In almost every lab we mainly distinguish 3 major processes, which are, on the other hand, also very closely linked to each other. Firstly you have the administrative and business processes, which are focusing on optimizing your entire workflow. In addition, you have the numerous measuring instruments. By linking these and integrating them into the entire process flow, your lab becomes an even more efficient workplace. And last but not least, what about the huge amounts of data that are produced every day? Check out below which process automation solutions can bring your lab to the next level.
Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)
A laboratory information management system (LIMS) is software that supports your modern laboratory's operations & daily routines. By using a LIMS, your lab can automate workflows, manage samples, track data, integrate instruments and much more. The features and uses of a LIMS have evolved over the years from simple sample tracking to an enterprise resource planning tool that manages multiple aspects of laboratory informatics.
A LIMS needs to be dynamic because the laboratory's requirements are rapidly evolving and different labs often have different needs, challenges and budgets. Therefore, a working definition of a LIMS ultimately depends on the interpretation by the people and labs involved.
Discover all the different functionalities, features and benefits of a LIMS below. You can start small and grow step by step, or immediately opt for a full-blown project implementation.
Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN)
An Electronic Laboratory Notebook (commonly known as an ELN) spans far beyond just a replacement of paper. ELN’s are designed for scientists to streamline research activities, easily document research work and collaborate with researchers in or outside the organization. No more running around with USB sticks, copy-pasting, printing, cutting and gluing.
By using ELN, you can create projects, studies, experiments, add tasks…in your specific workflow. It captures, records, centralizes and protects scientific data in a way which provides a number of benefits to organizations such as searchability, shareability, reduced mistakes, password protection and making them ideal places to store intellectual property (IP). Additionally, moving to an ELN will gain your business considerable time, savings and lowered total research costs.
As we believe that a LIMS needs to be dynamic and an ELN is the user-friendly peel around it, it’s time to create your unique ELN.
Wondering which features can boost your lab?
Workflow Designer
Customize your own workflows to meet your own processes and needs rather than changing the way you work to meet a system’s functionality. By using our workflow designer you easily configure and adapt your required processes
Customer Portal
Reduces the internal administrative workload by integrating our customer portal. It allows your customers to create their own orders, samples and studies, follow their status in real time and get access to reports and invoices.
Request Management
Manage and facilitate your laboratory workorder process from start to finish. Internal and external customers, scientists and collaborators can electronically manage the submission, routing, receiving, tracking and reporting of results originating from lab work requests and test orders.
Barcode scanning
Gain efficiency and reduce manual interaction with your own designed barcode labels for the identification and traceability of your samples and storage locations.
Test Management
Create new tests and edit existing tests by configuring your test method settings, like name, description, units and validation limits, and use calculated results as an input for a subsequent calculation.
Task management
Track tasks from beginning to end, delegate subtasks to teammates, collaborate to accomplish collective goals, and set deadlines to make sure projects get done on time.
Sample management
Streamline your sample logistics by integrating sample Life Cycle management with full traceability from creation and test results through to storage repositories.
Resource management
Get full visibility on your human resources, schedule their work and the tasks allocated to them. Deliver lab results efficiently by taking into account resources availability, constraints and deadlines.
Inventory management
Easily record your samples, chemicals and consumables and manage their storage locations. It enables you to seamlessly manage all your laboratory inventory needs in one place, saving you time and boosting productivity.
Study management
Create and manage your studies and experiments, grant access, delegate tasks and collaborate with team members. Store and share all related info like protocols, status, subjects, samples and results. Attach different reports, pictures, and documents to each study.
Permission management
Assign the appropriate user roles and rights to define & control the level of access to the required functionality and data. User roles can be created on different levels (groups, individuals, projects, experiment,...)
Document management
Reduce paper and receive, track, manage and store your documents, such as SOPs, product specs, manuals, method sheets….in your system. Our DMS keeps a record of all various versions created and modified by different users.
Stability studies
Perform the lifecycle management of your stability studies, including the creation of tests, timepoints, test conditions and locations. Generate stability reports by collecting data from all tests across all timepoints.
Planning
With our scheduler it’s easy to plan samples, tests, studies, experiments, rooms, lab technicians and equipment on the long and the short term. Changes are easily made with drag & drop which gives you a quick and clear overview of your entire planning.
Inventory management
Easily record your samples, chemicals and consumables and manage your locations where they’re stored. It enables you to seamlessly manage all your laboratory inventory needs in one place, saving you time and boosting productivity.
Quality management
Ensure consistent quality & comply with specific standards and regulations by establishing full control and overview over your total QMS: audits, CAPA, customer complaints, supplier complaints, non-conforming products, document control, calibration, training records...
Instrument connectivity
Integrating your lab equipment, preferably by using our generic and configurable interface rather than hardcoded integrations, improves automation with bi-directional data transfer and reduces the risk of transcription errors.
Software interfaces
Integrate your existing software applications to operate seamlessly with and extend the core functionalities of your system. We provide enterprise-ready, secure API’s and plugins for bi-directional data transfer, e.g. web services, file exchange, database links,…
Dashboard Designer
With our build-in dashboard designer you easily create any real-time dashboard. By dragging and dropping your selected data you’re always up-to-date in a glace.
Location and storage
Set up your locations and accurately emulate the configuration of your actual freezers including all doors, shelves, racks, other subdivisions, and boxes.
Search Engine
With our powerful search engine all structured and unstructured data, even across experiments and tests, is fully searchable can be used for trending and reporting.
Electronic Signatures
Only a successful authentication to the system, by using a valid & unique username, password and account, offers access to the system, files and general software functionality. This includes file signing, value input, or altering a record.
Audit trail
Compliant with FDA CFR 21 Part, all actions and changes are automatically logged into the audit trail. You can choose between 'silent' and 'prompted' audits with electronic signatures. An audit report with all changes can automatically be generated.