ScienceCloud by Accelrys Transforms Externalized Drug Discovery

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ – Accelrys, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACCL), a leading provider of scientific innovation lifecycle management software, has announced the launch of ScienceCloud, a new SaaS-based information management and collaboration workspace. ScienceCloud advances collaborative drug discovery with a new generation of integrated applications built on a scalable, cloud-based scientific platform. With no software to manage and no hardware to maintain, ScienceCloud improves operational excellence in globally networked research, significantly reducing IT cost and effort.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/65595-sciencecloud-software-by-accelrys-advances-collaborative-drug-discovery

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120416/MM88629LOGO)

"With externalized R&D collaboration on the rise in the life sciences, organizations are turning to the cloud as a secure, scalable, elastic environment for effectively connecting virtual teams and sharing data, information and knowledge," said Alan S. Louie, Ph.D., research director, IDC Health Insights. "Improved business agility, reduced TCO and anywhere-anytime information access make the cloud an excellent venue for rolling out a successful collaboration strategy."

As the next step in Accelrys' externalized collaboration initiative, ScienceCloud takes secure, real-time transfer of project data within geographically-dispersed life science research networks to a new level. ScienceCloud provides project-centered IP storage in a secure information warehouse and enforces sponsor business rules on results posted by network partners.  ScienceCloud enhances the virtual workspace with new mobile applications and tools, allowing project teams to leverage social communication for building and sharing project information.  The result is a more holistic collaboration strategy for partnering pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, contract research organizations (CROs) and academic research teams.

"Today a significant amount of discovery work is done through partner alliances," said Matt Hahn, Ph.D., senior vice president and chief technology officer at Accelrys. "Because of this new business model, life science partner networks need better ways to connect and collaborate than email, e-rooms and repurposed legacy systems. ScienceCloud is a flexible and robust workspace where virtual project teams can securely share the data and apps they need to drive successful outcomes in a fast-changing global and mobile research landscape."

ScienceCloud provides applications to upload, process, store, search and analyze structured and unstructured scientific records critical for drug discovery projects including biology, chemistry, analytical, safety and pharmacokinetics data. With ScienceCloud, scientists can rapidly access research data including experiments, chemical structures, assays and other test results and are able to make informed decisions based on the most complete and current information available. Research managers gain continuous visibility into projects and the ability to understand the latest results across all organizations involved. As collaboration networks evolve, it is easy for sponsoring organizations to quickly spin up and spin down partner engagements with the data they provide securely partitioned in the system.

ScienceCloud leverages an open ecosystem of web and mobile-accessible application capabilities initially including:

• Collaborative Project Management:  ScienceCloud provides secure project management and the ability to share project information (whether structured data or documents) using a unique social networking approach to scientific collaboration.
• Experiment and IP Capture:  Accelrys Notebook, a flexible, multi-disciplinary, low-cost-of-ownership electronic lab notebook empowers sponsor organizations and network partners to capture and share experimental methods.
• Custom Business Rules Extension: Accelrys Pipeline Pilot, a scientific workflow authoring application, facilitates the creation and management of scientific services, implements standard business rules and enables integration between ScienceCloud and on-premises systems, allowing data to flow from one environment to the other.
• Mobile Device Enablement: A mobile iOS application lets scientists access the ScienceCloud, execute ScienceCloud tasks and share results with colleagues. An associated Accelrys Pipeline Pilot Mobile Collection allows developers to build scientific protocols which can be deployed to mobile devices, leveraging mobile capabilities such as sound and image capture, location services, speech-to-text, etc.
• Publishing and Sharing Services: The ScienceCloud Exchange is an open portal where scientists can publish and share Accelrys Pipeline Pilot protocols (e.g., reports created from ScienceCloud data), enhancing broad dissemination of essential research tools within the ScienceCloud community.

Accelrys is uniquely qualified in the SaaS-based research informatics market with a proven track record of over ten years delivering successful cloud offerings including hosted content in Accelrys DiscoveryGate, Accelrys Notebook Cloud and Accelrys HEOS, the industry's first CRO partner collaboration platform. Accelrys' depth of experience in scientific research;  long-term vision of the solutions needed to address today's collaboration challenges; and strong track record of partnering with customers make ScienceCloud the ideal solution for the new frontier of externalized collaborative research.

To learn more about ScienceCloud, please visit ScienceCloud.com. Register for the complimentary webinar entitled "ScienceCloud, a cloud solution for externalized, collaborative R&D," scheduled for Tuesday, February 18, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM PST.

About Accelrys, Inc.
Accelrys (NASDAQ: ACCL), a leading provider of scientific innovation lifecycle management software, supports industries and organizations that rely on scientific innovation to differentiate themselves. The industry-leading Accelrys Enterprise Platform provides a broad, flexible scientific foundation optimized to integrate the diversity of science, experimental processes and information requirements across the research, development, QA/QC and manufacturing phases of product development. Accelrys offers capabilities in scientific data management, modeling and simulation, research informatics, laboratory informatics, enterprise quality management, environmental health & safety and operations intelligence for customers in science-driven industries. Using Accelrys technology, scientific innovators can access, organize, analyze and share data in unprecedented ways across the research, laboratory and manufacturing continuum, ultimately enhancing innovation, improving productivity and compliance, reducing costs and accelerating product development from research to manufacturing.

Accelrys solutions are used by more than 2,000 customers in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, energy, chemicals, aerospace, consumer packaged goods and industrial products industries. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Accelrys employs more than 225 full-time PhD scientists. For more information about Accelrys, visit www.accelrys.com.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/65595-sciencecloud-software-by-accelrys-advances-collaborative-drug-discovery

SOURCE Accelrys, Inc.