Following the acquisition, EFI intends to streamline its MIS portfolio, replacing both its PSI and Logic products with the ePace browser-based system.

Marc Olin, EFI senior vice president and general manager of its Advanced Professional Print Software (APPS) division, said the acquisition was crucial to serving the needs of its mid-market clients.

He said: "In 2006 we realised that the writing was on the wall for PSI and we started development on PSI X, but we were basically in a race against time to get to the market quickly enough.

"We started to look to see if there was something else out there that we could acquire and use as a platform for this mid-market segment and the number one system that PSI and Logic clients switched to was ePace."

EFI said that planned version releases of both PSI and Logic would still go out this year, beyond which both products would be supported through maintenance releases.

"We are working on migration options to bring those clients over to either Hagen or ePace and we will be looking at aggressive pricing to encourage people to switch," said Olin.

He estimated that EFI might achieve in the region of a 5-10% conversion rate in the first year.

One of the key advantages of ePace, which will be rebranded EFI Pace, is that it has the ability to be localised for different markets, aiding EFI's bid to expand its install base outside of its domestic US market.

Olin said: "Within 12 months we hope to bring EFI Pace to Europe."

EFI also announced plans to combine its Hagen OA, ProGraph, PrintFlow and AutoCount products to form EFI Monarch, which will be targeted at large single and multi-plant operations. Customers will be able to continue to use all four products separately if they choose.

Meanwhile, EFI PrintSmith will continue to be the California-based company's entry-level MIS, targeted at on-demand, copy shop, quick printer and small commercial printers.