Konica Business Technologies Partners with Barr to Provide an Off-host Printing Solution

Product Allows Konica's Customers To Preserve Investments In Existing Legacy Assets

WINDSOR, Conn. - Konica Business Technologies, Inc., the innovation leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced a premier partnership with Barr Systems. This relationship will provide a high-performance host printing and print management solution called the Barr Enterprise Print Server (BEPS), an off-host software/hardware solution targeted toward datacenter environments, central reprographics departments (CRD), plus mid-range and mainframe host environments.

Konica's off-host printing solution combines the power of BEPS with Konica's line of award-winning digital printers, providing Windows NT-based input/output print and document management solutions that maximize customers' investments in network applications. These solutions can receive data from multiple sources such as AS/400, mainframes, UNIX host, or network users.

Once received, the data then can be distributed to multiple destinations such as printers, report distribution systems or electronic storage. Konica customers can replace older channel-attached printers with network-attached printers. Additionally, users can print to Konica datacenter printers and Konica's full line of printer/copiers, accessing the advanced features that accompany the company's latest mid to high-volume products, without making changes to their host computing system.

"Once all of your hosts and applications are talking to each other, you need to ensure that the host print streams are in the right format for their destination devices," said Kevin Kern, vice president, development and support, Konica Business Technologies, Inc. "Konica's off-host printing solution was designed to provide these printing and connectivity solutions to organizations with these specific production printing needs. We selected BARR Systems' technology because their 20 years of experience with more than 42,000 installations put them above the rest."

Pate Cantrell, marketing strategist of Barr Systems, said, "By working with companies, such as Konica, offering best-of-breed products that complement our own high-performance solutions, Barr is able to extend its knowledge base and serve as a valuable resource to its customers and partners. The most successful companies in any industry are the ones that team up with innovative partners that have proven track records in their own specialized areas. At Barr Systems, our partnering choices reflect our commitment to providing complete, integrated solutions that maintain our rigorous standards of cost-effectiveness and quality."

Konica's off-host printing solution becomes a more powerful system with the Barr Print Server's optional data stream conversions. With this transformation software, Xerox Metacode and LCDS print data streams can be converted to PCL, Postscript, PDF, TIFF and VIPP files. Converting these files allows users to print their current files to Konica printers.

Konica's Off-Host Printing Solution Capabilities:

• Print Xerox LCDS or Metacode files on Postscript® and PCL enabled printers

• Convert Xerox LCDS or Metacode files to PDF for storage and online distribution

• Archive print files in a viewable format

• Use original fonts, ensuring exact line-ending fidelity

• Proof print production documents on Postscript or PCL printers

• Transform host print streams on the fly

Availability

The Konica off-host printing solution is currently available through Konica's direct sales, authorized dealer and reseller network.

About Barr Systems, Inc.

Barr Systems' software and hardware products provide enterprise-wide printing and connectivity solutions to organizations ranging from Fortune 1,000 corporations to small businesses. Incorporated in 1978, the company serves an international customer base that has installed more than 42,000 products. Experts in print management and host connectivity, Barr Systems works in alliance with other communications and networking vendors to offer complete systems integration. Thousands of financial, government and education groups have turned to Barr for their print and file management solutions. Barr products help these businesses print on demand more than 300 billion pages each year. For more information about Barr Systems and its full range of network communications and printing solutions, visit the Barr Web site at barrsystems.com.

About Konica Business Technologies, Inc.

Konica Business Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Windsor, Conn., is an industry-leading provider of digital solutions for document creation, distribution and production. Konica offers a full line of printers, multifunction and copier products through direct sales offices, authorized dealers, resellers and distribution partners located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America. Konica is also a Microsoft Solution Provider. For more information, please visit Konica on the World Wide Web at www.konicabt.com.