ApoCell

Challenge

ApoCell, Inc. is a leading contract research organization specializing in protein biomarker detection and analysis of rare cells in blood and tissue specimens from clinical trial subjects. ApoCell needed to move a beta-stage product in a university lab to the next stage of development.

The company was starting from scratch. Nothing was written to clearly define the product. Critical build and design information was either in someone’s head or in note form. ApoCell needed documentation and materials to present to design firms to get past the first step of their go-to-market strategy for the technology.

The documentation needed to represent the “how‐to‐build” and “how‐ to‐test” side of the technology, and to capture the theory and history behind it.

Solution

Contiem took a three-pronged approach to the solution.

• Consulting to understand the business needs and how the documentation will be used, and to help establish the best approach.
• Onsite Needs Analysis to interview the inventor and appropriate subject matter experts, take digital photographs of the components, and document the relevant processes and procedures.
• Materials Development and Production where Contiem took input from the needs analysis and complex technical background materials to meticulously organize the information into coherent, logical procedures and specifications.

Based on the structure of the product and future client needs, Contiem developed four documents to create a comprehensive documentation set – thus, if one element needs to be updated it is done in all documents in which it is used. The documentation set included: Product Specifications, Chamber Specifications, Software Design, and a Bill of Materials. This also provided ApoCell the platform to organize its documentation using best practices and industry standards.

Result

Contiem took critical concepts stored in employees’ memories, on whiteboards, and scattered elsewhere, and organized them, implementing an appropriate component content management system. The resulting documentation provided tremendous value to ApoCell by making the technology tangible for the market. The company can now provide licensees with the information needed to successfully build, test, and further develop the new technology. In addition, Contiem provided ApoCell with the foundation to build on for future documentation development.