New Innovators: ZenDoc

Robert Fenton is a pharmacist by profession but an entrepreneur by nature. Fenton set up his first company at the age of 22 and his latest venture, ZenDoc, is in the final stages of testing its new compliance software product for the SME sector.

“The changing regulatory landscape and consequent compliance burden on companies is one of the biggest problems facing organisations today. It can consume as much as 25 per cent of their total operational budget,” Fenton says.

“The software solutions currently available are focused on large enterprise sales and are too costly and complex for smaller organisations to implement and manage. The vast majority of the market is left with no choice but to use fragmented, paper-based solutions that are cumbersome, inefficient and error prone. Our mission is to greatly improve and simplify the process.”

ZenDoc is focusing on compliance for SMEs within the life sciences sector.

“There is a perception that all life sciences companies are large, but in fact about 80 per cent of them are SMEs,” Fenton says.

“What we’re offering is software that reduces the costs and risks of non-compliance through the automation and recording of key data.”

ZenDoc currently employs five people and Fenton says it will add another five jobs by the year’s end. The company’s web-based software as a service (SaaS) product has been fully designed in-house and will be offered to companies for a fee of around €250 per month.

The product will be sold through partner channels worldwide and the company already has 15 partners on board with the number growing daily.

“There is currently no compelling solution out there for companies so the market is wide open for us. Our main competitor is paper,” Fenton says.

Fenton came up with the idea for ZenDoc as a follow-on from his first business, EasySOP.

It creates content for pharmacies to help them comply with best-practice requirements from the pharmacy regulator here. Sales revenues from EasySOP have helped fund the development of ZenDoc.

“We estimate the potential market for our product at over €1 billion today and growing strongly,” Fenton says. “We think our timing is right due to the maturity of the SaaS business model and its acceptance in regulated sectors that are traditionally conservative. There is also an explosion in eHealth space, with a new breed of customers that demand well-designed, cost-effective software. We believe we are perfectly placed to serve them and that ZenDoc can be the global leader in this space within three years.”

ZenDoc participated in the National Digital Research Centre's Launchpad programme in 2012 and will be launching a funding round later this year to accelerate its international growth.

– OLIVE KEOGH