Improving the quality of human life through applied science — that's what biotechnology is all about. And improving access to information about biotechnology is what LifeSciencesWorld is all about. At www.LifeSciencesWorld.com, there's an online connection to a fascinating world of research and progress, powered by FileMaker Pro, the award–winning database software application from FileMaker Inc.

Business Challenge

Based in Quebec City, Canada, LifeSciencesWorld.com is a specialized web portal for the biotechnology sector, offering a comprehensive and fully–searchable collection of links to organizations in the industry, along with resume–posting and job–announcement services, information on upcoming industry events, sources for equipment and supplies, and other pertinent information to those involved in biotech–related activities worldwide. The site is busy — and getting busier every day, with an average of 15,000 hits per day, and more than 90,000 page views per month.

There's a reason why the site is so well received. LifeSciencesWorld offers biotech companies and equipment vendors a range of services, from posting of press releases and job announcements to access to a fully–searchable resume database and its global scope sets it apart from its competitors. "We realized that existing portals were often focused on a region of the world or on a very specific sector of activity," comments company CEO Mike Carpentier. "This is why we decided to offer the most representative service possible to the biotech community by allowing organizations in Europe, Asia, and Australasia to benefit from the same quality of service as competitors in the US."

Successful Solution

At the heart of LifeSciencesWorld.com's success are powerful databases — their fast, comprehensive results keep thousands of users coming back and keep clients satisfied. And that speed and efficiency are made possible by FileMaker Pro. "We use FileMaker Pro as the foundation for our search engines," says Mike, "and it runs both our organizations and jobs databases, as well a banner rotator. FileMaker helped us to rapidly develop several flexible database." As Mac users, Mike and his technical director are well–acquainted with the power of FileMaker Pro, but cross–platform adaptability was essential. "We evaluated different solutions such as SQL or Oracle," Mike continues, "but FileMaker was the only multiplatform database that allowed us to rapidly develop solutions on the Mac with a short learning curve and rapid deployment for testing." FileMaker Pro Developer and FileMaker Pro Server are also key components of the LifeSciencesWorld.com system. The static web pages run on a WebStar server allowing inquiries made through the site to be passed directly into the FileMaker Pro databases.

LifeSciencesWorld.com deploys its system of 10 FileMaker databases, some containing thousands of records, over an internal wireless network. "We use the CDML language to post the page results," Mike explains, "We'll shortly move to a FileMaker/Lasso solution at a specialized co–location, and we will continue to use FileMaker for the new portal that we're developing in the field of nanotechnologies."

We use FileMaker Pro as the foundation for our search engines, and it runs both our organizations and jobs databases, as well a banner rotator. FileMaker helped us to rapidly develop several flexible database.

— Mike Carpentier, CEO, LifeSciencesWorld.com