Van Belkum - Voice and Data Technologies

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Company History

Q: Have you been doing this for a while?

A: To say the least.

Van Belkum has been providing quality service since 1959. Founder Nick Van Belkum and his partner Ken Faulkner started the business providing dictation equipment and services to customers throughout Michigan. The original dictation equipment they serviced used wax cylinders, plastic disks and magnetic belts as the recording media and included brands like Edison, Gray, Nyematic, and Stenocord.

In 1971, Van Belkum & Faulkner, Inc. became the exclusive distributor for Lanier Business Products for out-state Michigan. Lanier's dictation products were known for their excellent quality and durability as expected by hospitals, law firms, courts, and other businesses.

By the late 1970's Lanier had introduced word processing systems. Van Belkum installed one of the first "Shared" (networked) word processing systems in the country at Gerber Products in Fremont, Michigan. Contributing to Van Belkum's early success with word processing systems was an installation at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan valued at nearly a million dollars. These and other customers were serviced from offices in Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, and Traverse City, Michigan.

As the 80's progressed, so did word processing technology as Letter Perfect, Samna, and other IBM PC based software programs were introduced. Van Belkum progressed by marketing and servicing personal computers and networks for business related software including Novell and Lotus 1-2-3.

In the mid 1980's Lanier expanded into the emerging market of business telephone's as a result of the AT&T breakup. This enabled the Van Belkum Telecom Division to provide solutions to expanded business markets.

With this growth in the 1980's, Van Belkum developed its own accounting software to run the business. The advanced features and reliability of this software caught the attention of an Ernst & Young accountant who recommended Van Belkum sell this to other businesses. With a team of developers and support staff, Van Belkum proceeded to install the modular "VFI Accounting" software package in over 100 businesses in Michigan.

Before the 80's came to a close, Van Belkum became an authorized distributor for Michigan Bell (Ameritech, SBC, now AT&T) to provide telephone lines and Centrex services. Shortly thereafter Van Belkum was a leading Five-Star Ameritech distributor for voice, data, and long distance products and specialized in connecting businesses and organizations with multiple sites or work at home requirements for networking.

In 1990, Van Belkum added the Active Voice Repartee voicemail system to the product portfolio. Van Belkum installed these PC-based voicemails systems with over 15 different brands of PBX/Centrex switches.

In the early 90's Van Belkum expanded its recording product line by entering the Voice Logging recorder industry in partnership with Lanier/MagnaSync. The first recorders used reel-to-reel technology, then analog VHS tape recorder, and then to digital recording on multiple types of recording media such as DAT tape, Optical Disk, DVD and Hard Disks. Van Belkum was one of the first companies in the United States to offer VHS tape based systems from TEAC which provided an alternative to the more expensive reel-to-reel systems. These mission critical solutions have been installed in Public Safety, Financial and Call Centers by Van Belkum since 1991.

In 1991, Van Belkum expanded its telephone division by acquiring Charles Services, Inc., a telephone Interconnect company located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In the same year Van Belkum became a member of Teleco, the largest Toshiba telephone distribution organization in the United States. Teleco's products included network-based voicemail and messaging systems, and Van Belkum became one of the leading integrators of these systems.

1997, Mercom, Windows NT based communication recording product added to the Van Belkum product portfolio. Van Belkum installs and services Mercom customers throughout Michigan.

BizGroup was formed in 1995 to provide high-speed dedicated Internet access for the West Michigan business market. BizGroup also provided consulting and software development using Internet technologies including an eCommerce/extranet solution for Teleco's national dealer network. BizGroup services and use of technology helped its customers connect workers, clients, and vendors together. BizGroup was also instrumental in making the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service (MLS) available via a website for its members and clients. In the late 90's, BizGroup was also one of the first companies to offer a hosted (ASP - application service provider) transcription software solution using the CareFlowNet software.

The corporate office building of Van Belkum Voice & Data located just north of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan was donated to the City of Grand Rapids for use as the Van Belkum Branch of the Kent District Library in 1998. The business relocated to a new location in the Cascade area, just east of Grand Rapids.

In 1998, Van Belkum Transcription Services (VTS) was formed as a result of listening to its customers. With the technology experience of dictation and transcription systems and the Internet technology knowledge of BizGroup, Van Belkum was uniquely positioned to provide a high quality transcription service to its customers. Today, VTS provides transcription services to dozens of hospitals and specialty clinics.

Throughout the 90's, Van Belkum responded to customers by providing Network-based Dictation and Transcription Systems by Lanier. A decade later, many of these systems are still in use.

As the new century approached, dictation was migrating from micro-cassettes to digital recording as Van Belkum introduced Olympus digital handheld recorders to the market.

In order to better service the "telephony space", Van Belkum added ESI's innovative "All-In-One" Digital Phone System in 2001. ESI continues to offer a suite of features within a single integrated telephone system.

In 2002, Van Belkum moved from providing proprietary dictation systems to non-proprietary, open standards based dictation applications developed by WinScribe, a New Zealand based development company. This open standards systems remain easy to install, use, maintain and have become a platform for the future of Van Belkum customers.

As VTS grew, so did the need for greater technology, so they joined the Apexx Transcription alliance for a hosted, integrated voice & text workflow solution.

After decades of promise, speech recognition was finally reliable enough in 2003 and Van Belkum's solutions are installed and adding efficiencies for medical and financial organizations. Today it is offered in multiple methods to fit the technology and workflow of the customer.

In 2005, Van Belkum partnered with Intorrent to provide a fully SIP (open standards voice over IP protocol) based communication system. Van Belkum also became a certified Polycom reseller of VoIP telephones. This unique combination allows customers the most "open" system on the market and the ability to have a true server-based network telephone system.

By 2006, Van Belkum had expanded its call recording product offering by becoming NICE Systems reseller. NICE Systems acquired Dictaphone's call recording products allowing Van Belkum to become an authorized service provider for existing Dictaphone call recording systems.

In 2007, Van Belkum expands its product offering for Public Safety and organizations by adding the iRecord product line for interrogation recording.