Solid requirements establishes a clear connection between the business case, project goals, and the project outcome. Creating concise requirements before taking that first step will vastly increase the probability of success. This analysis should be conducted prior to searching for any LIMS solution... It's vital that you and the vendors understand your requirements before examining functionality, quoting prices or establishing any project plans.

For more complex multi-site laboratories, harmonization of requirements might be required. A continuation of the business analysis process, our experts will work with your laboratory experts to examine the current state of each laboratory and formulate a future state in which processes are standardized across all sites.

Once we have established a solid base of requirements, harmonized across your laboratory system, we can start the process of selecting the best LIMS solution to meet your needs. We begin by prioritizing your requirements (high-level features) from most important to least important (each will have an importance weighting). Next, we discuss and document your non-functional requirements. For example, are you looking for a SaaS solution, completely web-based solution, specific performance requirements, etc. With this complete, we examine budget, timeframes and return-on-investment (ROI) expectations. Next, we start working with the top LIMS vendors (establishing initial demos, obtaining quotes, etc.). As we progress, we utilize our Analysis of Alternatives process to start calculating vendor performance (based on your requirements and priorities). This ultimately results in a final three list, negotiations and you ultimately select the vendor that is the best fit for your needs.

Whether you're looking for an Agile approach or a more traditional waterfall implementation. All of our experts are certified (PMI PMP and ScrumAlliance CSM) and bring our proprietary toolkit of vetted best practices, processes, templates, metrics and dashboards with them. You not only get the benefit of leaders with an average of 10 years of experience, you also get the backing of our intellectual property and account oversight as constant assurance that you will receive consistent delivery. Implementing a LIMS is a major investment; a strong project manager will reduce project risks, keep costs on target and ensure you get what you paid for. Our project managers are also change management experts. Beyond managing the implementation, they will work with your leadership to assist in the transition to the new LIMS. Ensuring all stakeholders understand the benefits of the new LIMS and how it will positively affect them will ensure a smooth transition during the go-live process. This can be accomplished via email blasts and videos highlighting functionality, townhalls to stimulate conversation/interest, etc.

You've painstakingly gathering your requirements and harmonizing them, we've worked together to select the best LIMS solution to meet your needs, it was finally acquired, we installed the software... now what? We start by identifying your laboratory subject matter experts (SMEs) and providing them with some intenstive training on how to configure the system. Armed with this knowledge, we work with your SMEs to start configuring you system. For smaller labs, the approach may be quite simple (configure users, groups, equipment, materials, methods, tests, etc.), but for larger labs the configuration of the system may take a phase approach (one site at a time or one discipline at a time). Of course, there are other factors that we will need to consider. For example, if your lab operates in a highly regulated environment, we will need to weight the costs of system validation vs. multiple deployments.

Some degree of customization is almost always required. We can assist with the simple (custom reports) to the complex (completely custom modules that support specialized functions with your organization). Our experts carefully work with you to design and implement customizations in a fashion that does not affect product upgradeability. Far too often, consultants take the simple route when customizing LIMS solutions (change the form directly). Unfortunately, when you attempt to upgrade your product this becomes a disaster. We minimizing any modifications to out-of-the-box (OOTB) components to ensure a much easier upgrade process when the time comes.

We can assist with the entire spectrum of integrations. From the basic (capturing data from instruments) to the complex (sophisticated integrations with ERP systems like SAP). Our experts will work with your experts (laboratory and IT) to determine the best approach for implementing the integration.

Clients frequently have the need to migrate data from their legacy system to the new LIMS. We have the experience and expertise to guide you through this critical process in the most cost-effective manner. We begin by examining the intended use of the historical data. This will guide us toward the best data migration option. From simple, a migration of the legacy data to a simplified table structure for reporting purposes only... to complex, migrating the legacy data into the new LIMS as actionable records.

Many of our clients have business needs that demand custom app development (software solutions that are not well suited within the boundaries of some LIMS solutions). We have developed simple and complex mobile applications that integrate with the LIMS to meet a wide variety of specialized business needs.

We always execute smoke tests, unit tests, logical tests, and integration tests. However, in regulated industries formal verification and validation of the system is required. This consists of developing formal test cases for system tests (verification) and acceptance tests (validation). Our experts can document and execute system tests to ensure you meet verification requirements. We can also assist your organization in the validation of the system as well.

We provide an array of custom training and support services. Whether we are training your trainers or training the masses, we have over a decade of experience in making the complex simple and easy to grasp. Rather than boring users with slide after slide, our training is predominantly hands-on to ensure the users truly come to understand all aspects of the system based on their role. We also develop quick reference guides that summarize the major actions within the system (e.g., sample accessioning) in a single page. Our clients have found such guides to be immensely useful in helping users quickly acclimate to the new system.

Studies show that approximately 68% of software projects fail. If this happens to you, we can help. Our experts begin by reviewing of the current state of the project to identify the areas in jeopardy. Common areas of concern often include issues with resource capabilities, scope, unclear requirements, resource availability, and project monitoring and control. We will conduct an in-depth root-cause analysis to determine why the problems occured, map out actions to correct them, and conduct a risk-based planning session to determine how the team can realistically get the project back on track. We will present our final assessment to the senior leadership team recognizing the project's accomplishments, while calling out the major issues that caused it to veer off track. A corrective plan is provided as part of this presentation. If the plan is accepted by the organization, our experts will lead the turnaround initiative, or you may choose to have us mentor your project team through the recovery process.