Custom laboratory software, built around your workflow
Some laboratory processes don't fit a standard product, and bending them to fit costs more than it saves. We design and build applications around the way your lab actually works: your sample flow, your specifications, your review steps and your reports.
Situations we often hear about
- A core process runs on spreadsheets, email and paper because no product fits it well.
- An off-the-shelf system would need so much configuration that it would stop being off-the-shelf.
- You want an application your team can own, understand and extend over time.
- The workflow is specific to your industry, your methods or your customers’ requirements.
What we deliver
- Workflow and data model design
- Samples, tests, specifications, results and approvals mapped into a data model that reflects your lab, not a generic template.
- Role-specific screens
- Interfaces built for the people who use them: sample reception, analysts at the bench, reviewers, QA and management.
- Rules in the software
- Specifications, limits, calculations and status changes enforced by the application instead of remembered by people.
- Traceability from the start
- Audit trails, versioned master data and review steps designed in, not added later.
- Reports and certificates
- Certificates of analysis, worksheets and management reports generated from the data rather than assembled by hand.
- Connections where they help
- Integrations with instruments, an existing LIMS, ERP or customer systems where they remove manual work.
How we approach it
We start with a focused first release that covers one workflow end to end and is useful on its own. You review working software regularly, not documents, and each increment builds on something your team is already using.
Architecture decisions are made for the long run: a clear data model, documented configuration and an upgrade path. Laboratory applications tend to live for many years, and the people maintaining them later need to understand them.
Where it fits, we build on AppMaker, our application development platform, which lets your technical team maintain and extend the application after delivery. Where another technology makes more sense for your environment, we use that instead.
See it in a working application
The LIMS for environmental testing labs demonstration shows this kind of software end to end. Field runs planned at the desk and collected on a phone, chain of custody from the sampling point to the lab, hold times that set the order of work, results with qualifiers checked against regulatory limits, client notification of exceedances and frozen final reports.
A demonstration and starting point, not a finished or validated product.
Chapters and screenshotsQuestions we often hear
How is custom software different from configuring a commercial LIMS?
A commercial LIMS gives you a large, general feature set that you configure toward your process. Custom software starts from your process and includes only what it needs. A commercial product is the better choice when your workflows are standard and you value a vendor roadmap; custom work makes sense when the fit is poor or the scope is narrow and specific.
Do we own the application?
Ownership, licensing and source code arrangements are agreed for each project. Options range from a managed hosting arrangement to a source-code handover so your own team can maintain the application.
Can a project start from one of your demonstrations?
Yes, when one is close to what you need. Our solution accelerators are working starting points that can shorten the early phase of a project. They are adapted to your requirements, not delivered as finished products.
How long does a project take?
It depends on scope. We prefer a focused first release that is useful on its own, followed by further increments, over a single long project. You get an estimate once we have scoped the work together.
Related
Tell us what your lab needs
Describe the process, the systems involved and what is getting in the way. We will reply personally and suggest a sensible next step, even if that step is not a project with us.