A lot of ELN implementations are still what I’d term “Traditional” IT projects, purchased and delivered in a vary standardised way; you can do this with PatentSafe, but our experience over time is that such approaches are often a way to fail blamelessly rather than deliver true value. That won’t be good enough in the future.

There’s a lot of challenges appearing for the traditional complex, “Thick client”, consulting-driven ELN implementation – tighter budgets for one, as well as the rise of the iPad and tablet computing in the Laboratory in a post-PC world.

One little-discussed trend is the expectations of the Millennial Generation as discussed in this CIO article. The article draws out 4 core lessons:

• Millennials expect to use the technology and devices of their choice
• They either don’t care about or won’t obey corporate IT policies
• They have an entirely different view of privacy than previous generations
• They have little use for corporate email as a major collaboration tool

These attitudes can present quite a challenge when you are trying to implement a corporate ELN! Traditional command-and-control approaches aren’t going to go down that well with scientists, so we need to make sure the ELNs we deploy can fit with the new generation’s expectations.

PatentSafe is a naturally inclusive ELN and tends to deal well with a mix of work styles and technologies. We originally started out this way because we started out working for very diverse research groups, but it is really paying off now we’re seeing a new approach to IT in the workplace.

The Facebook generation really do expect more, and PatentSafe delivers.