Danville company grows to connect businesses to IT services

Running a business requires documents, data and administrative or back-office functions.

Horizontech Inc., a global technology services company that’s been headquartered in Danville since 2007, helps companies or government agencies store and process data and solve workflow problems faster and with fewer data errors than even in-house workers and computer programmers can provide, President Dave Zook told members of the Danville Development Council on Jan. 31.

Even so, customers can use Horizontech’s web-based platform to allow their own workers to solve problems or can access their data and get real-time reporting on how Horizontech solves process problems, he said. Projects can include processing trucking trip documents, driver’s registration and title applications for government agencies or electronic medical claims.

Horizontech developed its own flexible software system called XperTran, which allows for custom solutions and 24/7 access, just as “cloud computing” started taking off. Most customers are corporate, and Horizontech has never lost a customer because of its service, Zook said.

Zook founded Horizontech in 1998 as document imaging was becoming standard. A lot of work at the 50,000-square-foot Danville facility at 417 Bridge St. has involved receiving mailed documents that workers scan or use to enter data into computer systems.

Now, as digital imaging, server storage and web-based operations are commonplace, most customers have already digitized their documents to send electronically to Horizontech, Zook said. So, the company focuses more on customer service, quality control and problem solving.

That means future jobs at Horizontech will be more in computer programming and customer service, Zook said. Currently, the company has 110 employees, half who work from home, and include mail room clerks, data entry clerks and quality control clerks.

“I think we have a unique answer in the marketplace — a very competitive solution in the marketplace — and there is a need for it,” Zook said.

Horizontech has room to grow in Danville and Zook said the company will “go where the growth takes us.”

Recently, demand and excitement in the field has grown for dealing with returned mail. So, Horizontech acquired Returned Mail Solutions, Inc. in 2010. With it came technology that can, 50 percent of the time, find and update the addresses of where people moved so billers can send invoices. It can also update the company’s database for future needs.

“It’s a cash flow issue to the companies we are solving,” Zook said, explaining companies can’t get paid until bills are received.

Horizontech is announcing widely on Tuesday its release of “Enterprise Application Integration Solutions” for health care businesses, according to a news release. “Enterprise AIS” is a less costly answer for health-care providers or payers who experience connectivity issues with software and hardware associated with clinical and financial applications.

Once Horizontech defines functional requirements, the system can be implemented in 30 days or less.

“Our health care customers have been telling us for years that one of the biggest issues is connectivity and integration between the various platforms, services and business applications,” said Zook in the news release. “The systems and data simply do not talk to one another.”

For more information, visit www.horizontech.com.