Transforming Scientific Data Management with Dotmatics Driving Collaboration and Efficiency Across 2,000+ Global Researchers
Background
A leading India-based Contract Research, Development, and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO) serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and related industries worldwide, is undertaking a major digital transformation to support its complex research operations. With over 6,000 scientists across chemical and biological domains, the organization’s workflows are complex and highly interdisciplinary. The initial rollout of this project begins with 2,000 users, laying the foundation for broader adoption.
The CRDMO is under pressure to manage diverse research data, ensuring compliance across global standards, and enabling seamless collaboration. This case study will unpack how the organization is addressing these issues and why scalable, intelligent ELN platforms are critical to success.
Challenge
CRDMOs sit at a very unique spot in the life sciences value chain. Because they combine CRO (research), CDO (development), and CMO (manufacturing) functions under one roof, they face challenges that internal pharma/ biotech or single-function service providers don’t.
A CRDMO might simultaneously run early-stage discovery programs for a biotech startup, while scaling GMP manufacturing for a large pharma client and preparing regulatory dossiers for a third sponsor across the world. Each engagement demands different workflows, compliance standards, and data systems. Strength lies in the ability to be flexible, transparent and collaborative.
Challenge
Infrastructure strain: Legacy ELNs couldn’t keep pace with 6,000+ users, causing downtime, higher costs, and researcher frustration.
Fragmented systems: Multiple ELNs created data silos, limiting collaboration and slowing progress.
Complex workflows: Managing chemical and biological data separately made compliance and traceability difficult.
Solution
Unified ELN captured all scientific data consistently, from DNA sequences and cell lines to reactions and compounds.
Centralized registration & inventory provided complete compliance and traceability.
Modern UI and integrated scientific tools (SnapGene, Geneious, GraphPad Prism, and third-party connectors) streamlined workflows.
Results
Early adoption success with rapid interest from additional research groups.
Plans to expand into Dotmatics Luma and Lab Connect for full digital integration.
Positioned as a strategic first enterprise implementation with a leading CRDMO in the region—paving the way for broader market growth.
As this organization’s operations scaled, so did the complexity of managing research data. They experienced infrastructure strain, as their rapidly growing user base pushed the limits of their legacy ELN infrastructure. As a result, frequent downtime and performance issues were causing major headaches— disrupted research timelines, increased operational costs, and reduced staff satisfaction.
The team struggled to manage fragmented systems, as the multiple ELNs in use across teams created silos that hindered data sharing. They also needed to manage diverse scientific workflows. The need to manage both biological and chemical data, often in separate systems, made it difficult to maintain a unified, compliant record of all R&D activities. Plus, their strategic and expanding investment in biological research meant that they needed an ELN with robust biology-centric capabilities, while also maintaining strong support for chemistry teams.
Solution
ELN & Data Discovery PlatformChemistryBiology
To address these challenges, the organization adopted the , with Solutions for and as an integrated enterprise platform. Dotmatics was chosen because of its unique ability to unify scientific data management across both chemical and biological domains within a single, scalable platform. Unlike alternatives that often require separate modules or systems for different research areas, Dotmatics delivers robust ELN, registration, and inventory management for multidisciplinary teams, ensuring seamless data capture, sharing, and compliance.
Dotmatics’ intuitive, modern interface and deep integration with leading scientific applications provide the organization a superior user experience, while flexible workflows accommodate its complex research needs. Critically, Dotmatics' centralized architecture dissolves data silos and delivers consistent, compliant records for all R&D, which is especially valuable for this organization, as it expands its biological capabilities. Dotmatics' advanced cloud-based ELN solution features:
Flexible Licensing Model: Tailored license tiers for different user groups to enable cost-effective scalability without sacrificing capability.
Comprehensive ELN Capabilities: A unified ELN for both biology and chemistry, capturing all scientific data, from DNA sequences and cell lines to reactions and compounds, consistently and shareably.
Centralized Registration & Inventory Management: Unified systems for registering chemical compounds and biological entities, integrated with centralized inventory for complete compliance and traceability.
Modern UX/UI: An intuitive researcher experience using the latest Dotmatics interface.
Integrated Scientific Tools: Native connectivity to Dotmatics applications such as , and plus connectors for third-party tools to create an end-to-end, fully unified data workflow.
The integrations with SnapGene, Geneious, and GraphPad Prism have been particularly impactful for the organization’s multidisciplinary projects, enabling scientists to work within their preferred tools while maintaining data connectivity across research domains. These native integrations allow direct access to sequence analysis, cloning workflows, and advanced statistical visualization—all within the Dotmatics environment. Smooth connectivity to other third-party tools further supports custom applications and legacy data, providing scientists with a unified workflow and minimizing the risk and bandwidth constraints associated with manual data transfers. The result is improved productivity, fewer errors, and faster research cycles.
Previous Challenge Dotmatics Solution
Diverse Scientific Workflows
Difficulty managing both biology and chemistry in separate systems; weak support for bioprocess expansion.
Strategic R&D Growth in Biology
Needed bio-centric features without losing chemistry capabilities.
Limited Inventory & Data Traceability
Disconnected inventory tracking and poor audit links between materials and experiments.
Fragmented Scientific Tools
Need for smooth integration with popular analysis and visualization platforms; manual data transfer barriers.
User Adoption Friction
Poor usability reducing researcher engagement and increasing operational burden.
Signi
ficance
Comprehensive, multidisciplinary data management supporting both chemical and biological entities (DNA, reactions, cell lines) with centralized registration and inventory.
Advanced biology-centric ELN features (sequence visualization, integration with Geneious, SnapGene) plus full chemistry support in a single, integrated interface.
Centralized inventory fully integrated with experiment data and registration, ensuring complete traceability and compliance across all R&D activities.
Native connectivity and connectors for SnapGene, Geneious, GraphPad Prism, and other third-party tools— enabling end-to-end digital workflow without manual data handling.
Modern, intuitive UX/UI, tailored workflows, role-based access controls, and collaborative features to drive greater adoption and productivity.
This project represents Dotmatics’ first direct enterprise implementation with a major CRDMO in the region, marking a milestone in advancing scientific digitalization. India currently ranks third largest in biotechnology in Asia Pacific and among the top 12 destinations for biotechnology globally.1 Asia-Pacific is expecting substantial growth in its own ELN market over the next two decades. Its growing population is fueling rising demand for healthcare and pharmaceutical operations. Increasing economic development coupled with the expansion of pharmaceutical firms regionally are innovating new vaccinations and treatments. As a result, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is expected to reach USD 130 million by 2030, and swell to USD 450 million by 2045.
With global trends driving the need for unified R&D platforms, the success of this deployment positions Dotmatics to support a broader range of opportunities in the fast-growing life sciences market.
Precedence Research. Electronic Lab Notebook Market Size to 2034 – Market Share and Trend Data. Precedence Research, 2025, www.precedenceresearch.com/electronic-lab-notebook-market
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What’s Next?
While the team began with 2,000 scientists on the Dotmatics ELN they plan to expand the implementation in the next few years. Word of mouth has been so positive that additional research groups have expressed strong interest to join the rollout. Plus, discussions are underway for expanded capabilities, such as Microsoft Office integrations.
Dotmatics’ flexible licensing model was fundamental to supporting the organization’s rapid growth. By providing adjustable licence tiers configured for distinct user groups, the organization can scale up from an initial 2,000 users to over 6,000 with minimal operational friction and without overcommitting its resources. This model enabled easy onboarding of new research groups, supported dynamic project expansion, and allowed the organization to equip teams with the right tools at the right cost. It also futureproofed their deployment, supporting ongoing expansion across locations and scientific disciplines as their CRDMO business evolves.
Luma is an AI-native multimodal research platform for scientific intelligence. Luma represents the next logical step in scientific R&D, designed to futureproof organizations by integrating the best capabilities of ELNs, LIMS, and SDMS into a unified, intelligent platform. Luma doesn’t replace the Dotmatics ELN. Rather, it offers a gradual, integrated path forward, allowing customers to adopt new capabilities at their own pace. And as more and more labs embrace the potential of AI-driven discovery, Luma will serve as a future-ready foundation, supporting innovation and scalability.
LumaLuma Lab Connect
Moving forward, the team is excited to partner with Dotmatics to extend its functionality to include and —creating full digital integration across lab scheduling, asset management, and even greater collaboration.
Dotmatics
Lab Connect is designed to help scientific teams collect, manage, and use data from various sources, including instruments, scientific applications, and files. Luma Lab Connect links to any lab instrument, quickly extracting and parsing raw data and metadata and converting to analyzable structured representations.