Our Story - ZIUZ

2002 - 2006

Garage start-up

The early years

The story of ZiuZ starts in a garage in the Frisian village of Waskemeer. Here, Gerrit Baarda and Ed van den Brand founded the company in 2002. ZiuZ launched its first product in 2006. This device made summaries of digitized VHS tapes. That same year, ZiuZ welcomed its first employee and acquired the first office in Gorredijk.

2006 - 2008

Fulfilling a long-pursued dream

A valued partnership

Contact was made with the Twente regional police force in the Netherlands. The force indicated a need for technical support in their investigations into the sexual abuse of children. Gerrit and Ed could finally fulfill a long-pursued dream – contributing to solving a problem relevant to society. The contact quickly became a valued partnership with the entire Dutch police force. In close cooperation with the force, ZiuZ developed VizX view, a tool enabling investigators to effectively and efficiently analyze videos. In 2007, VizX Image was added to the tool, meaning investigators no longer had to switch between tools when analyzing both videos and photos. From then on, the Dutch police would exclusively use the VizX suite for (online) child abuse investigations.

2006 - 2008

2009 - 2010

A different field

Safeguarding the medication-dispensing process

In 2009, Gerrit and Ed came to realize that the techniques developed for and integrated into VizX, could be applied in other areas as well. The director of a Dutch central filling blister center presented himself, expressing the need for a solution safeguarding the medication-dispensing process. Based on the algorithms integrated in VizX2, ZiuZ developed the Foresee Inspector, a device able to check medication bags for the right content based on parameters such as color, size and shape.

2010 - 2012

Expansion

Pastures new

ZiuZ discovered that it was almost impossible to serve the two different types of customers without restructuring its organization. Two business lines were set up: ZiuZ Pharma Automation (Medical) and ZiuZ Forensic. Each with its own business unit manager and dedicated team of developers and engineers. With growth also comes change, the capacity of the first office proved insufficient and ZiuZ therefore moved to a new and larger office on the Stationsweg.

2010 - 2012

2012 - 2016

Succession

The next step

By 2012, ZiuZ Pharma Automation (Medical) had already gained two years of experience in the pharmacy industry. It could now put this experience to use by developing an even better checking device, with a higher accuracy level and operational speed. During Expopharm 2012, ZiuZ Photon was launched. The Photon could interface with all manufacturing brands of dispensing robots and was recognized as the best solution available on the market.

Meanwhile, ZiuZ Forensic reached an agreement with INHOPE, the International Association of Internet Hotlines, for a system which enables analysts worldwide to efficiently analyze websites reportedly depicting illegal content, such as child abuse. This led to the launch of ICCAM in 2014.

2016

ZiuZ IRIS

Expanding the portfolio

The year 2016 marked another product launch, again during Expopharm. This time around, ZiuZ launched the tabletop version of its checking device called ZiuZ IRIS. ZiuZ IRIS has been designed specifically for smaller (hospital and retail) pharmacies where the available space is limited. After expanding its product portfolio, ZiuZ entered the Chinese and Japanese markets for bag checking devices.

2016

2017

Changing of the guard

A new CEO

The year 2017 marked a changing of the guard. Gerrit came to the realize he wanted to return to his roots: developing products from scratch, just as he had done since 2002 together with Ed. Bert Garlich, until then the business unit manager of ZiuZ Pharma Automation (Medical), was appointed as the new CEO of ZiuZ.

Present day & future

Having a social impact, globally

Sticking to our goals

When Gerrit and Ed started the company in 2002, their aim was to make a difference by solving issues relevant to society. This belief is now still firmly embedded in ZiuZ’ corporate culture.

A new focus is the use of smart visual intelligence technology in the healthcare sector. In this sector, there is a great need for quick and automatic reviews of increasing volumes of visual material.

ZiuZ collaborates with the University Medical Center Groningen for a proof-of-principle of a computer-aided-diagnosis tool to help establish the diagnosis and the treatment of hyperkinetic movement disorders. It is collaborations like these that we are looking for; partnering up with (medical) specialists to develop products that contribute to a better world.

Present day & future