EVOLUTION OF ELECTRONIC LABORATORY NOTEBOOKS - Collaborative Computational Technologies for Biomedical Research - page 317

ideally the sampling and analysis are handled automatically or with minimal
intervention from the experimenter. The results are compared with records
held in internal database systems such as OpenLab (Agilent) or Nugenesis
(Waters), and the results are used to direct the execution of the experiment.
Finally the work product is obtained and processed and registered into the
company's knowledge store. A physical entity requires more care, as it needs
to be housed in a safe and accessible place and associated with property
information.
Although the workfl ows are similar between research disciplines, the details
differ considerably, and this is where the challenges lie. In addition, there is
little standardization in input and output formats of the various pieces of
equipment. There have been repeated attempts to standardize the format of
analytical information, initially through the Joint Committee on Atomic and
Molecular Physical Data (JCAMP) [22] format and more recently through the
Analytical Markup Language (AniML) format [23]. But there has been little
pressure on vendors to deliver standards as users are more driven by best of
the breed as the selection criterion and do not adhere to standards. This must
change as the ELE evolves. This will be less of an issue with scientists in devel-
opment environments, especially those regulated by the FDA. Repetition,
accuracy, and precision are vital to their work, and automation is the way to
deliver it. For these reasons the ELE will fi rst become real in development
laboratories and the transition is already in progress.
The ELE presents enormous challenges to niche suppliers of ELN systems.
These companies do not have the resources needed to develop such a diverse
environment. As the ELE evolves, companies will look to one system to admin-
ister. This refl ects the current and inevitable trend toward cost containment.
The only companies with the resources to deliver such a system are Accelrys
following its merger with Symyx and perhaps the larger instrument makers,
Agilent and Waters. In principle an instrument company is in a good position
to deliver the complete ELE, but history shows that a software mindset cannot
accommodate instrumentation, and conversely an instrument mindset does
not accommodate software. Closer collaborations between instrument and
software companies appear to be the more likely route to deliver a fully inte-
grated ELE.

19.16 ACCELRYS ' EXPERIENCES

Users of Accelrys (formerly Symyx) notebooks are active at the company's
user group meetings and frequently contribute to the company's in-house
magazine, Molecular Connections . A number of detailed case studies are also
available on the company's website [24].
Return on investment (ROI) is a critical part of the purchase justifi cation
process, and for the early adopters there had to be a leap of faith in assuming
that the signifi cant fi nancial and personnel investments required to implement