Complex collaboration in the cloud

It would be easy to assume that content management and collaboration services are pretty much the same regardless of the industry looking to use them. But in practice, that is not proving to be the case. Different markets require different solutions, both in terms of what type of data gets stored and how it is shared and used to get the best results for any business in that sector. This is particularly the case where the subject at hand is fiercely complex.

Take Dotmatics as an example. Here is a company that specialises in scientific informatics software and services, delivering solutions tailored to the highly collaborative and mobile pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries, as well as to academia.  

Here, solutions not only need to be flexible, scalable and configurable, but must also provide specialist scientific information management across large and diverse organisations that often involve specialist partnerships. This information can range from discovery research to development and early manufacturing.

That demands expertise in scientific informatics, including database management for chemistry and biologics, electronic laboratory notebooks, chemical and biological registration, screening data management, SAR analysis, reporting, and visualisation.

It is also important that such capabilities are available in the cloud if the full potential of collaborative services is to be reached, and it is this mix which has prompted  AstraZeneca Neuroscience Innovative Medicines Unit (iMed) to sign up with Dotmatics for its cloud hosted Informatics Platform for drug discovery collaborations.

The platform provides a single point of access to all data and functions across multidisciplinary groups, including compound registration and tracking, biological screening, DMPK analysis, as well as a fully integrated chemistry and biology ELN and project management. This range enables AstraZeneca scientists, collaborators and partners to work in a real time research environment, instantly interact with the same data regardless of location and timezone.

iMed’s strategy focuses on accessing world-class science and capabilities through partnership and collaboration with academia, industry and contract research organisations. It manages a portfolio of drug discovery and development projects exclusively with external partners, and since it was created just over a year ago, has implemented innovative technologies that enable it to work seamlessly with external partners.

“Today’s industry demands modern informatics solutions to accommodate the different ways in which people work, be it internally or externally, with CROs or partners,” said Dr. Stephen Gallagher, CEO of Dotmatics. “Our platform delivers this and, at the same time, eliminates the IT burden associated with global informatics infrastructure.”

According to Dr. Mark Duggan, VP of Neuroscience iMed, the company was seeking an enterprise data management solution that would be comprehensive and get it up and running as quickly as possible. He said the Dotmatics platform gave them the ability to collaborate and share data easily, securely and in real time.