New Normal: virtual components in your Paperless Lab projects -

PLA2021Europe, food for thoughts and barometer of the lab informatics industry.

The Paperless Lab Academy® 2021 European edition has just taken place, online this time during the last week of April. More than 400 attendees have got together discussing about digital data management and paperless transformation of laboratory and quality processes.

It has been 3 amazing, intense, and interactive days of online congress. Even if we were all having in mind the nice Lake Maggiore hotel that we were missing this time, the networking and interactions were still happening through a succession of keynote presentations, 15 sponsored workshops, 20 exhibitors and several live sessions with our sponsors Accenture, Lonza and Wega informatik. Note that the event Platform remains open till May 30th for all registrees – free registrations for visitors are still possible for you to enjoy the content.

Meanwhile it is already time to reflect on the outcome of those 3 days stimulated by comments like this one while the event was concluding.

Thanks for the organization. It was a great congress with very useful and modern contents. It was a real pleasure to be with you guys along these 3 days. 🙂
Diego Rufino, LIMS Analyst at Fresenius Kabi

One of the most discussed argument with greater interaction has been about how much the pandemic situation might have impacted paperless Lab projects.

Certainly, the laboratories have become of certain relevance for the society. Everyone has understood the criticality of those laboratories working properly and handling data correctly. Laboratories have been in the center of practically all conversations. They have investigating the virus, developing accurate methods to detect it quickly, developing new drugs to counterattack its effects, developing against the clock new vaccines to fight it. But none only. Some laboratories where tracing for example the viral load in their city sewage waters and facilitating alerts while before the impact was perceived at the hospitals.

The pressures for coordinating a great amount of work, managing an enormous amount of data, and remaining within compliance have highlighted to most of the laboratory managers and their upper management that digital processes were definitely required to reach higher levels of productivity and efficiency.

62% confirmed that Paperless Lab projects were given higher priority

As such the poll ran during the Lonza live session has confirmed it. During the session about Paperless lab projects and the pandemic: Challenges and Benefits of running an implementation virtually.

The audience was asked to share their experiences about how much the pandemic situation has impacted their Paperless Lab projects.

If ever, the pandemic situation has prioritized paperless projects. In fact, several reports from McKenzy for instance, have shown how, from one hand, the CFO have gained awareness about the relevance for their companies to initiate the digital transformation of their processes. With their role sitting at the center of the strategic-planning process and financial disciplines, CFOs are well positioned to become critical drivers of digital transformation.

In September 30, 2020, Gartner said that 69% of Boards of Directors accelerated their Digital Business Initiatives Following COVID-19 Disruption

On the other hand, the CIO have taken the ownership in facilitating the tools for employees ‘remote working. There are multiple examples in which CIO have made the difference and thanks to their strategical thinking and anticipation, they have made possible for companies to produce and deliver.

94% consider that virtual sessions could be part of a paperless project plan from now on

The main discussions took place during the Lonza sessions. Lonza brought several testimonies from their team members about their own way of working had to change and adapt to virtual interaction and remote meetings.

Through those interviews, we kind of walk through a paperless project at customer site from a provider point of view. How they had to get their team coordinated and managed remotely, and from there how they went from travelling basically every day to moving to never ending day of calls. Sales processes, software demonstration, project planning, supervision of the implementation, user trainings, etc had to be revisited. Providers and customers have adapted in working alongside and make those complex projects meet their deadlines.

It was also extremely interesting to see that from customer point of view, they would rather be open to keep having some steps in the process being still virtual.

From the experiences made and based on the positive side of it – reduced travelling costs and time, dedicated quality time in focused team meeting, etc – 94% consider that virtual sessions could be part of a paperless project plan.

Isabel Muñoz-Willery Ph.D. 30 years’ experience in multinational companies serving life science laboratories in regulated markets. EMEA leader of application specialists’ teams. Founder of NL42 Consulting and event manager of the Paperless Lab Academy^®

NL42 provides personalised services and innovative solutions, committing to complete customer satisfaction. We provide dedicated support to managers and executives in the design and implementation of their strategies to reach their business goals, with the highest Level of attention and quality.
We aim for becoming a trusted advisor for our customers by delivering superior Quality of Services, branded by our personalised attention and professionalism. NL42 is a young and dynamic international consulting company created by professionals with decades of experience.
We offer support throughout the Transformation Process to Paperless.
We cover multiple sectors where priorities are Efficiency, Productivity, Quality and Data Integrity.

Note that the event Platform remains open till May 30th for all registrees – free registrations for visitors are still possible for you to enjoy the content.