One of the worlds leading independent evaluators of document imaging software, hardware and services, BLI, has named Xerox Corporation as the latest recipient of its Outstanding Achievement in Innovation Award, with the Xerox App Studio 3.0. receiving this accolade.BLI claims to give special recognition to products or capabilities that stand out in terms of innovation, usefulness, energy efficiency or sheer value in its Outstanding Achievement Awards. It suggests that the fact that App Studio is an open platform that enables many different customised apps to be created set it apart from the competition.According to Erica Marks, marketing manager: Xerox products at Bytes Document Solutions, App Studio has been designed to be a user-friendly, Web-based tool that allows resellers of all sizes and skills sets to easily create and deploy custom multi-function printer (MFP) resident capture/routing solutions. This, she adds, will enhance the usability and value proposition of Xeroxs ConnectKey-enabled MFPs. The kind of customised apps one can create include hosted workflows such as Scan to or Print from Office 365 and Dropbox accounts. You can even print from your own Website, giving your users instant access to the most up to date material, says Marks.Imagine an MFP that can be customised and built to meet customers’ particular business needs. Thanks to App Studio, the ConnectKey-enabled i-Series MFPs provide these services and more. ConnectKey Apps allow for a truly customised and personalised experience by aligning the multifunction printers to specific business processes. They also help to increase user productivity by simplifying and shortening everyday tasks.Marks points out that App Studio allows channel partners to build and tailor MFPs, using simple templates that modify and customise the user interface to synchronise to their business processes. Xerox currently offers 11 templates. Among these are capture apps for scanning to e-mail, FTP sites, share folders, USB and multi destinations, as well as licensed apps that allow users to scan to and print from Dropbox and Office 365 and to print from a URL.App Studio offers additional benefits beyond those already outlined, explains Marks. Because the tool allows resellers to create an ecosystem of interconnected software and hardware for customers, it puts them in a far better position to maintain long-term relationships with their customers. In addition to this, the customers themselves will benefit, as these apps help increase efficiency and productivity in the workplace, by providing one touch access to common workflows, concludes Marks.Recognising the incredible benefits that the award-winning App Studio can offer to both resellers and their clients, Xerox has now also invited other developers to create apps and list them in the app studio store. In this way, resellers can also obtain licenses for these and distribute them to their customers, adding further value.About Bytes Document SolutionsBytes Document Solutions, a division of the Bytes Technology Group, is Africas leading document management technology and solutions company, offering a comprehensive range of products and services. A wholly-owned division of JSE-listed Altron, Bytes Document Solutions is the authorised Xerox distributor in 26 sub-Saharan countries, and has an annual turnover of more than R2 billion. In 2014, the company celebrated two important milestones: Xeroxs 50th year in South Africa, as well as the invention of xerography, the basis of the most widely used document-copying machines, which was developed by Xerox 75 years ago. www.xerox.co.za – End –