Equitrac

Infobox_Company
company_name = Equitrac Corporation
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = Miami, Florida (1977)
key_people = Michael Rich, CEO
Angelo Gencarelli, CFO
location = flagicon|USA Plantation, Florida, USA
num_employees = over 300
industry = document output management and cost recovery
products = Equitrac Express, Office and Professional; TouchPoint Console
company_slogan = Make Documents Count
homepage = [http://www.equitrac.com/ www.equitrac.com]

Equitrac is a global software company that provides document cost management (auditing, allocation, recovery) and output management solutions for printers, copiers and multifunction devices. Its target markets are professional services firms, general office and enterprise plus hospitality and higher education. The company has more than a 70 percent market share among large law firms.

Equitrac is headquartered in Plantation, Florida; has offices in the US, Canada and Europe and global distribution via a network of certified value added distributors and resellers. The company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

History

The company was launched by John Kane and George Wilson in 1977 as a regional distributor of copier control systems with five employees. It was long best known for selling the hardware that attaches to photocopiers and tracks their use for billing purposes. In the 1980s, Equitrac was twice named to the INC. 500 list as one of the country's fastest growing private companies. In 1991 it bought out its largest competitor, and then in 1992 went public and was listed on the NASDAQ Exchange.

trategy Shift

Technology has advanced since Equitrac's founding, but the promise of a "paperless" office never materialized. Instead, offices use more paper than ever before, racking up increasingly large copying and printing bills. Equitrac changed gears to solidify its lead and grab more market share. The company began diversifying by developing software embedded in networked copiers, printers and multifunction devices, from manufacturers such as Xerox, Ricoh, Canon and Sharp. That switch also ushered in a fundamental shift in how Equitrac earned its money: While previously it helped companies track costs that would later be charged back to clients; now Equitrac helps those firms cut paper and ink costs.

In 1999, top executives of the publicly traded firm wanted to cash out but found the thinly traded shares were nearly non-liquid. Eventually, New York-based private equity firm Cornerstone Partners purchased Equitrac and took it private. The $74 million purchase was financed in part by the shares of the executives, but mostly with $24.6 million from Cornerstone and $44 million in loans.

In 2000 Equitrac acquired Software Metrics, Inc. based in Waterloo, Ontario, near several universities with strong software programming curricula, who had been working with Equitrac since 1998 under a technology licensing agreement.

In 2002 Michael Rich joined the company as CEO. Rich had previously run Ernst & Young's law firm consulting practice, helped launch AT&T's Internet business and ran publicly held NetSpeak in Boca Raton. To cut costs at Equitrac, he outsourced its hardware business to Celestica Inc., centralized its software development and technical support at former Software Metrics and shuttered its Florida manufacturing plant and software development centres.

In 2004, the company relocated its 80 South Florida employees from Coral Gables to Plantation.

In 2005 Rich was ranked one of the top CEO's in Florida by the South Florida's "CEO" magazine. In addition, Mr. Rich has done numerous press conferences with various public figures such as Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

Products

Among Equitrac's product lines are both hardware and software items, although Equitrac is known for its PageCounter line of document management consoles.

PageCounter

The PageCounter includes a plastic enclosure, an LCD screen capable of displaying three or four lines of text, and a keypad for entering information. The PageCounter connects to a document system (such as a photocopier or fax machine) via a serial or parallel cable, and further communicates with a database system on a computer via Ethernet or some other local area network, typically using a TCP/IP networking protocol.

Prior to using the copier, for example, the user enters an identifying code or username on the PageCounter, which is checked and recorded on the database. Once the identifying code is confirmed, the PageCounter signals the copier to permit copying, and the PageCounter tracks the number of sheets copied. When copying is complete, the PageCounter reports the number of copied sheets to the database after either the user explicitly ends the copying session by hitting a key on the PageCounter keypad, or after a time-out period elapses following confirmation of the identifying code.

oftware

Equitrac's software offerings include Equitrac Professional, a document accounting and cost management tool, marketed toward large legal and AEC companies

For the general office environment Equitrac market their Equitrac Office product and for educational establishments and Universitys Equitrac offer Equitrac Express. Both Office and Express are based on the same core module with specific features alined to each market segment.