William Zimmerman bores easily. It’s no surprise, considering he emerged as an “architect” type on the Meyers-Briggs personality test.
“As a result, I have a fairly vivid imagination, and I like problem-solving by nature,” says Zimmerman, CEO of Computer Systems Co. (CSC) of Brecksville.
A natural analyst, Zimmerman likes to look at problems and seek solutions.
“There’s that old saying,” he says. “Somebody’s problem is somebody else’s opportunity.”
That attitude has been the catalyst for his ventures during the radical changes in computer technology over the past 36 years.
Grow with the industry
Zimmerman opened Computer Systems Co. in 1964 to develop software. Five years later, the company broke into the micrographics industry. Micrographics, a new concept at the time, held Zimmerman’s attention for a few years but his energetic and innovative nature couldn’t be held at bay for long. From there, CSC went on to tackle 10 other business venues in the course of more than 30 years.
“I get excited about new opportunities and solving problems, so that’s where I spend most of my time,” Zimmerman explains. “We used to just do software development; now we do 12 different things.”
In addition to its software development and microfilm production applications, CSC handles data entry service, document imaging and its biggest achievement, a health care business office automation product, PAPERS.
PAPERS, which stands for Patient and Provider Electronic Record System, streamlines operating procedures by providing eight services in one database — forms, charge, claims and payment processing, collection and follow-up, document imaging, medical records and lab records processing. Over the past seven years, PAPERS has helped numerous health care institutions, such as University Hospitals Health System, save a combined tens of millions of dollars.
Make innovation contagious
CSC’s expansion isn’t something Zimmerman takes credit for. Instead, he points to his staff, which he says has caught his innovative bug and now runs with it.
“We’ve got some really great folks who, once we scope out a solution, can turn around and develop products or put a service operation together to solve that problem,” he says.
Employees contribute regularly to CSC’s vision, with several forward-looking corporate direction groups.
“We meet every quarter or so to look at things we’re trying to accomplish, see how they’re coming and put new ideas on the table about possible business ventures,” says Zimmerman.
The meetings started several years ago with the goal of getting more employees involved in looking at and being a part of CSC’s future. Recently, Zimmerman asked all the senior managers to submit three ideas to help improve the company — a new product idea, internal improvement, anything that would help.
“I got quite a group of submissions,” Zimmerman says. “We began analyzing them and synthesizing them down into some workable things and we’ve put probably two-thirds of them into place already. The last few years, we’ve been involving the staff a lot, and they’ve been contributing heavily.”
He is a man who says that he is generally embarrassed to talk about himself and he attributes his company’s success to his dedicated employees.
“We’ve got a lot of great folks that have some great ideas,” he says. “They’ve been keeping me busy trying to take their kernels and form them out to full ideas here in the last couple years.” How to reach: Computer Systems Co. Inc., (440) 546-4272
