Equitrac

In 1977, long before the promise of a "paperless office," founders John Kane and George Wilson started Equitrac in Florida with a simple mission: help businesses track and manage document costs. Initially, they focused on hardware devices that attached to copiers, primarily for law firms to bill printing costs back to their clients. This niche was successful, even landing the company on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies twice in the 1980s. The company went public in 1992, but as technology shifted, so did Equitrac's strategy. It moved from hardware to developing software embedded directly into networked printers and copiers from major manufacturers. This pivot changed its value proposition from simply tracking costs for billing to helping companies actively reduce their paper and ink expenses. A significant event occurred in 2011 when Nuance Communications, a leader in imaging and speech software, acquired Equitrac for $157 million. This acquisition integrated Equitrac's print management capabilities with Nuance's existing portfolio of scanning and workflow solutions. The journey continued when Kofax acquired Nuance's Document Imaging division in a deal announced in late 2018, bringing Equitrac under a new parent company and further cementing its position in the enterprise software market.