December 7, 2020
by Daria Thorp, President and CEO, ACD/Labs
At the end of a turbulent 2020, I’d like to share my thoughts on the key topics of 2020, and wishes for health, mental strength, and professional success in the year to come.
Wishing you an exceptional new year, from all of us at ACD/Labs.
Daria
Additional reading suggestions
Software clip: illustrating dynamic chemistry project review with on-demand access to the comprehensive set of analytical data. See more at www.katalystD2D.com
Webinar: Pfizer outlines the advantages of analytical data management on the Spectrus Platform
OutSourcing Pharma: ACD/Labs analytical platforms upgraded for COVID-19 age
Pharma Manufacturing: Using data to create a quality-first approach to Industry 4.0
Blog: Work-from-home Questions Answered—A Guide for Scientists
LabMate Online: Aggregating All Analytical Data and Accessing it Anywhere
The Medicine Maker: The Digital Review: Quality Assurance Review and Release
Scientific Computing World: Standardizing Access to Data
Scientific Computing World: Data Standards
Blog: The Value of Live Data to Support Decision-Making in R&D
Blog: ACD/Labs Staff Gather to Connect, Align, Learn…and Play | Celebrating 25 Years
Blog: Partners in Success – How ACD/Labs works with its customers for mutual success
Life Science Leader: How to Overcome Bottlenecks to Expedite Drug Approvals
PharmTech: Data and the Supply Chain
Transcript
As this calendar year nears its end, unexpected political, health, and economic shocks are everywhere around us. I hope you and your loved ones remain healthy, mentally strong, and professionally successful, in the months and years to come!
We at ACD/Labs met our fair share of challenges, but we stood strong. We were able to exceed our development and innovation goals. Our customers were urging us to deliver more solutions, faster, as they needed them to adapt their R&D operations to the high-pressure environment of 2020.
I am not going to speak about our latest technologies, as they are well covered by industry media. I would like instead to focus on some topics that stood in my memory as defining things for the year.
Personally, I was fortunate to be quarantined, or sheltered in place, surrounded by this striking Canadian landscape. However, I also have the most pitiful internet connection. Obviously not an optimal work environment. Your blessings and curses were likely different from mine.
However, one of the common themes of the year has been Digital Transformation. Many of us were able to decouple physical proximity from our ability to do work tasks—this is very critical, going forward.
In the life sciences industries, digital transformation oftentimes means seamless access to molecular, structure, and analytical chemistry information. Software for digitalization, aggregation and remote accessibility, has been the priority for ACD/Labs’ development for years. This year, we had digital solutions ready to help our customers in pharmaceutical and chemical industries, as well as educators.
Another popular theme of the year has been On Demand…obviously neither you nor I can access all of the information available to us, at all times. Furthermore, scientists are inherently skeptical. Through our training and professional experience we know that, when looking at the aggregated abstracted summary or report, we also need to look at the data sources. In chemistry, this means seamless, comprehensive access to analytical instrumental data on which decisions are based; and getting this access easily, and ON DEMAND, is critically important.
This year another topic came into my focus, and it relates to multinational cooperation.
It’s really hard to imagine, but only a year ago we at ACD/Labs were celebrating our 25th anniversary all together (in one big room). I’m always amazed at the strength and diversity of our team, that spans 11 countries across the world!
We usually speak of that to highlight our ability to support our customers in their time zones, as well as to work around the clock on projects and products. This year, another theme came to focus—shared knowledge. We have certainly learned a lot from each other about the course of this pandemic.
At the same time, the pandemic and digitalization brought new rules of engagement and new demands for the collaborative software tools. Thus, ACD/Labs worked on enhancing our supply chain and scientific knowledge transfer functionality. Our customers needed those tools, as many of them are multinational organizations, or researchers with broad international connections and reach. I hope you agree with me: the enormous advantage of borderless knowledge sharing is something that we must preserve and foster going forward.
To conclude, this year has been… nothing but extraordinary. However, we were able to get through it, together. I am certain that amazing accomplishments are ahead for all of us in 2021. We will come out of this crisis with new skills, better processes, and new knowledge.
Whatever the changes and challenges are there ahead of us, together, we will overcome them.
Wishing you an exceptional new year, from all of us at ACD/Labs.
Daria Thorp, Ph.D.
CEO, ACD/Labs
About the Author
Nice message. We need to look into other requirements of research scientists
Another popular theme of the year has been On Demand