At the IQPC lab informatics summit 2016 in Brussels, Cushion consultancy will provide a 3-hour pre-conference workshop. It is entitled “Process optimization and lab informatics change: a risk-based approach for managing uncertainty” and will be provided September 20th, from 10.00-13.00 local time.

This workshop will show hands-on how risk management can provide a comprehensive approach to manage process optimization and lab informatics change under uncertainty. After this workshop attendees can make a good start protecting themselves and their laboratory from unpleasant surprices. For more information and registration, please visit the IQPC summit website.

Changing compliance regulation and business demands do not have to be a deep burden on your scientific learning capacity.

At the sold out Paperless Lab Academy, 19-20 paril 2016 Barcelona, Thomas van Zanten of Cushion consultancy will co-present with Agilent Technologies. They both will provide a workshop on Business Process Management and Enterprise Content Management in the laboratory context.

In this workshop attendees will experience the advantage of having control over their scientific data. It will elaborate on lab dependent data requirements and logistics, their workflow implications and the advantage of an adaptive ECM-system to provide agility in data management and lab workflows to enhance scientific innovation.

Many of today’s best run organizations have embraced continuous business improvement principles as propagated by Lean, SixSigma and the like. At the start of optimization trajectories, the ‘as-is’ situation is mapped and measured. This provides a clear point of reference for investments in lab automation and innovation for example. Concerning the measurement part, business cases often contain many estimates. Although being educated guesses by experts, the lack of hard data is perceived as risk by many involved in investment decisions.

To help managers to deeper understand their investment needs, to strengthen their business case and supporting better investment decisions, Cushion consultancy collects these hard data with Multi Moment Analysis (MMA) from Me2Any AG. This is a data collection tool for work sampling, determining statistically the relative time distribution of daily activities as executed by workers, as for example those of laboratory personnel. Using mobile technology, MMA has made work sampling less intrusive for lab personnel than old school consultancy techniques and is cost effective for customers.

Please feel free to contacting us for conducting the work sampling for you or in case you need assistance in using MMA yourself. For more information, you can also visit the MMA website and download the MMA eBook.

Data analysts can help smart managers quantify and limit the risks of their decisions. But never take data analyst’s conclusions at face value, however. Michael Li in his 2015 HBR article states that managers should at least ask two questions before making a decision:

1. How was the data collected?
2. What is the margin for error?

Despite the value of statistics, interpretation of analysis is key. Read the full article.

The old sales model from Awareness to Interest to Desire to Action (AIDA) does not suit today’s’ B2B landscape anymore. As Frank Cespedes and Tiffany Bova state in their 2015 HBR article, “customers want to deal with people who can help them move toward a purchase decision, be the internal champion at the vendor, and bring it together for that customer. In fact, B2B buyers report that, compared to other sources of information, these interactions are the most influential in their decision making process.” Interestingly, they report that social media is the source considered the least influential in the buying process. Read the full article.

Dates: 25 feb 2016

Choosing the proper software for the laboratory is not always easy. Suppliers tell you “yes, we can”, “it is no problem” and “we will solve this issue soon”. You are at high risk of getting bogged down in the swamp of technical systems specifications and suppliers’ big promises. These will not help you any further.

So, where to start?

This one day training session will provide you with simple and clear answers. For more information, please visit the Dutch version of this website. Just click the Dutch flag!