Article
Index
Calendar
CD's
- Cost
Justification CD
- LIMS Primer
CD
Email Newsletter
Featured Article
Guest Book
Industry
News
Introduction to LIMS
LIMS Products
& Services
LIMSource
Reprints
Contact
The LIMSource® and
LIMS/Letter® are registered
trademarks of the LIMSource,
P.O. Box 935
Kenwood, CA 95452 USA
Tel: +1 (707) 526-6885
Fax: +1 (707) 526-6889
© 1994-2009
Copyright©LIMS/Letter.
All Rights Reserved.
Legal Notice.
A
Look Back at 2008
This past year will no doubt go down as one of the most turbulent in history.
It was a turning point in so many ways for so many people, driven by economic
crises that have touched just about everyone in some way. Fortunately
for the analytical sciences industry, the impact was not as severe as
it has been in other sectors.
Interestingly, while announcements of acquisitions, mergers and partnerships
continue, they are not driven by the latest economic crisis, but by on-going
industry developments to run businesses leaner and more efficiently. It
will take longer to sell new instruments in the coming months, but software
that automates processes and enhances productivity will be much in demand.
The need to do more with less should increase the interest in and acquisition
of web-delivered, Service-as-a-Software (SaaS) solutions. When an organization
needs to have the flexibility to increase or decrease the number of users,
then purchasing more licenses or less than are required makes no sense
- that's money which is not being put to good use. Genentech, for instance,
announced last December that they were moving all their software purchasing
to the subscription-based SaaS model. With security issues addressed,
expect to see more companies taking advantage of this purchasing option
to better manage their budgets.
In the meantime, look to see more industry consolidation, more new products
announced, and more partnerships formed as the analytical sciences industry
addresses the challenges ahead. Following is the editor's pick of the
top industry and product news in 2008.
Top Ten LIMS & Informatics Industry News in 2008
In no particular order, the following comprises the more significant LIMS & Informatics industry announcements in 2008.
Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems Reveal Details of New Organization
Invitrogen Corp. and Applied Biosystems Inc. announced the divisional structure and the executive leadership team for the combination of the two companies. The new company’s four business divisions, focused on core competencies, are: (1) Molecular Biology Systems; (2) Genetic Systems; (3) Cell Systems; and, (4) Mass Spectrometry Systems. For details, visit http://www.invitrogen.com.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Partners with NextDocs to Offer Comprehensive Enterprise Document Management and Workflow Solutions for the Laboratory
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. entered into a collaborative agreement with NextDocs Corporation to bundle and sell the NextDocs enterprise document, quality and compliance management solution suite. The offering is a natural extension of Thermo Fisher Scientific's portfolio of LIMS and CDS products, allowing the company to offer a comprehensive, fully integrated informatics and content management solution to the industry. The NextDocs Document and Compliance Suite will be sold by Thermo Fisher Scientific under the NextDocs brand name and offers users an intuitive 'plug and play' solution for managing data that addresses the growing need for an easy to use, web-based solution that is designed to enable organizations to comply with FDA 21 CFR Part 11, GMP, GLP, GCP and other regulations and industry standards. For details, visit http://www.thermo.com/informatics.
PerkinElmer and Labtronics Collaboration Provides a Key Tool to Reduce Workload and Data Management Costs for LABWORKS LIMS Customers
PerkinElmer, Inc. announced a collaboration with Labtronics, Inc. offer laboratories more choice for connecting laboratory instruments with LABWORKS LIMS. The collaboration allows laboratories to rapidly customize solutions for their unique needs. Labtronics provides a flexible toolkit approach enabling users to adapt their interfaces to meet changing requirements in-house, thereby reducing the need for outside assistance. This increases laboratory workflow and analyst skill level, helping to increase productivity and reduce errors in data transfer. For details, visit http://www.perkinelmer.com/labworks.
Waters Brings Advanced Laboratory Data Management to Microsoft's BioIT Alliance
Waters Corporation announced that it has joined the BioIT Alliance, an initiative spearheaded by Microsoft Corporation involving more than 80 pharmaceutical, biotech, laboratory instrument and software companies working together to realize the potential of personalized medicine. Waters Informatics Business will work with industry leaders to develop standardized conventions for sharing scientific data based on Microsoft technology. For details, visit http://www.waters.com/informatics or http://www.bioitalliance.org.
Autoscribe and Aitken Scientific Release Integrated Instrument and LIMS / Sample Tracking Solutions
Autoscribe and Aitken Scientific released an Instrument Integration and Machine Control Software solution for tracking and management of medical, scientific or food samples. Aitken Scientific's and Autoscribe's design process includes a detailed analysis of the user requirements and the hardware required. Working closely together Aitken Scientific and Autoscribe can fully integrate laboratory equipment to provide a fully integrated, compliant LIMS or Sample Tracking solution. For details, visit http://www.autoscribe.co.uk.
Patni Acquires Life Sciences Services Company Taratec
Patni Computer Systems acquired Taratec Development Corporation, a leading consulting company. This acquisition is in line with Patni's strategy of enhancing its market specific services and provides additional capability to support the growing and diverse requirements of the Life Sciences market. Patni can now offer a global delivery model that provides end-to-end capabilities complete with established, life science expertise in specific, high-demand areas. For details, visit http://www.patni.com.
STARLIMS Launches Strategic Informatics Consulting Unit
STARLIMS Technologies Ltd. established a new unit focused on providing strategic informatics consulting services to STARLIMS customers. STARLIMS has acquired the assets of Laboratory Expertise Center, Inc. (LEC), a US-based consultancy specializing in LIMS and laboratory informatics. LEC Founder and President Randy Hice, a laboratory informatics authority with 24 years of consultancy expertise, will head the new unit. For details, visit http://www.starlims.com.
GenoLogics Releases BioVault Biospecimen Management Software in Partnership with GenVault Corporation
GenoLogics announced a partnership with GenVault Corporation for its biospecimen data management system, BioVault. GenoLogics launched its Biomedical Informatics software solution to track observational studies, collect patient data at remote sites, provide biospecimen and clinical annotations management and facilitate researchers querying on clinical information and requesting samples. The suite is comprised of five integrated products, including BioVault for biospecimen management. For details, visit http://www.genologics.com.
LabVantage and InforSense Ally to Redefine Enterprise Laboratory Informatics
LabVantage Solutions, Inc. and InforSense Ltd. announced an alliance to integrate the InforSense platform with LabVantage’s flagship SAPPHIRE LIMS, and for LabVantage to resell InforSense along with its SAPPHIRE LIMS. The combined SAPPHIRE and InforSense infrastructure leverages the modularity of both platforms to effectively aggregate, mine, and analyze data stored in SAPPHIRE and the SAPPHIRE modules coupled with data stored in other heterogeneous scientific and operational data sources. For details, visit http://www.labvantage.com.
Thermo Fisher Scientific and Sage-N Research Join Forces to Provide a Complete Proteomics Data Analysis Solution
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and Sage-N Research Inc. announced the latest product of their five year collaboration on proteomics analysis: the first proteomics software platform designed specifically for the Enterprise Linux market. The SORCERER Enterprise software product, available from Sage-N Research, is a scalable software suite for fully automated, high-volume proteomic analyses on high-performance Linux systems, including blade servers and conventional Linux clusters. For details, visit http://www.SageNResearch.com or http://www.thermo.com/informatics.
Top Ten LIMS & Informatics Product News in 2008
In no particular order, the following comprises the more significant LIMS & Informatics product announcements in 2008.
PerkinElmer, Inc. Introduced LabWorks Green LIMS
PerkinElmer introduced a new LabWorks LIMS, LABWORKS Green, which is a pre-configured LIMS specifically for the biofuels industry. documents. LABWORKS Green for Biofuels delivers efficient product and process monitoring, including Automated Certificate of Analysis (COA) generation; work orders organized for regularly repeated tests; pre-loaded ASTM and EU methods; and, lab performance monitoring that tracks all samples status changes. For details, visit http://www.perkinelmer.com.
STARLIMS Introduced SDMS Functionalities
STARLIMS Technologies Ltd. introduced a new SDMS module (Scientific Data Management System). Integrated into the company’s web-based LIMS, this integrated module creates a comprehensive platform to manage scientific and laboratory information—consolidating data and documents from the full gamut of laboratory processes. For details, visit http://www.starlims.com.
LabVantage Unveiled SAPPHIRE R5
LabVantage Solutions, Inc. announced the commercial availability of the SAPPHIRE Release 5 LIMS. By leveraging configurable, modular driven solutions, rather than custom developed software or services, SAPPHIRE R5 can tailor point specific or enterprise wide solutions to address each organization’s unique needs. For details, visit http://www.labvantage.com.
Waters Expanded Open Architecture Operating Platform with new Automated and Integrated Method SOP Software
Waters Corporation expanded its informatics open architecture operating platform, anchored by the Waters NuGenesis Scientific Data Management System (SDMS), to address predominately manual activities required to perform standard operating procedures (SOPs) for analytical methods or tests. The Waters NuGenesis SDMS Intelligent Procedure Manager is a workflow software package designed to guide a laboratory analysts through routine, comprehensive method SOPs and integrate results with a chromatography data system, such as Waters Empower 2 Chromatography Data Software. For details, visit http://www.waters.com.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Introduced Darwin LIMS 3.0 with Enhanced Functionality for Pharmaceutical Applications
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. announced significant functionality enhancements to Darwin LIMS, its purpose-built LIMS designed specifically for pharmaceutical QA/QC. Offering environmental monitoring, dissolution, stability management, product and batch management and system interfacing, Thermo Scientific Darwin 3.0 brings new capabilities to pharmaceutical laboratories. Until now, environmental monitoring and LIMS have typically been disparate systems, requiring users to monitor and aggregate data from multiple environmental locations for product and batch traceability. For details, visit http://www.thermo.com/informatics.
ChemWare Released HORIZON LIMS Version 10
ChemWare released Version 10 of their HORIZON Oracle-based LIMS for environmental, water quality, drugs of abuse, chemical demilitarization, and toxicology laboratories. Version 10 is 100% thin client, runs in Internet Explorer, and provides a sophisticated Business Intelligence interface to management reports. New features include next step prompts, full version control and data traceability that can be evaluated within the context of an operation. For details, visit http://www.chemware.com.
Quality Systems International Introduced WinLIMS.NET Version 7
Quality Systems International (QSI) introduced WinLIMS.NET Version 7, a ready-to-use, right out of the box web-based solution. WinLIMS.NET is a web-based system that was designed using a newer development tool (Microsoft ASP.NET). Many new features have been added, including more query tools, the ability to design the dashboard similar to Google Zones functionality, SmartSearch, interactive Excel functionality, and more. For details, visit http://www.qsius.com.
LabWare Unveiled LabWare Web LIMS Version 3.0
LabWare unveiled Version 3.0 of their LabWare Web LIMS that fully embraces the Web paradigm without requiring customers, using the existing Client/Server LIMS product, to make any configuration changes. LabWare's WebLIMS 3.0 delivers the benefits of thin client computing through a zero footprint Web browser client and the ability to run on virtually any Web device. A Visual Workflows engine helps to train new users quickly. For details, visit http://www.labware.com.
GenoLogics Launched New Biomedical Informatics Software Solution
GenoLogics launched its Biomedical Informatics product suite which includes functionality to track observational studies, collect patient data electronically, provide biospecimen and clinical annotations management and allow researchers to query online. The suite is comprised of five integrated products, three of which are being deployed with the collaboration of early access customers. For details, visit http://www.genologics.com.
Sapio Sciences Announced Exemplar LIMS v2.4.0
Sapio Sciences announced Exemplar LIMS v2.4.0. Key additions in this release include: The Scheduling Manager, which is an advanced calendaring system that allows for the scheduling of any LIMS object including personnel, equipment and even detailed workflows. The scheduling of workflows is novel in that Exemplar LIMS will estimate the completion time of the workflow based on the protocol, lab hours of operation, the number of samples being processed, etc. For details, visit http://www.SapioSciences.com.