Call it innovation through collaboration. Coptis creates software solutions for the beauty industry, but its software engineers don’t operate in a bubble. Throughout the year, Coptis holds “User Club” meetings that take place around the world in a variety of languages, where company executives and customers work together on product improvement. In fact, Coptis Founder Anne Karagoz proudly notes that each year, these meetings and training session take place on four continents!

User Club meetings enable customers to get training on new software updates and to discuss new ideas for the evolution of the Coptis products. In October, a User Club took place in Weehawken, NJ, where attendees received a live presentation of regarding the latest updates in the Coptis software solutions offerings and opportunity for users to share their needs. These live presentations and discussions cover the existing and new features of the Coptis software solutions.

But at the same time, Coptis staff are there to hear customers and encourage them to participate in an exchange of ideas, detail their needs and help shape the evolution of the Coptis software based on their cosmetic R&D expertise.

The give-and-take has helped the company grow and expand for two decades. This year, Coptis celebrates its 20th anniversary. Founded in 1999 by Karagoz, the company is headquartered in Croissy sur Seine, Paris with subsidiaries in New York and Singapore.

“Our success and longevity are due in part to the advanced capabilities and continuous evolution of our products,” said Karagoz. “More than 3,000 people currently use our software worldwide, and our customer training takes place on four continents.”

The success of Coptis Lab is a direct result of a growing demand for an integrated system for formulation development and regulatory affairs designed specifically for the cosmetic industry. Coptis offerings are further optimized by complementary products:

• Coptis Lab, the company’s flagship product, is an integrated software tool for cosmetic R&D laboratories and regulatory affairs;
• Coptis Ingredients is a comprehensive database of more than 15,000 cosmetic raw materials;
• Coptis Tox database provides access to toxicology information of more than 2,800 substances; and
• Coptis Tab is mobile technology integrated with Coptis Lab that can be used right at the bench to manage specific data.

According to company executives, taken together, the Coptis system provides a range of benefits to cosmetic R&D departments:

• Time savings up to 30%;
• Traceability and reliability of information;
• Increased reactivity;
• Enhanced regulatory compliance;
• Better knowledge management;
• Group collaboration and optimization; and
• Access to Coptis expertise such as data initialization and onsite training.

Coptis expertise and customer care was on display in Weehawken in October when more than a dozen users attended the Users Club event.

“We discussed improving current functionalities and making the system even more user friendly,” explained Marie Thadal, business development-Americas. “We also discussed projects currently in progress and under development by the Coptis Dev team. The discussion was thorough and interactive overall.”

And another example of how Coptis relies on its User Club members to develop the software systems that they need to create successful cosmetic product formulas.