HOME  |   ABOUT US  |   PRODUCTS  |   RESOURCES  |   THE TEAM  |   CAREERS  |   CONTACT US  |   PDF  |   KORBITEC NORTH AMERICA The origins of Korbitec track back to the founding of Compustat. Among the original partners were Mendel Karpul, Mark Todes and Rolland Bryan, all of whom are still active members of the senior management team at Korbitec. Compustat was engaged from the outset in cutting-edge software development and was responsible for a number of the best known and most successful South African software applications in the 1980s and 90s. Some of the better-known software applications and services developed by the group since 1976 include: Internet Africa The first commercial Internet Service Provider in South Africa; sold into UUNET and has today become the largest ISP on the continent. GhostWriter A fully fledged DOS-based word processing system that competed directly with Word Perfect and others during the 1980s and early 90s. GhostWriter became a de facto standard for the legal profession in South Africa, outselling all other products in this market. Jutastat In 1988, with a full-text search engine developed by Compustat and with legal content from Juta & Co (one of South Africa's leading legal publishers), Jutastat became one of the first commercial CD-ROM publishers in the world. A comprehensive legal library was developed and sold extensively into the South African legal fraternity. GhostWriter Bond Program and other Legal Applications A slew of other vertical applications for the legal market were developed, harnessing the document assembly capabilities of GhostWriter. The "Mortgage Bond Program", in particular, was a first in this milieu, made possible through the advent of laser printers in the early 1980s. It was widely adopted throughout the South African legal fraternity. APCS This Real Estate Agency Administration System was adopted by almost all the real estate companies in South Africa. Bank Mortgage Loan Administration System Having completed the conveyancing (property transfer) system for attorneys and an agency administration system for real estate companies, it was a natural progression for us to offer a home-loan processing system for the lending institutions. The system provided for Internet-based transmission of instructions to attorneys. The Compact Collection A fully fledged ERP system that until 2002 competed very successfully in the South Africa market with the likes of SAP, Baan and JD Edwards. Compustat was twice elected onto South Africa's "Top-20 Non-listed Companies" list (as audited by Arthur Andersen). Several of its products received "Best Product" awards in locally adjudicated competitions. CEO Mendel Karpul was voted the Western Province Chapter of the Computer Society of South Africa's "IT Personality of the Year". Compustat directors successfully negotiated the sale of the company, together with its Internet Africa subsidiary, into Datatec, one of the major technology conglomerates listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. Internet Africa was merged into a joint venture between Datatec (76%) and UUNET (24%). The new shareholders retained the original Internet Africa staff to run and manage the company through its formative years in the heady pioneering days of the Internet revolution. Following a 100% successful earnout of the businesses sold to Datatec and UUNET, Korbitec was constituted out of a mutually acceptable management buyout of the software development components of these businesses. The new company was created with the intention of reinstating the software development origins of the founders. Close to 100 staffers, many of whom had been with the group since its early Compustat days, were brought into Korbitec. Korbitec completes its move into new headquarters in Newlands, Cape Town, and oversees the launch of several new commercial products. Staff complement approaches 190. Several new products are brought to market following a successful R&D track. The Korbitec Search Business is launched through the purchase of WinDeed, providing on-line searching of title deed information at the South African Deeds Office. Korbitec wins the bid to develop the American Institute of Architect's Contract Documents Software. The product is launched in 2003 and currently has in excess of 30,000 users throughout North America. GhostDigest is launched. Three years and over a thousand articles later - it remains the leader in publishing property and conveyancing news for attorneys. ITC and CIPRO (Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office) searches are added to the Korbitec Search product offering. The number of users of this popular service has been increasing steadily throughout South Africa. The user base of Korbitec's flagship GhostConvey product exceeds 5,000 for the first time and continues to grow steadily. Korbitec wins a bid to develop the "Drafting Wills and Trust Agreements" document assembly product for the Thomson West Corporation. The product is successfully launched into the North American market under the Thomson West banner. The GhostPractice legal practice management and accounting system is added to Korbitec's family of products.