Compart: Document and Output Management

The starting shot was fired in 1992 with a classic market gap: the huge demand for OS/2 platform services and the limited selection of services available up to this point lead the current Chairman of the Supervisory Board Harald Grumser and three other specialists to come up with the idea of founding Compart Systemhaus GmbH. Right from the start, the company provided services for noteworthy customers. For example, one of the first projects was the entire human resources department at BASF. This great success meant that the services for the IBM platform remained the very successful core business over several years. In addition to OS/2, Lotus Notes quickly became a second focus point in the company’s project business. However, even in the initial phase, the foundations were laid for the future of Compart Systemhaus GmbH as an independent software developer: It became clear at an early stage during everyday OS/2 project business that only a small number of applications were available for this operating system.

In 1992 the first - and also very successful - of Compart’s own products was created: Over 3,000 OS/2 image viewers, originally developed for BASF, were sold in a reader action in the magazine OS/2 Inside and was also expanded as Compart Impos image processing software for OS/2 in the same year. By the end of OS/2 in 1996, Impos was the world’s leading OS/2 image processing software. Over 70 percent of ARD broadcast companies used Impos for their press archive, which for instance enabled them to view scanned press articles. This task was taken over by Compart Software DocBridge View in the environments which had developed in the meantime.

Compart customers still indirectly benefit from Impos today: The comprehensive know-how which Compart experts developed in the area of OS/2 and particularly in document processing within the scope of the Impos technology formed the basis for current Compart technology. The year 1996 eventually marked a turning point in the company’s history. IBM started to move out of the SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) market segment with OS/2. This resulted in the problem that existing OS/2 platforms needed to be moved to other operating systems, which particularly affected customers. For Compart, this initially resulted in an intensive review of platform porting, so that we were able to successfully support customers with this complex task. However, not only the customers’ platforms were ported. Many deep-rooted changes were also made at Compart. Focus shifted from the SOHO area to medium-sized and large customers, who had been provided with many completely newly developed products for document and output processing on the most diverse platforms.

This show of strength proved to be the actual technical joker. In contrast to many other manufacturers, which dealt with new enveloping and formatting requirements by extending the existing products, Compart took another approach right from the start: The aim was to develop a single technological basis for all products, which was able to process the most diverse of formats in an extremely flexible way and which could be used universally on the main existing and future platforms. In addition to this flexibility, performance considerations were a particular focus point. Using the technology initially used in individual customer projects, Compart eventually developed the universally applicable products of the DocBridge^® series.

The deep-running understanding of document formats and their features, based on many years of experience with using different formats, helped Compart to become a market leader in the document format conversion sector in German-speaking countries at the turn of the century.

2007 was a year of changes - Compart moved away from its activities as a supplier of product components to become a solution provider. The restructuring of the company and the foundation of Compart Deutschland GmbH as a marketing and service company for Germany resulted in a clear division of core areas of expertise: The parent company transferred the entire project and service business for German customers to Compart System Integration (now Compart Deutschland GmbH) so that it could (formerly Compart Systemhaus GmbH) focus mainly on product development and support, in addition to partner support.

In this way, both the service features and the Compart's portfolio of services could be developed further beyond its enveloping services. In the case of the focused further development of the DocBridge Pilot product, where the main aim was to optimize and manage mailings, the focus point shifted to more complex challenges in the field of output management: The basic products which had been tested in practice and were flanked by comprehensive consultation and project expertise helped Compart to establish itself as a solutions provider in this sector.

On the basis of the success in German-speaking countries, Compart is driving ahead with the further internationalization of the company. Four regional subsidiaries outside Germany have now been added to the Compart Group. Compart North America Inc. in Boston/United States, Compart Iberia S.L. in Madrid/Spain, Compart Nordic ApS in Hillerød/Denmark and Compart France S.A.S. in Lyon/France. More will follow.

Compart can look back on over 19 years of continuous and healthy growth. The crisis of the IT sector over the past few years has not had any lasting effects on Compart. Two thirds of the company’s employees work in development. Last but not least, Compart’s products and solutions have been among the highest performers in the document processing market for many years and are not only used in numerous medium-sized and large companies in German-speaking countries but are also increasingly popular aboard.  As components in the products of many leading DMS and output management manufacturers, they improve central processes used for document processing. Compart’s software is easy to install, is based on sector standards and guarantees a quick return on investment. By constantly expanding and improving the products, the experts at Compart have secured the future performance of the software solutions.

Compart’s customers can therefore look forward to continued high-performance solutions which are technological leaders. In addition to the consistent further development and expansion of the portfolio, the next aim is the further international expansion, a main priority on Compart Group’s strategy roadmap.