January 18, 2018
About LabKey
2017 was a year of many milestones for the LabKey team. Our newest product, LabKey Biologics, launched in April and has been implemented at four leading pharma and biotech companies, we redesigned the LabKey Server user interface, and we took our compliance functionality to the next level with the introduction of compliant hosting and a suite of new features to support teams working within HIPAA, FISMA and CFR Part 11 compliant environments. LabKey is excited about what the next year has in-store and we want to share our vision for 2018 with the growing LabKey community.
Each year, LabKey invests in a number of development projects that premium subscribers have shared as key priorities. In 2018, we plan to dedicate development time to a variety of key areas including:
The LabKey Biologics team, in partnership with our product advisory council, has developed an aggressive roadmap for continued development of this flexible system for biologic discovery and development. In 2018, the team will be focusing much of their efforts on:
In order to support our ongoing commitment to providing reliable software solutions, each year we dedicate resources to evolving our technology infrastructure to ensure its on-going stability. This year, we are largely focused on enhancements that will improve efficiency for both internal and external developers working with LabKey Server. Our key priorities include the development of a method for sharing JavaScript components between modules, fully supporting Java 9, and maintaining full compatibility with new versions of third-party components.
We have heard from new users of LabKey Server that the current experience makes it difficult to get started using the platform. In order to make sure new users can be successful using LabKey Server from the get go, our UX team will be working with new users over the next few months to understand how we can improve our user interface and the tools we provide. In addition, we will be continuing to expand our our hosted solutions in 2018 to make it easier for organizations to adopt and support LabKey Server.
In addition to strengthening our solutions this year, we want to continue to strengthen our relationships with you, the LabKey community. We hope that you will join us in this journey toward creating robust and powerful tools for accelerating research. A few ways that you can get involved this year include:
As teams upgrade to LabKey Server version 17.3 and later, we encourage you to provide feedback about the new UI through the “Give Feedback” form that can be accessed in your LabKey Server account menu. This feedback is reviewed, prioritized, and used directly to help us make decisions about refinements to the LabKey Server UI.
Are you new to using LabKey Server? We want to hear about your experience and how we can improve! LabKey User Experience Manager, Jessi Murray, is looking for new users who would be willing to discuss their experience getting started with LabKey Server and how it could be improved.
The LabKey User Conference is an opportunity for users to gather together and share about how they are using and extending the LabKey platform and solutions. Attendees also participate in round table discussions and work sessions with the LabKey developers where they can explore current challenges and shared feedback directly with the LabKey team.