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Scimcon is proud to have sponsored both the SmartLab Exchange Europe and US events again this year, which took place from 21-22 February 2024 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and 8-9 April 2024 in Florida, USA.
The annual invite-only events facilitate one-to-one meetings and foster collaboration between experts across the lab informatics industry, from R&D to Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) decision makers.
Our team led panel discussions and also chaired the European event. From our conversations with delegates and industry experts, we have identified key trends across the lab informatics industry this year, and are sharing what we learned about user priorities in this rapidly evolving sector.
In attendance at this years’ events was our co-founder and lead consultant Geoff Parker, who moderated the opening panel discussion that asked the SmartLab community ‘what does digital transformation mean to you?’. At both the Europe and US events, users across the industry shared their insights on digital transformation and where they are in their journey, where they’re planning to be, and what tools / solutions are making these goals achievable.
We informally surveyed 112 delegates at this years’ events (65 from Europe, 47 from the US) to understand what decision makers are prioritising this year, and what areas of lab informatics will be most in-demand.
Part of our discussions with delegates includes asking what informatics tools and capabilities they are prioritising investment in over the coming 12 months. The following themes emerged from these discussions:
LIMS remains a mainstay solution, with 17% of delegates confirming they plan to invest in a new LIMS or expand their current LIMS over the next 12 months. AI and automation are close second and third priorities, which is perhaps unsurprising. We expect more users to explore AI and automation as lab managers invest in these technologies to streamline operations, simplify and automate processes, and minimise the risk of human error. However, preparedness for implementing AI needs careful attention if labs are to capitalise on its promise.
There are no shortage of informatics tools on this list, such as ELN, QMS, and scheduling tools, so it’s understandable that connectivity remains a key priority for delegates too, as interconnected instrument networks are central to productivity and ease of data transfer.
We also provided attendees with a list of lab informatics solutions and asked them to identify which of these were high and medium priority for their organisation.
Lab automation is once again high on the list of priorities for delegates, with 82 saying it was a high priority and 18 considering it a medium priority. Data quality/integrity also remains key for delegates, so solutions that ensure data quality is maintained and data are standardised are poised to remain popular. Data integration and connectivity also remain important, which again highlights that decision makers prioritise instruments that can communicate with each other and the lab informatics systems seamlessly, while maintaining data integrity and streamlining lab processes.
The insights gleaned from both SmartLab Exchange events reflect what is happening across the wider industry.
Technology is constantly evolving. As solution providers and instrument vendors innovate with new systems that aim to alleviate the challenges faced by labs and improve processes, we expect more and more users to invest in technologies that automate repetitive and time-consuming processes. By also ensuring that data quality is standardised and stored securely, scientists will have more time to focus on the science that matters.
We’re proud to support labs with the next step of their digitalisation journey, and are excited to see what else the future has in store for our industry.
For more information about how we can support your next lab informatics project, contact us.
Digital Transformation in the lab: where to begin??Digital transformation is not a new concept, it is just expanding the use of technology as it advances. Today’s laboratory users expect a certain level of usability and synchronicity. After all, in other aspects of their daily lives they are accustomed to having, for example, a seamless digital shopping experience via Amazon.
So, with demand for digital transformation coming from the lab users themselves, and often from the organisation, establishing what it really means to you and what’s achievable, as well as where you are already on the path to digital transformation, is a useful starting point.
Digital transformation requires constantly improving the environment and the platforms in the lab to give the scientists the best tools possible and make their lives easier. It’s not a single project or something that will be completed in a year, or two.
For some organisations, the first step on their digital transformation might be putting in a new LIMS or ELN – which drastically improves their operations, but could be a huge undertaking depending on the scale of the organisation and the legacy infrastructure. For others, it might be establishing the tools and connections to enable the online monitoring of instrument status, automatic ordering of consumables, reserving instrument time and auto-tracking utilisation, for example. Plus, there are many iterations in between.
What’s important for any lab embarking on, or evolving, a digital transformation journey, is to determine where they are, what their goals are and what’s achievable.
We understand the scale of the digital transformation challenge, as well as what is needed to overcome limitations and ensure improvements are made. Our team of experienced consultants – scientists themselves – are ideally placed to help you define and progress your digital transformation journey.
Efforts will continue in the coming years to achieve a truly digital laboratory. However, this will not be a linear journey. Advancements are constantly emerging and the latest technology will build upon the success of others, meaning the ‘latest thing’ is always evolving. Navigating this process successfully will allow laboratories to achieve increased productivity and optimised workflows – giving scientists back more time to spend on getting results.
Advancing your digital transformation journey can be a challenge, but, if done well, can transform your lab and its results. Through a wealth of experience in this area, Scimcon can help you to identify your digital transformation goals and help make them a reality in the short, medium, and long term.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you with your digital transformation journey.
Industry leader interview: Luke Gibson?2020 has been a difficult year for most industries, not least for event and tradeshow providers. Luke Gibson, Founding Director of Open Pharma Research and Lab of the Future, shares his experience of running events in the laboratory industry, and what makes Lab of the Future such a unique event.
My name is Luke Gibson, and I am one of the three founding directors of Open Pharma Research. I have 30 plus years of experience in developing and running events, primarily in the financial and trade and commodity sectors. My colleagues Kirianne Marshall and Zahid Tharia bring a similar level of experience to the company.
Kirianne has had many years of experience in managing the commercial side of large congresses, such as Partnering in Clinical Trials, and research and development congresses. Zahid has 30 years of events experience too, particularly in running life science portfolios, and launching congresses/events. Our paths have crossed many times throughout our years working in events, and we eventually hit a point where all 3 of us had the capacity to try something new – something that was worthwhile, fun, and different to the corporate worlds we had become accustomed to. So that was why we created Lab of the Future – with a view to running events in a different way.
I’m not sure if I would describe it as a gap in the market, more an ambition to do things differently. There was a desire from all of us to build an event with a different approach to the one we would take when working for large organisations, because when you’re working on a large portfolio of global events that cover a variety of topics, you and your team are always looking ahead to the next event, and the focus on the longevity of a single event isn’t always there.
We wanted something that we can nurture and grow, something that we can work on year-round without getting distracted by the next thing on our list. It also allows us to stay within this space and build our community, without having to face pressures such as a year-on-year development strategy or diverse P&L. Our desire was to avoid these constraints, and create an event that we can continue to work on for a long time.
We want to be able to live and breathe Lab of the Future, but one of the interesting things about it is that it’s such a broad concept. On the one hand we deal with informatics, but on the other hand, we deal with equipment, technology, and all the connectivity between them – but even that’s just one part of it. We are not an informatics conference; we are not strictly an instrumentation conference; we also look at the innovation side of things.
I think the best way to describe how we see Lab of the Future is as a proxy for how you do science in the future. Everything pertains to more efficient processes; better results; or ways of creating breakthrough innovation, and these are all part of the picture of science in the future. And that is the lab of the future – where the lab is the proxy for the environment where you do the science that matters.
When we started off, we found we received a lot of queries from industry contacts who wanted to get involved, but certain topics they wanted to discuss didn’t necessarily pertain to the physical laboratory itself. But if it was relevant to science, then it was relevant to us. Things like data clouds and outsourced services may not be directly linked to the lab, but they still relate to how you work. So, within that, the scope for the Lab of the Future gets wider still, looking at areas such as how we can create virtual clinical trials, or use real world-data to feed back into R&D.
People are also keen to learn more from their peers and from other areas of the industry. Lab of the Future allows us to host senior speakers and keynotes who can tell us where we’re heading, and show us how the efforts of one area within life science feed into other areas. It presents us with an almost ever-changing jigsaw image, and it’s this strategic element that I think sets us apart from other events.
We attract a real mix of attendees, and that’s what I love about it. You can run a conference for people in a specific job function, such as a data scientist or an R&D manager, but what people really want to know is what the people around them are doing, to almost give them context of the industry as a whole. So, our conference doesn’t just exist to help you do your own job better, but it helps you to develop a concept of where your department is heading in the future, and what you should think about longer term. We aren’t telling scientists how to do their job today; we’re helping them think about their responsibilities for delivery in the future. Lab of the Future is about the delivery of science of the future.
Our sponsors and solution providers that support the conference are also very much part of our community, as they’re all innovating and making waves in this space as well. They’re in a space that’s always evolving to build the Lab of the Future; and they are part of that solution. So, we don’t merely facilitate a conference of buying and selling between providers and services, we offer a space where everyone is evolving together. It’s a real melting pot, and that’s the fun bit really.
Zahid’s background in life sciences definitely gave us a starting point. Further to that, we’ve found that every time we put something out, that our community engages, and as a consequence we’re introduced to people we never expected to be introduced to. The fact we’re always talking to people enriches our content – the people we meet and conversations we have change our way of thinking, and shape what we’re doing.
Although I’m in charge of our marketing operations, I have to say I’m not always sure where some of our contacts come from! One thing I’ve found quite surprising is the lack of reliance on a database – there’s a lot of power in word-of-mouth, especially in this space where everyone is working on something – why not share that? As we’re seen as adding value to the conversation, it allows people to find us through their connections and our supporters.
Scimcon is proud to sponsor Lab of the Future, and we can’t wait to see you at the Autumn virtual congress on 26 – 27th October 2021. Contact us today to learn more about our participation in the event, and stay tuned on our Opinion page for part 2 of our conversation with Luke.
From vision to reality: enabling true digital transformation in the lab?Our co-founder Geoff Parker spoke with Dave Levy of Scitara Corporation and Rizwan Chaudhery about the digital transformation in the lab.
From trends and challenges in the informatics space, to data decoupling, and the impact of COVID-19 on digital transformation projects, Geoff’s conversation with Rizwan and Dave draws on years of experience in informatics consulting and helping scientists to transform their workspace and operations.
Watch the full conversation here:
You can visit the original post on LinkedIn, and connect with Scimcon today to see how we can help you to transform your lab.
