Informatics: heating up the STM market
Jinfo Blog

27th April 2010

By Joanna Ptolomey

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The science, technology and medicine (STM) market has always been a knowledge intensive sector. One of the key drivers in this industry is managing and adjusting workflows, being responsive to research cycles and the changing market conditions. In the STM sector the overheads to a company are huge – not only in terms of data analysis but in managing, storing and sharing this information. Managing workflow processes whilst maintaining flexibility to the market conditions is key to success. It is announced that two of the players that currently support R&D informatics in the STM sector, Accelrys (http://accelrys.com/) and Symyx Technologies (http://www.symyx.com/), will merge with the deal expected to close in June 2010. It is expected that the new company will based in San Diego, where Accelrys is currently headquartered. Accelrys brings an informatics platform capable of providing workflow solutions specific to the R&D market. This includes computer aided design modelling and simulation. It is considered by industry insiders to be a flexible, easy to use platform which can be used as a bolt on to competitive products and with a customer’s in-house own proprietary science products. It is considered that the Symyx role is largely a complementary offering to that of Accelrys. Symyx is best know for electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN), chemical informatics and sourcing databases such as Available Chemicals Directory - one of the largest structure-searchable collection of commercially available chemicals in the world, with pricing and supplier information for over 1,160,000 unique chemicals, including 3D models, from 840 suppliers worldwide. Industry analysts believe that it is the Symyx ELN that is the most strategically significant. It is an interface for planning, executing and analysing experiments. The management and administration of workflow in an R&D situation is crucial in the race for new product development. This is a cut throat market where knowledge and workflow management are crucial to success. The STM market is heating up, products need to be flexible and multi-taskers. It is a high risk market, but word on the street is that this particular combination of STM informatics specialists is ‘bang on the nail’ with timing and product combination.

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