LEADERS ROUNDTABLE
its location and can be linked to each other. Usage becomes natural and simple.”
Michael Elliott: “What role, if any, do you project the cloud will have on ELN, particularly for building data ecosystems for between pharmaceutical companies and their contractors and collaborators?”
Glyn Williams: “The cloud as an infrastructure delivers extensible computing capability that can help internal system scalability and b2b collaboration. But the issue that remains important on whatever system the eLN inhabits are the extensibility and security of the application itself: the cloud cannot itself create an enterprise application where one does not exist already. The acceptance of the cloud (Infrastructure as a Service) does however provide unique opportunity for collaboration- through-data between businesses. eLN applications that can take the strain of the granular security needed for effective control and sharing of data can scale easily and which have web interfaces can provide an easily deployed portal for CROs and collaboration partners. This ‘Platform as a Service’ capability enables each to securely upload data in a structured, compliant manner, eliminating the need to reinterpret, transcribe, and manually upload data into internal systems. With the rapid expansion of outsourcing, this can be a real differentiator in ensuring that outsourcing produced quality results in a time and cost efficient manner.”
Pierre Rodrigues: “LabCollector, being since its origins a full-web solution, accommodates easily and naturally to cloud. We had always hosted setups for clients wanting a shared environment. Cloud is just a modern way to describe web storage and therefore does not change much to our existing methods. We prefer to imagine micro-cloud instead of world-scale cloud like Amazon proposes. This brings better security and privacy control.”
Thomas Schmidt: “Integrating data generated by an external contractor into the product development cycle is still a challenge. Data are often transmitted as reports (PDF, Word, Excel), sometimes even as mail attachments, resulting in considerable effort to re-use the relevant information. A common data repository would allow storing information in a structured way
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and access them directly with the applications who act on these data. This would be a considerable advantage for the collaboration of partners but the security of the exchanged data is of concern for many pharmaceutical companies that are looking into using this technology and needs to be verified.”
Nick Townsend: “Deploying an application in the cloud is not particularly challenging from an IT perspective. However, we see use of ‘the cloud’ as secondary to the primary goal of establishing flexible, robust and secure software functionality to manage data ecosystems between pharmaceutical companies and their partners. When contractor / collaborator functionality matures and demand becomes commonplace, then we agree that use of the cloud should become very attractive, especially if ‘private cloud’ computing helps reduce corporate data security fears. We’re not just talking about eLN, we consider that the solution requires, or at least provides the option for, customers to deploy the full suite of laboratory functionality to their chosen contractors/collaborators. Implementing a piece of the functionality, e.g. in eLN is interesting, but doesn’t address the final goal. We consider there are important technical, functional, legal and commercial challenges still to be addressed by all interested parties – customers, CRO’s/CMO’s and vendors but that the eventual benefits to pharmaceutical industry will be substantial and very exciting.”
Dominic John: “‘eLN in the cloud’ is real today and has been for some time. This option is especially attractive to smaller biopharma, academic and non-life sciences organisations that depend heavily on external collaborations and lack the IT infrastructure and resources for an on-site eLN deployment. A cloud-based eLN provides a coordinating resource outside the firewall, enabling organisations to effectively orchestrate projects and associated experiments with external partners. An eLN in the cloud captures critical partner-generated information consistently in a secure, centrally accessible location. Other collaboration benefits which can be pushed to a cloud-based system include workflow orchestration tools and security enabling individuals in different companies to work on separate parts of an experiment. An integrated work request system within the eLN can coordinate workflows and tasks assigned to multiple geographical and business sites. Private
and public cloud-based eLN systems offer many strategic, competitive advantages for agile outsourcing organisations.”
Francois Beiullouin: “One major driver for eLN today is collaboration which has many facets and meanings. Moving to the cloud is an IT/technology trend that is happening today for eLN systems. With more than 10 years experience in eLN web deployments, OpenLAB eLN is cloud ready! Enabling collaboration between a company and its CRO or vice-versa is more about the eLN capabilities themselves to open partially and securely the system to different groups by segregating and filtering information that each partner can have access to. Implementing this in the cloud or not is just a matter of timing.”
Michael Elliott: “Data mobility and touch interfaces are becoming commonplace in the consumer market. Do you see this influencing your product direction? If so, what are the advantages for pharmaceutical clients?”
Thomas Schmidt: “The role of mobile touch interfaces will grow in the future. This goes along with the Lean Six Sigma projects focusing on optimising the laboratory workflow. Touch interfaces are supporting the goal to make necessary information accessible at areas of the laboratory where it is required so the waste of motion is minimised.”
Glyn Williams: “Yes, it is already influencing our product direction. For example, we are already making all our web interfaces tablet and touch friendly. Just as in the consumer market, touch and tablet devices provide the perfect medium for consuming and reviewing content. eLNs are no different. Their role for data entry and analysis is currently less well defined and their true role in this is still evolving. In terms of data capture, touch screen devices suitable for the laboratory environment provide simple data capture, but the keyboard still appears to be the preferred means for content authoring. We currently favour more rugged and laboratory friendly devices for dirty laboratory environments. However, tablet usage is increasing in laboratories and this trend will undoubtedly continue as the technology matures and gets more rugged.”
European Pharmaceutical Review 23 Volume 16 | Issue 4 | 2011
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