During the past 10 months, FMAudit - the makers of the award-winning Viewer USB™ has made substantial strides with product awareness, technology enhancements and partnerships.  The information in this News Flash is designed to keep our partners informed of the latest development.  It is separated into 3 parts:

1. Accolades/Events – publications, recognition and upcoming

2. Technology – review of product enhancements

3. Partnerships – distribution and technology partners

Capture print asset information: IP Address, MFG, Model, Serial# and Multiple Meters!
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FMAudit continues to lead the market in innovative products and features that remove Meter Mystique™.  The following is a chronological summary:

August 2005; FMAudit Agent™

  Agent is a passive utility deployed to workstations that enables asset identification and meter capture (and more) of locally (parallel, USB, Bluetooth, Infrared) connected devices.  The information is extracted directly from the hardware and does not interrupt the printing environment by parsing print jobs.  As a result, the meters are 100% accurate.

September 2005; DocuAudit International

  FMAudit announced a strategic partnership with DocuAudit International. The relationship focuses on streamlining and automating the process of data collection to customer-facing proposal generation.

October 2005; Automatic Network Discovery Settings (ANDS)

FMAudit released the highly-praised ANDS feature. The ANDS feature enables even the non-network savvy user to automatically discover IP addresses of print assets on the target network with the click of a button.

December 2005; Hyper Meter Technology™

FMAudit took a giant leap forward with the release of Hyper Meter Technology™.  This technology broke-down the technical barriers enabling the penetration of multiple network subnets and HP JetDirect and compatible network devices. Equally important, the technology penetrates print assets to capture additional data and meters beyond the MIB across multiple manufacturers’ engines and models.

March 2006; Viewer USB™ version 1.2.1; OnSite™, Central™, and WebAudit™

  View Product Brochure
This month, FMAudit will release Viewer USB version 1.2.1.  It is a no-charge update. In addition to enhancements for engine support, version 1.2.1 includes 3 new dynamic reports:

• Compass Opportunity Manager Export – Seamlessly matches the characterization of the usage data collected with the Compass Sales Solutions software whereby stream-lining the proposal generating process.

• Kyocera Mita TCO Optimizer Export – Seamlessly matches the characterization of the usage data collected with the TCO Optimizer software whereby stream-lining the proposal generating process.

• Historical Visual Analysis – Based on customer demand and consistent with FMAudit’s guiding principle of flexibility, the user easily generates graphic representations of the usage data collected. Charting options include multiple combinations of various fields, including but not limited to, manufacturer, segment, print asset type, meter type, and intro-date of engine market availability.  Over 250 chart selections are combined in an easy to use interface!
  

These 3 new reports are available along with previous released Dynamic Reports: Toshiba America Business Solutions; Encompass Export, DocuAudit International; DocuAudit and Proposal Wizard Export, Canon Insight Export, Global Imaging Solutions; ImageAudit Export, Monthly Matrix Report, which includes toner coverage, and Duty vs. Usage Cycle, which quickly and graphically illustrates over and under utilized print assets.

  View Product Brochure
On March 15th at ITEX 2006 Exposition in Las Vegas, FMAudit is releasing the much anticipated OnSite™ software. OnSite software resides on the customer’s network. It quickly and easily captures the same in-depth print asset data, including meters, as does Viewer USB.  The difference however, is that the user no longer needs to be physically present to invoke the process; it is fully automated. OnSite is transparent to the end customer. It automates the frequency of when to collect the information, as well as, where, when, and in what format, to send the data.

  View Product Brochure
Also on March 15th at ITEX 2006 Exposition in Las Vegas, FMAudit is releasing Central™. Central is both a Data Repository and a Customer Portal. The software (database) resides at the dealer location. As a Data Repository, all collected data (print engine characteristics and meters) are backed-up. Viewer USB data is backed-up from the key. OnSite and WebAudit will automatically feed the information into the database. A dealer only needs 1 installation of Central, regardless of the quantity of Viewer USB, OnSite, and WebAudit products being used, and regardless of the quantity of customers engaged and assets measured.

Centralizing and backing-up all the collected data delivers high value benefits:

• Centralized Storage – The most valuable component of the FMAudit products is the data collected. Through centralizing the storage of the data, if the Viewer USB is lost, or if the data becomes corrupt on the key, the dealer is secure because the data is backed-up and accessible.
• Reports and/or Billing - Connecting Central™ to your accounting system, ERP or CRM system, you can generate reports and/or billing invoices. With meter synchronization with Onsite™, your accurate and timely invoices sail through customer approval with ease, resulting in quicker collection of your money!
• Cross Account Analysis – You can compare account assets by consumption, geography, industry, account manager and other variables – spot trends, manage sales and data mine for golden opportunities to increase business.
• Online Customer Meter Validation - As a customer portal, Central™ facilitates customer validation of meter readings online –a convenience for you and your customers and a huge source of savings for you!
• Contract Device Management - You get the data you need to optimize contract efficiency for both you and your customers – savings for your customer, increased revenues for you.
• Better Technical Services – Central’s Device Dashboard lets you see an easy-to-read virtual representation of critical service alerts – technical support, toner low, etc. – your customers get better service, you get better revenues.

 
Also on March 15th at ITEX 2006 Exposition in Las Vegas, FMAudit is releasing WebAudit™. WebAudit is a web-based application hosted on the Dealers website, whereby the end-user initiates the collection of print asset information from a standard web browser. No installation of software is required locally on the end-users system. It leverages the same Hyper Meter Technology as Viewer USB and OnSite. It is customer invoked and BRANDED by the dealer. As such, WebAudit is sold on an individual basis, by contract only.

FMAudit is extremely proud of its partnerships. During the past few months, these highly coveted relationships have resulted in an accelerated worldwide adoption of FMAudit products. The following are highlights. It is FMAudit’s intent to continue to develop multiple
partnerships.

In January 2006, after a lengthy and in-depth analysis of Print Management offerings, IBM entered into a worldwide partnership with FMAudit. Under this global agreement, IBM leverages the power of the FMAudit product suite to accelerate their growth plans. IBM uses the FMAudit products to execute-upon activities defined by their methodology framework inside their influential sales process. Specifically, FMAudit products deliver the highly valuable information necessary to step-up the tactical engagement process through qualification, definition, assessment, design and improvement plans.

Through FMAudit’s European operation, OCE implemented a worldwide program, whereby promoting the value of FMAudit products throughout their organization. OCE positions Viewer USB as the pre-sales Rapid Print Assessment™ tool, thus leading to incremental sales of core product and additional value-add solutions like PCS’s PrintFlo offering, Aka. ROI Print Manager.

Based on dealer demand, and after an extensive valuation process, Sharp Electronics Corporation USA, elected to promote FMAudit’s products to its dealer community. Positioned as the critical component of all Print Management engagements, Sharp officially announced the partnership to its partners at the Sharp National Dealer Meeting in early February. As a result, Sharp has become one of FMAudit’s fastest growing partners.

Also in January 2006, Kyocera Mita America, Inc. and FMAudit announced a partnership to provide accurate assessments of enterprise printing costs for networked and local print devices. Through seamlessly integrating the data collected by FMAudit products into the powerful Kyocera Mita TCO Optimizer program, users shorten sales cycles through delivering an enterprise-wide plan for end-user cost savings and productivity enhancements. FMAudit will be participating in Kyocera Mita’s FY2007 Dealer Meeting in Orlando, FL, May 2007.

"Our partnership with FMAudit improves the print asset identification process," said Victor Jacksier, Software product manager, Kyocera Mita America. "By responding quickly to customer demands for improved output strategies, Kyocera dealers can address related cost issues by clearly illustrating how customers can manage expenditures and measure operating efficiency."

Canon Business Solutions, a Canon U.S.A. company, rolled-out a national initiative, whereby FMAudit Viewer is the tool of choice to satisfy the requirements under their Professional Services assessment services. CBS’s decision to use FMAudit products was based upon similar evaluation practices as other FMAudit partners. Hyper Meter Technology was one of the key factors for the decision. The technology penetrated Canon engine’s beyond the MIB to capture additional information, including multiple meters, unlike any other solution available.

Nu-Kote International is currently executing a program whereby delivering FMAudit Viewer USB product to their largest partners to use with major account customers. The tool is leveraged to quickly and easily identify their print assets and associated volumes to gain control of their supply inventory.

In both the near and short term, FMAudit will announce several more partnerships; clients and business partnerships. Keep an eye out for future emails and press releases! The following is sneak-peak of near term relationships: