Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers in a number of industries. Professionals in healthcare, automotive, legal, financial, government, construction, education, energy/utilities, insurance, journalism, retail, service providers, and travel/hospitality are all users of Nuance solutions.
With worldwide headquarters in Burlington, MA, the company contracts approximately 12,000 full-time employees. These dedicated workers are spread out through regional offices in 39 countries, including EMEA headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and APAC headquarters in Sydney, Australia. It reported non-GAAP revenue of approximately $1.7 billion for FY 2012.
Nuance focuses on linking man and machine in the most natural, human, and intuitive way possible. Its many voice and language solutions support up to50 different languages and this is largely due to a team of over 1,200 speech scientists and researchers.
Some of the company’s most popular products include Equitrac, Dragon, and OmniPage. According to Nuance, nearly two-thirds of Fortune 100 companies rely on Nuance solutions. There are 22 million registered users of the company’s desktop solutions and millions of mobile consumers have downloaded Dragon Mobile Apps.
Power to the PDF
In April 2014, Nuance expanded its portfolio with the introduction of Nuance Power PDF. The solution offers business users the tools to create, manage, share, and secure PDF files plus document conversion, search, and connectivity.
Nuance developed Power PDF in response to current and prospective customers, usability studies, market observations, and competitive insight. “Our research indicated a deep market need for an easy-to-use PDF solution that contained powerful PDF creation, assembly, and editing with pricing and licensing that made it viable for organizations to provide across the entire organization,” explains Jess Walker, director of product management, PDF, Nuance.
Business users familiar with Microsoft Office will have no problem working within the user interface, as it reflects a similar style. According to Walker, providing a user-friendly experience is essential.
“The new Microsoft Office-style ribbon user interface provides a familiar user experience that minimizes training time, increases productivity, and reduces the number of clicks required to complete common tasks. This was an important adaption as PDF is the standard format for business document collaboration, yet most users lack adequate PDF power.”
The Ultimate Collaboration Tool
Power PDF is the ultimate PDF collaboration tool. Developers of the solution aim to offer efficiency to all users through a number of key features.
Users looking to combine, remove, or replace pages between multiple, complex documents can do so with ease using a drag-and-drop function. Batch tools are available to automate repetitive tasks as well.
Side-by-side document comparison allows for the easy discovery of differences between two documents. The tool accurately highlights variations in text and visuals and then provides a summary report of all the changes.
Nuance integrated Dragon Notes into Power PDF, which allows for the quick and accurate dictation of notes within a PDF.
Batch workflows are easily managed. Users can create workflows to automate large-scale PDF creation or conversion, stamping, watermarking, OCR, redaction, inserting or deleing pages, and Bates numbering tasks.
Power PDF converts PDFs to editable Microsoft Office documents. This even includes files with complex layouts such as columns, tables, and graphics. Conversely, users can generate PDFs from authoring tools such as Microsoft Office with all tags, bookmarks, links, and references intact.
Security is top of mind. The solution includes secure delivery, document inspection, redaction, encryption, and digital rights management capabilities to maintain control of documents throughout their entire lifecycle. The software is equipped with the option to deploy PDF files in read-only mode to enforce compliance with SOX, GLBA, HIPAA, and eDiscovery regulatory mandates.
To increase efficiency, Power PDF integrates with a number of third party applications. These include Box.net, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Docs, Office 365, and Windows Live SkyDrive for small offices to enterprise-class content management systems from Autonomy, Documentum, SharePoint, and NetDocs.
Pricing Points
Nuance Power PDF is available through Nuance’s global network of reseller, retail, and e-commerce partners. It is offered in two different versions. Power PDF Advanced—for mid-sized, large, and enterprise corporations—is $149.99 with volume discounts available. Power PDF Standard—for individuals, home offices, and small workgroups—is offered for $99.99. SW
May2014, Software Magazine
