A question I repeatedly ask myself when I am planning to do something is: “How long will it take?”
We may not be aware of it, but as human beings we estimate how much time we need to do pretty much everything; from how much time we need to run our errands, how long it will take to plan our next vacation to Rio de Janeiro, or when will we be able to finally report our chromatographic results?
If we can’t estimate correctly, we are unable to plan realistically, which may get in the way of meeting deadlines and lead to frustrations and sometimes unhappy stakeholders (or a poorly planned vacation)!
A rigid system structure in an aging environment can be slow, overcomplicated, introduce error as users “work around it,” and is rarely updated to streamline a user experience. Throw in the requirement to keep it running on older operating systems, and it can be a future-proofing nightmare for administrators. When I was working in the laboratory, my primary focus was to drive productivity, which meant that adopting a modern, low-maintenance and reliable chromatography data system (CDS) was key.
I’ve summarized my top five impressions of how Thermo Scientific Chromeleon CDS, version 7.3.2 helps me finish my tasks on time and hit my business goals, and I would like to share them with you:
- It is (lightning) fast: With this release, processing of mass spectral data has been totally redesigned. It is extremely responsive and the addition of concurrent file processing can decrease time spent to 1/10th, compared to previous versions.
- It doesn’t get in your way: Background processing means I no longer have to wait for the spinning wheel of death (yay!) and the software won’t hang during report generation, data processing, data export and data transfer. Yes to multitasking!
- It eradicates transcription errors: With a new 64-bit Excel reporting style, and support to more than 450 spreadsheet functions, conditional formatting and the addition of Unicode character sets, I can now share my reports globally without losing formatting. There is no need for additional reporting tools.
- It delivers right-first-time results: Everything you need to achieve compliance is delivered in one single built-in package. Just configure the system with the help of the incredible implementation team (or on your own if you feel confident enough; we have comprehensive documentation, too) and you will easily get from samples to final results.
- You can multitask: You can launch analysis from different instruments at the same time, compare results at the same time, and process results from different instruments at the same time — all in one window. And you can also customize that window the way you want to free up more space if you need it. No opening and closing multiple windows anymore.
All of these reasons (and more) are why I like this new release: And I think it’s pretty cool that Chromeleon CDS helps me to better estimate my time, delivers my results quickly and answers the most important question — “How long will it take?” With all the time you will save, maybe you can plan for a longer vacation to Rio. See you there!