When Zikria Syed helped found King of Prussia-based NextDocs in 2006, he took a calculated risk of sorts on the ability of content management software Microsoft Office SharePoint to take over the market. SharePoint now owns more than 80 percent market share, and NextDocs has grown into a wildly successful provider of document management solutions for life sciences companies.
For the first time, the growing company will showcase how it has improved on the SharePoint platform and how it has helped clients achieve cost-effective, intuitive, flexible and scalable solutions with it. Today and tomorrow at Philadelphia’s Loews Hotel, NextDocs is hosting ShareFEST 2010, a two-day conference that will focus exclusively on the use of SharePoint by pharma, medical device, clinical research organizations and biotech firms.
Those industries represent NextDocs wide customer base, which includes the majority of top-10 pharma.
ShareFest is a conference that brings everything you need to know about using Microsoft SharePoint for life sciences organizations to one place, says Syed, NextDocs CEO and a former Microsoft employee now working on his second life sciences venture. ShareFEST puts the focus on how it can be deployed in FDA-regulated life sciences companies.
Presenters, which includes PA firms like ProtonMedia, take a solutions and case study approach to using SharePoint, addressing practical applications as well as regulatory and compliance issues.
NextDocs has grown to 55 employees and has been profitable every year since its inception. It
doesnt yet release revenue figures–it may begin doing so this summer–but the company has clearly taken ownership of a broad market by offering specific solutions that can be bought rather than built.
It takes more money and time to build it yourself, and these life sciences companies are used to moving fast, says Syed. This is far more cost effective.
Sourrce: Zikria Syed, NextDocs
Writer: Joe Petrucci