Lanier Worldwide Wins

Lanier Worldwide Wins Prestigious IT Award for Excellence in Automation

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2003--Lanier Worldwide, Inc. announced today that it has been selected as the recipient of the 2003 Automation Innovation Award, presented by Software and Management Associates (SMA), a worldwide provider of enterprise automation solutions.
SMA established the Automation Innovation Award in 2001, as a way of recognizing organizations that are using computer automation in an innovative and creative manner, whether the selected organization is utilizing internally developed tools or commercial software products.
"Lanier is honored to be this year's recipient of the Automation Innovation Award because it reinforces our corporate commitment and goal of using information technology to improve total customer satisfaction," said Lanier's Vice President of Information Technology Sean Magee. "Through automation we are able to accomplish more in a shorter period of time, enabling us to be more responsive to our customers needs and better equipped to improve their business efficiencies."
Lanier was selected for the award based on its commitment of utilizing automation to better serve its customers. Implementing OpCon/xps(TM), SMA's solution that automates the entire enterprise, Lanier was able to streamline its enterprise-wide automated scheduling and processing to increase efficiencies and be more productive. Additionally, by leveraging IT automation and job scheduling functionality, Lanier demonstrated they are at the forefront of automation -- providing employees with essential information in a more timely manner, which allows them to work "smarter" and react more quickly to customer needs.
Michael Taylor, SMA president commented, "Lanier's commitment to deliver value to its customers is evident when looking at how they use automation to increase IT efficiencies. SMA is continually impressed by the innovative solutions crafted by our customers that address critical production issues and Lanier is a 'best in class' example of how leveraging automation can strengthen a company's competitive advantage."

ABOUT SMA

Software and Management Associates, d/b/a SMA, founded in 1980, is an industry leader in providing enterprise automation solutions to data centers around the globe. Their goal is to offer the best automation solutions and associated services to organizations for which multiple platform/application automation is a critical business requirement. Whether a company is implementing e-business solutions, ERP applications, or automation improvements in existing IT environments, SMA products automate the complete organization. Their products bring the functionality of mainframe job scheduling to an open systems environment and take the guesswork out of automating enterprise workloads.
SMA's OpCon/xps(TM), is an enterprise-wide scheduling solution, automates, centralizes, and manages the scheduling of jobs while supporting more open system platforms than any other product. Its unique product design provides the reliability, scalability, and flexibility needed to manage today's varied IT environments.
Among SMA's list of diverse partnerships are Unisys, Hewlett-Packard Channel Partner and HP OpenView Portfolio Partner. SMA's main headquarters are located in Humble, Texas, USA and SMA-Europe is located in Ziegelbrucke, Switzerland. SMA also maintains developmental and consulting partnerships around the world.

ABOUT LANIER WORLDWIDE, INC.

Lanier Worldwide, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Corporation, the Americas sales and marketing unit of Ricoh Company, Ltd., a $14.5 billion global manufacturer of digital copier/printers. Lanier helps its customers succeed by understanding their unique document management needs and delivering systems and services that increase efficiency, reduce cost, and improve document workflow. Award-winning solutions include digital multifunction products (color and monochrome), printers (color and monochrome), multifunction facsimile, scanners, digital duplicators, and wide format systems, as well as facilities management and outsourcing services.
Lanier distinguishes itself through DOCutivity(R), a unique methodology used to develop innovative solutions to achieve business results. Lanier has earned industry-wide recognition for dedication to customer service, driven by a company philosophy called Customer Vision(R). Founded in 1934, Lanier is based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. For more information, please visit www.lanier.com.