First overseas office established

Abcam established its first permanent foothold outside the UK with the opening of offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The move reflected the growing importance of overseas trade to the company and the rapid expansion of its international customer base.

By the time of the opening a large proportion of orders were coming from the USA: it was recognised that existing levels of customer service needed to be further increased and that the barriers associated with purchasing goods from outside the USA should be removed.

One of the major challenges associated with the opening of the new office was the decision to build an integrated intranet-based stock management, customer relationship management and order processing system. The in-house designed package manages both customer demand and supplier stock across both the UK and USA operations from a single database. It gave Abcam an immediate and unique competitive advantage, a point not missed by a fast growing customer base.

Cambridge, MA was an easy choice. The area is home to a cluster of world-leading bioscience and pharmaceutical companies and lies close to world renowned educational institutions including MIT, Harvard and the Whitehead Institute.