August 11, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN FRANCISCO – Having machines and laboratory systems running in optimal condition is critical for successful analytical work. But when a machine fails to perform, it can cause setbacks that have rippling consequences.
In order to ensure laboratories and their analytical equipment run as they are supposed to is where a company like Full Spectrum Analytics comes into play. For nearly a quarter of a century, Bay Area-based Full Spectrum Analytics has worked to minimize mechanical failures for its clients.
“With all that research being done, we feel like we have some skin in the game,” Tom Fider, co-founder of Full Spectrum Analytics, told BioSpace in an exclusive interview. “It’s not about getting billables, it’s about helping our customers who, through their work, help others.”
Full Spectrum Analytics specializes in chromatography. That specialty means Full Spectrum is able to provide a faster response time when things go wrong as well as the expertise to complete the job without bringing in other service providers.
The company got its launch as an alternative service provider for analytical, research and production laboratories. Before they started the company, Fider said many laboratories used various systems and products from multiple vendors and when something went wrong, repair techs were necessary, but each vendor had to provide their own technicians. Fider said they thought if a technician could be proficient in multiple systems, there was room for a new approach to the business. The rest, as he said, is history.
“That’s a total benefit to the customer,” Fider said. “We keep things streamlined, which means that keeps costs down for customers.”
Fider, along with Alan Chan, formed Full Spectrum Analytics in 1992 after spending years working as field service reps for other analytics companies. The next year the duo brought on John Martin as a founding partner.
The secret to growth for Full Spectrum has been customer engagement and building personal relationships with clients. That philosophy is paying off for the company. Fider said he has been able to maintain long-term relationships with clients, going back to the days they launched the business in 1992.
“Naturally, the customer is the most important part of the repair. We want to ‘fix the customer’ first to understand what the service needs are beyond the mechanical fix,” Fider said. “If you can do this, you can bring a lot of value.”
When a Full Spectrum employee shows up on a service call, their job is to analyze what’s going on with the system as a whole, rather than merely looking at the singular issue.
“You don’t just show up with your tool bag and say ‘Ta da, I’m here,’” Fider said.
Fider said the service call is about building a relationship as well as fixing a particular issue. That philosophy has helped the company grow over the years.
While the company has done well over its nearly quarter century of business, Fider said he still sees potential for growth. However, Fider said he does not want to grow for the sake of growth. Instead, he and his partners have taken a philosophy of controlled growth—that way they don’t take on more than they can deliver in the same manner the company has for years. Fider said the company has maintained annual organic growth rates of about 15 to 20 percent.“This is still on a controlled growth factor. We could bang on a lot of doors and pick up new clients, but that could lead to problems due to a lack of appropriate manpower … That we would have to train in the instrumentation, but also in our corporate philosophy.”
That’s not to say that Fider and Full Spectrum don’t have plans for new growth. Fider sees several areas for potential growth, including instrument resale or asset management programs, which means taking over maintenance for all equipment in a client’s laboratory.
“There’s also the possibility of acquisition,” Fider said.
In its 24-year history, the company has snapped up one other analytics company, he said. However, Fider added that with acquisitions “you never know what you get sometimes.”
