Nuance has announced the $US157 million purchase of Equitrac, the provider of intelligent print management and cost recovery software.

Equitrac solutions have been adopted by more than 25,000 organisations worldwide to implement secure and managed printing for enterprise, global and mobile workforces.

The acquisition expands Nuance’s document imaging portfolio, adding Equitrac’s print management products to eCopy ShareScan scanning and workflow solutions, and to Nuance OmniPage, PaperPort and PDF Converter Professional desktop applications.

The addition of Equitrac also strengthens Nuance’s global channel partnerships with multifunction printer (MFP) vendors, including Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta, Ricoh and HP – each of whom currently sell both Equitrac print management and Nuance eCopy scanning solutions through their dealers or as part of their Managed Print Services (MPS) portfolios.

“Equitrac expands our ability to provide our customers and MFP partners with solutions that deliver even higher levels of cost savings and office productivity,” said Robert Weideman, senior vice president and general manager of the Nuance Document Imaging Division.

“Equitrac delivers proven value in healthcare, financial, legal and educational organisations, and provides secure print capabilities to desktop and mobile global office workers. This complements Nuance’s strengths in mobile and office productivity, and aligns well to Nuance’s key verticals, especially healthcare.”

Equitrac’s Follow-You printing lets users print documents from their desktop as usual, then use card-swipe or log-in identification at a networked MFP to view and select their documents for on-demand printing. No matter where they go in their organisation – an MFP around the corner from their office or at office locations across the globe – the user’s personalised on-demand document selections are instantly available from the MFP touch-screen. In a hospital setting for example, care providers can securely access and print standardized forms or specific patient reports from any MFP or printer on the network – a nurse’s station, physician’s office or emergency room.

“There’s a long history of customers selecting Equitrac as their MFP print management solution and Nuance eCopy as their MFP scanning solution. From day one, the combination of Nuance and Equitrac delivers the best of scanning and best of print management to our customers and partners worldwide,” said Michael Rich, president and CEO, Equitrac Corporation.

“Even better, Nuance’s leadership in speech recognition, healthcare solutions and intelligent touch-screen interfaces provide a fertile ground for innovations that promise to deliver breakthrough increases in cost savings and office productivity.”

Nuance eCopy connects to over 200 applications, including content management, database and financial software. Equitrac connects to over 50 cost recovery, auditing and financial systems, expanding Nuance’s capabilities to include support for important enterprise applications such as SAP and others.