Services

LIMS Administration Services

Many laboratories do not have a dedicated LIMS Administrator for their LIMS system. This can be for many different reasons - often managers find it difficult to justify the salary cost, or there is no suitably skilled or talented person at the laboratory to fulfil this role.

Sometimes the responsibility may land on IT personnel who, although knowledgeable about technology, generally have no knowledge or understanding of science and how a laboratory works. They therefore don’t understand how best to configure the system for the laboratory's needs.

Having someone available to administer your LIMS is absolutely crucial if you want to unlock the full potential of your LIMS software. A big mistake we see laboratories make is to spend a lot of money on the initial project implementation, and then assume that they will never need to change their LIMS again. Unfortunately this is rarely the case. If your system is not constantly maintained and updated as laboratory processes change it very soon becomes out of date, and eventually obsolete. The end result is another costly LIMS implementation project a few years down the line.

At Innisfree Solutions, we have more than 20 years experience in the LIMS and laboratory technology world. We can assist your laboratory with Remote LIMS Administration, providing LIMS Administration services to your laboratory as and when required. Depending on your requirements we can provide monthly hours to be used as you see fit, or we can assist with one-off enhancements.

Get in touch with us and we'll be happy to discuss your requirements for LIMS Administration Services and provide you with the best solution for your specific needs.

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Instrument Interfacing

Buying a new instrument is a huge investment for any laboratory. Modern instruments, such as ICPs and GCs, come with a substantial price-tag and therefore it is crucial to ensure that the laboratory extracts maximum value from their instruments.

Instrument interfacing - exporting results directly from the instrument and automatically importing them into your LIMS - allows you to fully capitalise on your instrument's inbuilt capabilities and software. It will reduce human error during result entry, increase productivity and enable much better traceability of the QC results that are linked to a sample's results. Laboratory processes can be streamlined and the analyst's time is freed up, and they can spend that time to do other work, instead of spending hours manually capturing results.

If you have recently acquired new instruments that need to be interfaced to your LIMS, or if you have not yet interfaced all your existing instruments to your LIMS, then we can assist you to get this done.

Interfacing to External Systems

Data in isolation, or data that is not accessible to all stakeholders, often becomes meaningless.

In many companies the same information may often be contained in different software systems throughout the company, or data from one system may be needed as input to a process on another system.

This is especially true in industries such as mining and manufacturing, where the results from laboratory tests may be used to adjust the production lines in the plant, or results from geological surveys may direct the company to adjust their drilling sites. In these scenarios you want data to travel quickly and correctly from one system to the next.

Another typical system interface is between the LIMS and a financial or ERP system. This could be used for data such as invoicing data, quality data (e.g. batch numbers) or product specifications.

We have extensive experience with integration to well-known software systems such as Pastel, SAP, Geomine and Honeywell PI to name a few, as well as custom-built and legacy systems. Contact us to assist you with your system integration needs.

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Digital Document Generation And Advanced Electronic Signatures

Certificates of analysis (COAs) are the final product for most laboratories and are often the most crucial documents produced in the lab. These documents are legally binding, and may open the signatory and/or the lab up to liability if the data contained on the COA is incorrect. This is especially true in manufacturing environments, where the COA may be used to certify that manufactured material is fit for its intended purpose. COAs are often also the source of numerous audit findings and non-conformances.

Since the COA is such a critical document there are generally only a small number of people at an organisation, or even just one, who have the authority to sign a COA. In some labs the quality process may dictate that a number of people have to review and/or sign off the COA. This can become a very time-consuming process if not managed efficiently and may result in bottlenecks or delays in getting the final report to the customer.

However, COAs are not the only documents that have strict requirements when it comes to the review and sign-off process. There are other types of documents that have strict traceability and review requirements in an organisation, such as SOPs and product specification sheets.

We can assist you with different solutions based on your review and electronic signature needs. From digital document generation, to implementing basic digital signatures, right through to implementing a complex review process and advanced electronic signatures compliant with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

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Digital Sample Submission

Drastically reduce incorrect or incomplete analysis requests from your customers by allowing them to directly capture their sample submissions with the help of our context-aware data capture wizards. Better requests result in faster processing and more satisfied customers. Additionally, the digital sample submission process allows customers to print a barcoded paper document to be dispatched together with the sample. This approach ensures that samples can be efficiently processed when they arrive at your sample reception area, and also allows for intelligent capacity planning.

Online analysis tracking

Customers are able to access real-time progress data related to their samples. Integrating the customer portal with your LIMS provides your customers with the ability to access high-level workflow progress information on the portal. Your customers can track their sample submissions based on configured workflow states such as "Registered", "Received", "Scheduled", "Under Analysis" and "Report Production".

Analysis History

The customer portal makes it possible for customers to view the full history of all sample submissions to the lab, including the ability to download the COA for all previously submitted samples.

Secure

By leveraging multi-factor authentication systems, our solution ensures the highest level of security for customer information.

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System Audits

The initial LIMS implementation is only the first step in the journey. Inevitably, as time passes, the laboratory’s processes change and new technology emerges, requiring your LIMS to keep up with the times. Unfortunately in a lot of companies the LIMS remains stagnant and left behind while the laboratory moves ahead.

It is therefore a good idea to periodically do a system audit of your LIMS. During a system audit we will:

• Review your current LIMS Implementation;
• Provide suggestions for improvements in your LIMS and lab processes;
• Create a road map detailing proposed enhancements and/or upgrades as well as a proposed timeline.

Tender Process Assistance

We have been involved in many tender responses in the past, and this has given us great insight into the importance of creating a comprehensive RFP document when going out on tender for a new system.

A properly written and comprehensive User Requirement Specification (URS) is an invaluable resource when going out to tender for a new or replacement laboratory software system. There are many advantages to doing this, but the most important ones are:

Accuracy of costing estimations and timelines

This is by far the most important benefit to having a well-written URS. When a prospective vendor has the full picture, it is much easier when responding to a tender to provide a more realistic quotation and estimation of the project timelines. This in turn means that the project has a better chance of being delivered on time and within the approved budget.

Product Evaluation during tender process

Having a comprehensive URS makes it a lot easier for the tender committee to evaluate all vendor products during when awarding a tender, as all vendor proposals and presentations can be compared to the functionality defined in the URS. This makes it clear where a prospective vendor’s product falls short in terms of the lab’s requirements.

Identifying project risks

In every software implementation project there are certain items that can pose a risk to the successful implementation of the project, on time and on budget. Doing a URS will provide the opportunity to identify the items that pose a risk to the project, such as interfacing to other systems.

Definition of ROI Criteria

The URS process also allows the definition of items that can be used to determine the return on investment, which can also assist both in convincing management to invest in a new software system, and to determine after the project has completed, whether it has improved the lab’s bottom line.

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