London January 6, 2011 – Kodak (NYSE:EK) today announced that Etisalat, the Middle East’s largest telecommunications operator, has enhanced its scanner fleet selecting Kodak’s high performance equipment for use in its scanning division.

Etisalat has purchased Kodak i730 high volume desktop production scanners and i1320 Plus compact departmental scanners which will be installed at scanning centres across the United Arab Emirates.

Etisalat offers a one-stop-shop for mobile and fixed line voice and data services to individuals, enterprises, as well as international telecoms companies, ISPs, content providers and mobile operators.  Etisalat operates in 18 countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa servicing over 110 million customers. 

Kodak’s i730 and i1320 Plus scanners are compact, fast, and easy-to-use. In addition, Kodak’s Perfect Page imaging technology has radically improved the quality of images produced, with double feed detection improving operator productivity as stuck pages can be corrected without having to rescan whole batches.

Perfect Page means that image size has been reduced by 30% because the software automatically despeckles scanned documents as they are digitised.  With so many images produced, the reduction in disc storage space subsequently required is significant.

Elias Mouchantaf, Kodak’s business development manager, Middle East, explains, “Our adaptive thresholding technology means we are able to adjust settings easily so that handwriting is really black, and the background of documents truly white.”

The Kodak i730 scanners are the only scanners in their price/performance class that operate at full-rated speeds with all advanced image processing features switched on, including dual-stream, irrespective of whether scanning is done at 200 or 300 dpi.

Rated for up to 90,000 pages per day or 90 pages per minute, the i730 scanners have low-cost consumables such as rollers which are over 20% cheaper than competitive brands.

In one pass, the i730 scanners provide five output options: black & white, colour, grayscale, plus two dual stream options, with up to four images produced each scan.  The auto orientation feature means document content is analysed on-the-fly and images displayed in the correct reading orientation without affecting speed so time is saved on document preparation. 

The Kodak i1320 Plus departmental scanners are used in offices where the scanning volumes are lower and where space is at a premium and an ergonomic design is helpful.

Laszlo Platthy-Pap, Kodak’s sales director, Middle East, says, “Kodak scanners offer a compelling mix of price/performance benefits and truly delivers a tangible ROI payoff crucial as companies seek to improve productivity while keeping a tight rein on costs.  Etisalat is a major account for us in the Middle East and we are delighted to be its partner of choice.”