Alexander Brunner
Chairman &
CEO
Nicolas
(Nick) Brunner, COO
VersaIMAGE
Software CORPORATION
Company Background:
Alexander Brunner (“ALEX”) had his start in the Information Management Industry
with Eastman Kodak in Washington DC and the 3M Company in San Francisco, CA. He
took over the Michigan branch of the Mark Larwood Company, then a California
company specializing in “Title take-off services” for the Title Insurance
Industry in the early 70's. Alex built the small Larwood operation into
Michigan’s largest microfilm service bureau and then acquired the company.
At the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) show in Chicago
in 1975 ALEX introduced the first prototype of industry's first microprocessor
controlled microfilm controller (VISCO) with great success. He continued
the innovative development with interfaces to reader printers from 3M, Kodak,
Bell & Howell, Minolta, Canon and other manufacturers in the then new
micrographics industry. In 1978 Alex pursued his dream to manufacture and
distribute VISCO controllers worldwide.
In the 1980’s Alex expanded his service bureau business with in-house developed
Computer Assisted Retrieval (CAR) software and his own VISCO hardware solutions
providing document management solutions for Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation
in Detroit, Chicago, Richmond (Virginia), Atlanta, Boston, Washington DC, the
Ford Motor Company and the US. Navy.
In 1992 ALEX sold his service bureau including his sophisticated raster to
vector engineering drawing scanning operation to pursue his then new idea of
“ScreenScan” a retrofit film scanner for microfilm readers. ALEX arranged a
partnership with Nanomach AG, a Dr. F. Porsche Company in Liechtenstein for
development and eventually sold his ScreenScan interests in 1996 after arranging
OEM opportunities with Bell & Howell and Eastman Kodak Company.
From that time on ALEX has been involved in hybrid document imaging
software development first marketed under the name of “Blue Water Software”
(VersaCAR) in 1992 and later known as “VersaIMAGE Software”. VersaIMAGE provides
microfilm CAR conversion capability to clients who have outdated and mostly
unsupported legacy CAR systems from Kodak, Bell & Howell, 3M, Canon, Minolta and
others. VersaIMAGE
provides very unique hybrid imaging solutions by interfacing with most legacy
micrographics hardware devices via custom developed drivers and virtually all
ISIS and TWAIN controlled paper and microfilm scanners combining “old” and “new”
technologies in one user friendly system. VersaIMAGE now also offers full image text
search retrieval capability of microfilm and paper images.
More recently ALEX has been involved in specialty industry conversions including
automotive engineering and manufacturing projects such as the “Print Room
Audit Solution” in partnership with Pitney Bowes Management Services (PBMS)
a global leader of management services solutions. VersaIMAGE has been involved
in major development, consulting and services projects for PBMS at Ford Motor
Company, Visteon and GM Europe.
Alex’s son Nicolas (Nick) Brunner joined the company in 2005 as
VP. Nick is a graduate from Michigan State University and has 10 years of
involvement in all aspects of VersaIMAGE software development, testing and
applications. Nick has been instrumental in the development of the ScanCART
program for in-house use by large corporate clients and service bureaus.
2011: Development of direct scan-to-web and web indexing
applications to supplement the SaaS Versa-IMAGEVAULT offering
2007 to Current: VersaIMAGE became a PBMS
Strategic Partner and increased its involvement in Business Intelligence
applications within PBMS’ Fortune 500 client base. VersaIMAGE offers web based OLAP data
cube services for the enterprise, web data input, workflow design and publishing
services via its US and offshore BI development partners. Versa “data cubes”
allow web based graphical management analysis of massive data sources in minutes
rather than hours or days.
AIIM Pioneer Award:
Alex is a well known imaging and information systems innovator, was one of the
first Presidents of the Michigan AIIM Chapter. He received the prestigious “AIIM
Industry Pioneer Award” known today as the Carl E. Nelson Innovation Award from
the Association of Information and Image Management (AIIM) in Chicago in 1996.
This coveted award is not necessarily given every year and only recognizes major
contributions to furthering the information industry as a whole for a period of
25 years or more.
Alex has been a frequent speaker at AIIM, ARMA, SME organizations and has
development, sales and marketing contacts throughout the industry worldwide.
Innovation Highlights…
- First industry application of microprocessors. Used primarily
for the automated retrieval of analog microfilm images with the VISCO microfilm
controller in1975 VISCO controllers became an industry standard and were sold by
Bell & Howell worldwide under OEM relationships as the “Image Search
controller”. Kodak, Canon, Minolta, Anacomp, Agfa, Imtec, Zeutschel and many
other companies had OEM relationships with VISCO. A few of the highlights are
listed below.
- Information Handling Services signed a $1,000,000 contract for
VISCO microfilm controllers in 1978
- EDS installed 50+ controllers at Blue Cross Blue Shield in
Dallas in 1979 with 3M reader printers
- 100+ VISCO / Canon controllers were installed at AMEX credit
card facilities in 1980 in London UK, Toronto, New York, Ft. Lauderdale and
Phoenix, AZ.
- 120+ VISCO controllers were installed in 1982 at Ford Motor
Company’s North American central accounting facility in Dearborn using Bell &
Howell microfilm reader printers.
- 1984: Development of highly specialized VISCO microfilm
scanners, document feeders and 300 dpi RASTER COM plotters under contract for
Ziff Davis Corporation.
- Development of the first automated SGML conversion service
bureau using digital images and OCR/ICR technologies in 1986 to perform SGML
document conversions for the US Navy. STS Information Systems later became the
STS division of IBM Canada.
- Invention of the ScreenScan device that received the 1994 Imaging Product of
the Year Award. ScreenScan converts microfilm readers into a digital scanner by
replacing the “reading” screen with a special “scanning screen”.
- OEM ScreenScan sales to Bell & Howell in 1994
- Fidelity Investments and Chicago Title buy ScreenScan for
Kodak IMT, IDW and Minolta workstations.
- Kodak OEM introduction
- Acquired by Indus International Corp. in 2004
- 2000+ Development of Bi3.Net Bi3.Net is the Business
Intelligence Industry’s first ASP (Application Services Provider) offering low
cost OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) services over the web. This service is
geared to bring Business Intelligence Services to small and midsized companies
that cannot afford to spend the large dollars required for Business Intelligence
applications today.
- 1990 – Current: VersaIMAGE SOFTWARE:
Development of what began as “Blue
Water Systems” hybrid Windows imaging software (VersaCAR & VersaIMAGE) allowing universal digital and analog
image management within the same imaging system.
- 1997 Exclusive VersaIMAGE Software Distribution agreement with
DocuCOM for Canada
- 2000 OEM release of the AgfaIMAGE 32 hybrid imaging solution in Europe
with AGFA N.V.
- 2002 Development of the MicroDAX 5.0 document and microfilm
scanning software solution for Konica-Minolta Corporation.
- 2004 Development of the “ScanCART”, an innovative document imaging
system “on wheels” allowing mobile, local, secure imaging conversion services to
CD and servers via wireless networks.
- 2004 Development of the “Print Room Audit Solution” for the
automotive manufacturing and engineering industry utilizing VersaIMAGE 32.
- 2005 Final release of the VersaIMAGE-GOLD full image text search software
solution for mortgage, health (HIPAA & SEC) and other document image management
applications.
- 2007 Release of the VersaView.NETTM internet browser capability for VersaIMAGE-GOLDTM and VersaIMAGE-32TM
- 2008 VersaIMAGE.NET
application release for Software as a Service (“SaaS”) applications for service
bureaus.
- 2009 MicroDAX-6
software release for black and white or color image scanning from paper and
microfilm scanners replacing the MicroDAX-5 product developed specifically for
Konica Minolta Corporation in 2002.
- 2009 Versa-IMAGEVAULT SaaS
offering for VersaIMAGE VAR customers and Versa customers.