When you’re considering a new LIMS, you want to find a solution that will truly fit your needs and give you the control and data management capabilities that are essential to efficient and modern lab operations. But first, you need to get solid, accurate information about the systems you’re considering as you explore lab informatics options.
When you begin the process of evaluating vendors, there are five crucial questions you should always ask to determine whether a LIMS vendor — and their system — is the right fit for your organization. These questions will help you understand whether the system you’re considering can adapt to your specific needs, scale as you grow, and — most importantly — deliver measurable results.
1. Can you demonstrate my ROI from implementing a LIMS?
The ultimate goal of your LIMS is to deliver a return to your organization. By increasing your team’s efficiency, reducing costly errors that stem from manual data entry and transfer, and delivering accurate results and comprehensive audit trails in support of compliance, the right LIMS system will deliver a solid ROI. However, there’s also a question you are likely to be asked by your leadership to consider – what will that return be before you implement a new system? And if you can’t show the data, you might not get the budget you need.
This is a good question to ask for both of those reasons: getting the before and after picture of the implementation, and seeing what your potential vendor can bring to the table. If they can’t answer these questions in some way, at the very least in terms of the value the LIMS will bring to your organization, it might be a red flag. STARLIMS can help you answer that question and demonstrate just how your organization will benefit. For quality control and manufacturing implementations, STARLIMS offers an easy to use (and free) ROI calculator that will give you the data you need to support your LIMS investment.
2. Are you a vendor or my partner?
Whether you’re implementing your first LIMS for a small lab or looking for an enterprise-level LIMS for an organization with multiple sites and complex needs, you’re always planning for growth. And as your company and lab operations grow, so will the need to be able to handle more testing, do deeper reporting, and deliver automation that takes away the manual burden on lab teams. It’s no time to find out that your LIMS can’t scale with you, or that you have a LIMS vendor and not a LIMS partner.
There’s a big difference between having a vendor and having a partner. With a vendor, the burden falls on you to figure out what you need to meet the new demands of your lab. It’s a costly and time-consuming process that depletes your team’s bandwidth and resources. And there’s no guarantee you’ll get what you really need.
Making sure you get a partner that you can trust and who will support you through the entirety of the implementation and growth process—including the before and after—will set you up for success. With STARLIMS, you have a true partner that will be with you to evaluate and support your LIMS needs now and in the future, giving you a seamless and efficient experience.
3. What do your implementation timeline and support structure look like?
Deciding what LIMS to buy is just the first step: you won’t realize the full benefits of your new LIMS until your team is able to use all its features and integrate them into the lab’s workflows. That makes the implementation process crucial to your success. Not only do you want to get your LIMS live as quickly as you can, but you also want to have it sync with your workflows, make sure your teams are comfortable using it, and have a trusted partner by your side during the whole process. So, success is about both speed and support.
This question can be tricky, and a lot of times comes down to the customization vs. configuration of your LIMS. When it comes to speed, your implementation could take months if the LIMS you choose has to be customized to your needs, which involves constant back and forth with the vendor to get things right. And sometimes with too much customization, you’re left with a product that’s nowhere near what your lab initially needed. Here’s where STARLIMS optimizes your experience: our system comes pre-loaded with workflows and reports that align with and automate your existing processes. That means you have what you need out-of-the-box and can quickly start to monitor your lab for better, more streamlined operations.
Going back to the importance of question two, STARLIMS is a partner, not a vendor. That means you have a white-glove support team of experts who can keep everything moving. That kind of support makes all the difference in getting a great implementation experience and avoiding disappointment.
4. What integrations does your LIMS support and how do you connect with my lab’s instruments and other key systems?
Your lab has made big investments in equipment and instruments that are the sources for the raw data and information that your LIMS needs to do its job. Because one of the chief roles of the LIMS is to create efficiencies and automate processes, the better it connects to your sources of data, the more you can eliminate the potential for data transfer errors and deliver a single source of truth across your lab. Therefore, finding a LIMS that can easily integrated into your tools, instruments, and systems is critical to success.
This question reveals the true extent of the integration capabilities offered by the LIMS you’re evaluating. A well-designed LIMS should break down silos, allowing your teams and systems to work seamlessly together. From value-added solutions like laboratory equipment and SAP connectors, to advanced SPC reporting through NWA integration, STARLIMS provides a robust platform that unites your data and workflows. With solutions like ELN, SDMS, LES, Advanced Analytics 2.0, and Test Method Execution Manager (TMEM) to round out our platform, STARLIMS delivers a connected environment that streamlines processes and gives you a 360° view of your lab operations.
5. How flexible is your system?
Flexibility in a LIMS is absolutely critical to a lab’s success. It’s hard to find two labs that operate the same way, even within the same company. Plus, needs are always changing – both at the lab and organizational level. That’s why it’s important to look for a LIMS that is flexible enough to support different workflows within the same system, be able to scale as your operations grow, integrate with other systems (like we talked about above), adapt as compliance regulations evolve, and provide future-readiness to your company. You are going to want confidence that your LIMS can keep pace with your growth as your needs and processes change.
STARLIMS delivers a system that is flexible and able to handle those changes as they arise. Just see what our customers say about our flexibility on G2. STARLIMS also offers powerful configuration capabilities, allowing you to adapt your system as your lab evolves — from new workflows and data fields, to custom reports and beyond. You can make these updates in-house without relying on the vendor for every change, reducing time, cost, and complexity.
Finding the right LIMS vendor sets the foundation for everything you do and build in your lab. And if your foundation’s faulty, everything else will be too. Hopefully you found these questions helpful and a good starting point to begin your search for a vendor that can help you transform lab operations.
Interested in learning how STARLIMS can be a great LIMS partner? Get a free demo today.