utilize WIM, which can be password-protected, to change settings and configure e-mail alerts for designated personnel; users can view status information such as the amount and size of paper in the drawers, toner gauges and temporary job history. Meanwhile, SmartDeviceMonitor, which is available for free download on the company’s Web site, enables administrators to remotely manage a mixed fleet—Ricoh and compatible devices—of hardware.
BLI congratulates Ricoh on winning “Most Outstanding Colour Printer Line of the Year” for 2009.
About BLI’s PicksTwice a year with its “Pick” awards, BLI gives special recognition in each category to those products that provided the most outstanding performances in BLI’s exhaustive lab tests, and once each year, it acknowledges the vendors whose overall product lines are judged to be the best in their respective categories by virtue of their cumulative test results. In order for a vendor to be considered for “Line of the Year,” products in each market segment must have been tested by BLI. In addition, the breadth of the vendors’ product line is considered.
BLI’s awards stand alone in that they are based on a rigorous battery of lab tests that takes approximately two months to complete and includes an extensive durability test, during which each unit is run at the manufacturer’s maximum recommended volume. BLI’s durability test is unique among office product evaluations and uniquely qualifies BLI to assess reliability, which is a critical factor for buyers and IT directors, given that virtually all of the products are designed for use on networks.
In addition to assessing reliability, in terms of the number of service calls and PM (preventive maintenance) calls required, as well as misfeed frequency, BLI’s comprehensive evaluation includes an assessment of copy and print quality, productivity, ease of use and economy, as well as connectivity issues such as feedback to workstations, administrative utilities, print drivers, multitasking and scanning solutions. Each product that successfully passes BLI’s lab test earns BLI’s “Recommended” or “Highly Recommended” seal and a BLI “Certificate of Reliability” and qualifies as a “Pick” award contender. Consequently, a BLI “Pick” is a hard-earned award that buyers and IT directors can trust to better guide them in their acquisition decisions. |
Note to editors
Ricoh Company, Ltd ("Ricoh Company") is a global technology leader, specialising in the office and production printing markets. Ricoh works with organisations around the world to modernise work environments and optimise document efficiency. With over 108,500 employees worldwide, it operates in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, China and Japan.
Europe Holdings Plc is a public limited company and the EMEA headquarters of Ricoh Company with operations located in London, United Kingdom and Amstelveen, the Netherlands. The EMEA operations comprise over 35 sales subsidiaries and affiliates.
In the fiscal year ended 31 March 2009, revenues from Ricoh's EMEA operations totalled over YEN 523.4 billion accounting for 25.0 per cent of Ricoh Company's global revenues. Ricoh Company's worldwide sales totalled over YEN 2,091.7 billion during the year ended 31 March 2009. For further information, please contact:
Ricoh Europe PLC
Janice Gibson
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7465 1107
E-mail:press@ricoh-europe.com
www.ricoh-europe.com | |
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