their organisations,’ says Thermo’s Dave scalability. ‘Having multiple sites in multiple standardising the LIMS. In the past, web-
Leitham. Baron, of Starlims, agrees: ‘LIMS countries really tests systems in terms of how based interfaces were primarily a more limited
and SDMS are very symbiotic. People are robust and scalable they are and the quality of version of the LIMS for sub-contractors or
I
ew
looking to buy both as a whole solution.’ the networks,’ says Townsend of LabWare. off-site access by employees. The need to
In addition, as LabVantage’s Kasner points refresh a whole page whenever new data was
out, ‘LIMS can provide vital information to Making it work added made a web browser a slow way to
ERP systems, especially the quality/process Despite the complexity, enabling things to access something as data-intensive as a LIMS.
control systems of ERP, such as quality work together can save money. ‘The cost Now, however, web pages are designed very
management and materials management.’ of integration is always the bugbear for differently and LIMS vendors say that they
Integration with so many systems can lead customers. They want to reduce the overall can provide a full, feature-rich LIMS using a LIMS overv
to some confusion though. Several vendors cost of ownership,’ comments Vines of IDBS. web browser interface.
commented that the distinctions between So how can LIMS companies help with ‘LIMS solutions delivered over the web
products are becoming blurred and that it can
be confusing for customers. ‘People are trying
‘ I n T e g R A T I O n H A S A L W Ay S b e e n A
to figure out what does what, and where
the boundaries are,’ says Nick Townsend, PReTTy STROng RequIReMenT’
director of life sciences for LabWare. ‘I think
that there are a lot of marketing things that this? ‘Integration has always been a pretty are what most people are looking for today,’
confuse clients.’ strong requirement, but the way of doing says Baron of Starlims. ‘People are looking for
There is also standardisation around it has changed,’ says LabWare’s Townsend. solutions that are functionally rich.’
widely-used products. For example, many ‘Most organisations are looking to standardise But his does not mean that the debates
companies already use SAP’s business on a single system. We need to make the about the best approach have disappeared.
software. Thomas Schmidt from Waters LIMS robust enough and rich enough Some vendors see the so-called ‘zero-
observes that more and more functionalities that people don’t have to patch it up with footprint client’ approach as important. In
are covered by ERP systems like SAP. additional products.’ this situation, all the LIMS software is hosted
Large companies are often spread across Standards play a large part in this. LIMS on the server so nothing needs to be installed
several sites and even different countries. vendors are increasingly turning to things on the PCs except a standard web browser.
This means supporting different languages like web services to achieve integration (see However, Baron does not believe that a
and time zones. As well as ensuring panel, p6). ‘zero-footprint client’ approach is essential.
5
integration, this trend poses a challenge of The internet also plays a key role in ‘Loading software onto the client PCs is
LIG09 pp04-07 LIMS Overview.indd 5 9/12/08 17:08:52
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