Perceptive Informatics has a new software guru, chief technology officer and vice president of software. 

He is industry veteran Sina Adibi, who came over from those same posts at Thomson Scientific, where he’d been for 13 years.

Seven-year old Perceptive is the fastest growing arm of Boston-area-based contract research organization (CRO) Parexel International Corp, having raked in $55 million in revenue in fiscal 2006—a 30 percent rise over the previous year. Perceptive executives doubled the division’s investment in software research and development last year, and say they are making a similar investment this year.

Adibi is expected to be the architect of much of that expansion. “Perceptive is on the verge of huge growth,” said Adibi. “I foresee, in the next 12 months, doubling our technology organization.”

Acquisitions On Horizon?

Known for keeping his ear to the ground on smart acquisitions and partnerships for Thomson—he oversaw the 2004-5 acquisition of IHI Holdings, which doubled Thomson’s size—Adibi says he is gearing up to do the same thing for Perceptive.

“We have a lot of good technology here, which was all developed in house. The state of technology has advanced since [these products] came to fruition,” Adibi said. “We have an opportunity now to partner with some of the niche players that have utilities that are liked and accepted, [products] we may not want to build.”

Imaging, IVR

For instance, he said he’s now looking closely at companies that make the next-generation engines for IVRS, as well as chasing some firms ahead of the curve on medical imaging.

“I see myself doing a lot of scouting,” says Adibi. “Adding more in those areas is a natural progression of where CTMS is.”

Just prior to Adibi coming aboard, Perceptive partnered with Tourtellotte Solutions of Wayland, Mass. Tourtellotte makes tcVisualize, which Adibi called “a really nifty Web-based drug-forecasting tool that fits right into our IVR environment.” (A ClinPage story about the company can be found here.)

Hiring Spree

First up for Adibi, though, is hiring. We also checked in with Todd Joron, Perceptive’s general manager. He says Adibi will soon begin expanding the company’s employee base from 522 to about 722, hiring software development talent from around the globe.

Adibi says he’s excited that Perceptive has a large parent company. Parexel’s already existent infrastructure will make his job of hiring—and having a place to put—new software developers exponentially easier.

Existing Products, Enhanced

In addition to staff expansion, Perceptive’s products—like Impact, the most widely used CTMS product in the industry, with 25,000 users—will be expanded, too.

“We currently have a whole suite of products that are pretty well adopted and liked,” said Adibi. “We need to continue to expand those features and functionality to maintain leadership.”

Web Emphasis

A key component in that, says Adibi, will be web interfaces.

“People’s expectations of interfaces for products they’re using has gone up,” he says. “They expect really sophisticated, user-friendly interfaces, and they won’t settle for: well, this is the best a vendor could provide.”

Adibi uses Bluetooth as an example of where he’d like to take Perceptive’s offerings. “[With Bluetooth,] you really don’t have to know what’s going on; suddenly you hear your calls show up on your car’s radio. That’s the kind of thing our clients expect.”

Ease of Use

He said he hopes to build out the company’s next generation of products with that in mind. “As [clients] begin to consider Web interfaces synonymous with the way they work, then we will be there with that.”

Adibi also hopes to place Perceptive at the center of the interoperability and standards movements. It’s imperative for expanding feature functionality, he said.

No Need For EDC

According to Joron, all four of Perceptive’s in-house businesses—CTMS; IVRS and interactive web systems (IWS); medical imaging; and integration services—are “overperforming,” with each growing in the range of 25 percent to 70 percent each quarter.

So far, though, Perceptive has no electronic data capture (EDC) software to round out its suite. Joron says he thinks that’s not necessary.

Growth Curve

“This is an extensive discussion we have internally,” he explained. “Most definitely we have to have EDC compatibility. To be compatible in the marketplace—not so much competitive. Do we need to physically own that and make it a product line? I don’t think that’s the case. I think it can be built out and be our own or through a partnership. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the compatibility is there.”

Perceptive has eight offices: two in the Boston area; two in the U.K; as well as Berlin; Birmingham, Bolder; and San Diego. Other offices outside the U.S. are to be added this year.

For the nine months ended March 31, 2007, Parexel’s revenue was $536.7 million—20 percent higher than revenue for the same period in fiscal 2006: $445.5 million.  Net income was $26.9 million, compared $15.1 million during the same nine-month period in 2006. For fiscal 2007 in total, revenue is expected to be in the range of $734 to $740 million, said the company in a release.

—by Suz Redfearn

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