LIMS SaaS - Laboratory Information Management Software as a Service

List of SaaS Suppliers

A relatively new innovation in laboratory software is offering laboratory information management systems for a monthly or annual fee per user. This business model shifts the cost of system implementation, validation as well as hardware and software maintenance to the vendor. By doing this, the software vendors are now making the use of their software within the financial reach of many small and medium sized labs that could never have afforded it. I believe this is a great thing for both the suppliers and the users of this software. The efficiencies achieved by the use of these tools are now more widely available.

Software Vendors Offering LIMS SaaS

(I am just starting this list on 13mar2010 and it will be growing as I recheck all the vendors currently listed in this website and then search for others to add to it. If you know of any I have not included yet, feel free to shoot me an email. Thanks!)

The Importance of This New Trend

LIMS software as a service (SaaS) is the new wave in laboratory information management systems. This will be welcome news to scores of small to medium sized labs that could never have afforded the benefits of a fully featured system let alone the resources to implement, validate and maintain that system.

First to understand the implications of this, one must understand the complexity of implementing and validating a LIMS in a highly regulated industry. These projects are measured in man years and over 50% of them fail. So to undertake bringing a traditional, fully featured LIMS in house requires a very large commitment of resources with no guarantee of a return on investment. In addition to these risks, there is the future costs of maintaining the hardware and software.

The Benefits of This New Trend

These systems automate most routine functions that eat up many hours in any lab analyst's day. In addition to increasing analyst efficiency, these systems reduce errors by eliminating the duplicate writing of information and the transcription error that go along with it.

For example, without one of these systems a sample's identification would be written on an assay sheet, in the sample's label, in a lab notebook and then on any reports with the final data. With the use of a LIMS, this information is entered one time when the sample is logged into the system. After this, all labels and reports are generated from the entry in the system. If this is done every day in a lab for dozens or maybe hundreds of samples, this one small benefit alone saves many hours per day and increases the time that can be spent doing the necessary testing in the lab.

When we implemented our in house system at the lab I work, we measured cost savings in man years in each area for which it was implemented. By this I mean, raw material testing, packaging component testing, etc. This has allowed us to increase the laboratory's workload required to bring in new products into our manufacturing facility without increasing the staffing to do the testing.