KING OF PRUSSIA, PA.—April 23, 2010—The drive to share information across boundaries has helped make SharePoint the fastest growing product in Microsoft history, Steve Aylward, General Manager, U.S. Healthcare & Life Sciences Group for Microsoft, told more than 350 attendees from pharmaceutical and life sciences companies at the first ShareFEST 2010 conference.
The two-day conference in Philadelphia was presented by NextDocs, the leading provider of SharePoint-based document and quality management software solutions for life sciences companies, in conjunction with Microsoft. More than 350 delegates from over one hundred life sciences companies and 23 vendors attended the conference. Companies represented at the conference included Pfizer, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Becton Dickinson and Shire Pharmaceuticals and many attendees came from outside the US, including Canada and Europe.
“The spirit of community at ShareFEST was exhilarating,” said Zikria Syed, CEO of NextDocs. “SharePoint is all about collaboration and it was gratifying to see people representing every kind of life sciences company, from multinational pharmaceuticals to smaller biotechs, exchanging ideas and their best practices on using SharePoint to meet mission critical regulatory, clinical and compliance needs. We’re pleased we could be a catalyst to bring so many people together.”
Aylward’s keynote address kicked off two days of case studies and presentations on how SharePoint is driving innovation in healthcare delivery, regulatory compliance and collaboration. Many of the speakers detailed how using SharePoint helps them handle masses of documents from participants around the world without having to develop a complex, customized platform.
“It was exciting to be part of an event where the common thread among companies from every part of the life sciences spectrum was the use of SharePoint to help solve key challenges faced in the industry,” Aylward said. “This inaugural ShareFEST conference was a superb venue with which to showcase the value of the SharePoint platform and highlight new features and capabilities included in SharePoint 2010.”
Key for many presenters was their use of SharePoint, which is frequently employed to meet complex regulatory and compliance needs, to also unite external and internal participants. Patricia Brady, of Sanofi-Aventis, noted that healthcare reform and the increasing emphasis on electronic medical records means companies will need to transition to electronic collaboration as early as possible.
About NextDocsNextDocs is the worldwide leader in providing Microsoft SharePoint Server-based compliance software for life sciences companies. Designed specifically for life sciences, NextDocs software includes solutions for Clinical, Regulatory, Quality, Marketing and Legal and provides full support for 21 CFR Part 11 and other industry regulations. For more information please visit
http://www.nextdocs.com or email
sales@nextdocs.com.