Armed with an infusion of capital, DigitalBridge of Orem is launching itself into the marketplace with software for government agencies, medical-care providers, schools or any other entity that needs computer systems to interact.

Take Cook County, home to the city of Chicago.

Using a manual system, it used to take four to 10 days for a police officer to request a warrant, have it approved by a judge, filed in court and sent back for processing, at a cost of about $250.

"We now process that packet in less than 30 minutes at a cost of about $15," said Terry Pitts, a founder, president and CEO of DigitalBridge, which occupies part of the old WordPerfect building in Orem.

DigitalBridge grew out of a conversation Pitts - a veteran of information technology in health care - had with D. Brent Israelsen, an attorney with whom Pitts sat on the board of directors of another company. Israelsen's ideas for a new type of software grew into DigitalBridge.

The company got its start in 2004, and in the summer of 2005, employees designed the "architecture" of the software and wrote the programs from scratch.

There were plenty of potential clients. Police departments often have different computer systems than courts and might use different types of documents, different databases and have varying security needs. One might even use Windows-based computers and another Macintosh.

DigitalBridge promises to erase barriers, yet also restrict access to documents to only those authorized.

DigitalBridge has 55 employees in Orem. It has been hiring lately to gear up for a sales and marketing push. Just last week, the company announced an infusion of funds from Sorenson Capital, a Utah-based private-equity firm.

Fraser Bullock, a founder and managing director of Sorenson Capital, said as a member of the board of DigitalBridge, he saw that it needed to grow quickly. He suggested it look for outside capital.

Bullock said he recused himself from the process of soliciting and approving the new funding, which he called "substantial," without revealing the exact amount in keeping with the firm's policy.

"They really have a unique technology," said Bullock, who as the former chairman of the governor's Employer's Education Coalition said he has a special interest in what DigitalBridge can do for education in Utah.

The company and partner IBM are negotiating a contract with the State Office of Education that would provide software to all school districts that agree to have it installed; 13 of the 40 districts are already using the system.

The software will allow systems within a school, within a district and within the state to exchange information. That means, among other things, that records for transferring students can easy follow them to new schools and that test scores can be compiled and compared with ease.

Pitts said DigitalBridge's advantage over competitors is that its system works with any type of digital documents and interfaces with any type of system. In addition, it does not require installation of costly new hardware.

DigitalBridge sells its services mostly on a per-transaction fee, which could range from $10 to $15 depending on the complexity.

Pitts said DigitalBridge's technology potentially can be applied to any area where disparate compute software systems - the company calls them ecosystems - need to talk to each other.

tharvey@sltrib.com

Five founders of DigitalBridge

* TERRY PITTS, president and CEO. Has 30 years of executive management, business and technology experience in the health-care and technology industries.

* D. BRENT ISRAELSEN, executive chairman. Former president of JuriSoft and co-founder of iLumin Corp. and NxLight Inc.

* RONALD D. MAINES, executive vice president. Co-creator of The History Channel and co-founder of Gigahertz Equipment Co.

* ROB MCCRORY, COO and general manager of health care. Former president and COO of health-care information technology companies.

* BRUCE E. BROWN, chief technology officer and scientist. Former executive manager with Oracle, WANG and Lawrence Livermore National Labs.

Source: www.digitalbridge.com