New Solution Delivers Intuitive Web-Enabled Capabilities
That Enhance Work Group Collaboration
FOSTER
CITY, CA, and ANDOVER, MA - September 20, 2000 - Electronics
For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) (NASDAQ:
EFII), the world leader in enabling networked printing
solutions, and PictureTel Corporation (NASDAQ:
PCTL), the world leader in integrated collaboration,
today announced a distribution partnership. Under the
terms of the agreement, PictureTel and PictureTel's value-added
resellers will offer EFI's eBeamT Internet appliance as
the PictureTel Electronic WhiteboardT. This value-add
bundle option offers productivity and efficiency enhancement
for remote meetings. It combines traditional videoconferencing
capabilities with the ability to leverage Web-enabled
communication to create, share, edit and save whiteboard
notes among remote work groups.
The PictureTel Electronic Whiteboard office appliance
works with standard whiteboards, easels and other writing
surfaces to capture meeting notes and diagrams as they
are created. Information may be viewed, saved, edited,
shared and printed using any Windows PC. Unlike traditional
electronic whiteboards and copyboards, the PictureTel
Electronic Whiteboard is lightweight, portable, easy to
install and Web-enabled.
Remote participants may dial in and participate in a PictureTel
Electronic Whiteboard session using only a browser or
free software downloaded from www.luidia.com.
Participants who log in using the PictureTel Electronic
Whiteboard software can annotate the session with typed
or drawn notes. Any user may print notes from the session
to a standard network printer or e-mail notes in a wide
variety of formats, including Bitmap, PDF and custom software
applications. PictureTel Electronic Whiteboard software
currently supports English, French, German, Italian, Japanese
and Spanish.
"I was extremely impressed with the PictureTel Electronic
Whiteboard," stated Dan Denardo, Global Leader, Video
Conferencing and ePublishing, Dow Chemical. "Set up is
quick and intuitive. It took less than five minutes from
beginning to end. The PictureTel Electronic Whiteboard
allows users to collaborate on a whole new level. It gives
users the ability to really roll up their sleeves and
get to the nuts and bolts of the meeting by providing
an interactive surface to fully develop ideas with everyone
in the meeting, including those participants on the far
end."
"The PictureTel and eBeam technologies are highly complementary
and create a more natural user experience for remote meetings,"
said Rafi Holtzman, eBeam General Manager, EFI. "Meeting
participants benefit not only from excellent audio and
video quality, but also from the ability to share handwritten
notes and drawings from the conference room whiteboard
with eBeam."
PictureTel Electronic Whiteboard integration extends the
application of PC-based videoconferencing solutions. Business
users may now harness electronic whiteboard capabilities
to capture and share meeting notes. Furthermore, users
can easily distribute notes to participating and non-participating
stakeholders via email.
"This heralds the beginning of a whole new set of PC-
and web-based tools and applications that can be integrated
into videoconferencing sessions with the revolutionary
and multi-function PictureTel 900 Series products," states
Michelle Waugh, Director of Product Management, PictureTel.
"Our customers can now address needs for many different
conference room or executive suite tools such as videoconferencing,
enterprise application access on PCs, internet access
and electronic whiteboards - all in a single, integrated
solution."
"There are myriad applications for this solution," added
Kurt Edmonds, Senior Product Manager, PictureTel. "We
anticipate a strong demand for the solution in collaborative
engineering and distance-learning applications."
Pricing And Availability
The PictureTel Electronic Whiteboard is available for
a suggested list price of $550.
About PictureTel
PictureTel Corporation (NASDAQ:
PCTL) is the world leader in developing, manufacturing,
and marketing a full range of integrated visual- and audio-collaboration
and streaming-video solutions. The company's systems meet
customers' collaboration needs from the desktop to the
boardroom. PictureTel also markets network conferencing
servers and a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise-wide
services. Additional PictureTel information is available
at www.picturetel.com. PictureTel collaboration products
and services eliminate the barrier of distance, enabling
people to be Anywhere NowT.
About Electronics For Imaging
Electronics For Imaging (www.efi.com)
is the world leader in enabling networked printing solutions.
EFI technology allows copiers, printers, and digital presses
to be shared across work groups, the enterprise, and the
Internet. The results are greater productivity, improved
document management, seamless networking, and the assured
quality of color and black-and-white images. The company's
OEM partners look to EFI to deliver products that help
grow sales and reduce costs associated with internal development
and support. Competitive, feature-rich solutions, such
as the Fiery® and EDOXT brands of networked image processors
and the eBeamT brand of Web-enabled whiteboard systems,
are an outgrowth of our determination to offer OEMs and
end-users alike the highest assurance of innovation, quality,
reliability, and support. The company employs more than
700 people and maintains 22 offices worldwide.
Additional information regarding EFI may be obtained by
calling the company directly at (650) 357-3500 or through
public sources, including the company's SEC filings.
Statements contained in this press release, which are
not historical facts, are forward-looking statements subject
to risks and uncertainties as discussed more fully in
the company's filings with the SEC, including its most
recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.
EFI, the EFI logo, Fiery, the Fiery logo,
Fiery Driven, the Fiery Driven logo, and other terms and
product names as indicated in this release are registered
trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and
certain other foreign jurisdictions.
Fiery
Prints, Fiery Z4, Fiery X4, EDOX, eBeam, and other terms
and product names as indicated in this release are trademarks
of Electronics For Imaging, Inc.
All
other terms and product names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged.
Media
Representatives Contacts:
For Electronics for Imaging:
Melissa Prusher
MRB Public Relations, Inc.
732-758-1100
mprusher@mrb-pr.com
For PictureTel:
Kevin Caviston
O'Keeffe & Company, Inc.
610-325-6553
kcaviston@okeeffeco.com
