ACE Laboratories has sought out working partnerships with multiple OEMs including Alpha Technologies. “We also have working relationships with Wallace Instruments, LabsCubed, and Ueshima Seisakusho,” explains Sharp. “There are multiple benefits to both sides. If prospective customer wants to see an instrument at work in the field, they can come here and see a demo and run some samples. Alpha doesn’t need to utilize that benefit much, because they are located very near our facility. But if they have a customer who wants to mill up a batch and then test it and compare it to a DMA, we can do that right here on the spot. For us, we have the opportunity to try out the newest and latest technologies. We get to be at the forefront of innovation.

“With Enterprise, we’ve enjoyed the benefit of working with the full Alpha team on pushing the limits of the system,” Sharp continues. “We have so many pieces of equipment that are not typical of a captive lab. We’re able to report, ‘Here’s what’s looking good… here’s where we have issues… here’s where we’ve created a workaround…’ And that kind of open-book exchange of information benefits both companies.”

In the next five years, ACE Laboratories plans to continue to expand its reach into the polymer sector. “Ideally, we want to tie everything back to the central LIMS,” says Sharp. “Enterprise will help keep the growth of the company centralized. I’m just glad we were able to put Enterprise into place when we were still on the smaller side. I see Enterprise as being a scalable data hub that can support our growth. And I trust the Alpha team to continue to work closely with us as we grow. For example, we are currently working with Alpha to create an external portal where a customer can upload work orders and then we can download them to run the tests they want, and then upload the data. That’s going to be a huge benefit as we continue to grow.”

“We really sought to engage with ACE, first in helping them include our instruments in their lab, and then by getting their lab to be more efficient from a process flow perspective and a data analysis perspective,” says Neil Friery, President of Alpha-Technologies. “And Alpha benefits from that relationship, too. As an independent lab, ACE is seeing a lot more than the standard run-of-the-mill tests we are used to seeing. They help us push the boundaries of our own instruments and systems. People are coming to ACE and saying, ‘I’m having this problem with this formulation.’ And Alpha is able to get involved, either from our application engineering team or our Enterprise software team, and work with ACE to work through it. We are both better companies from that interaction.”

“Alpha seems to be reinventing themselves and are back to driving innovation,” adds Sharp. “They have a good, robust support team there that can help push through it. From our end, we’re seeing a lot of that support is helping us grow. Sometimes it’s just a note for the next iteration. But sometimes it’s, ‘You can do that now… just go here, click here, and you’ve got it.’ That support is just a phone call away.”