Reimagined Lab Management for the Lab of the Future

Kate Wearden
Principal Product Marketing Manager
Waters Corporation

For years now Lab Information Management System (LIMS) software has been the tool of choice for digital lab management, unsurprising given the benefits they provide in effectively managing samples and associated data. Employing a LIMS can be very useful as a business system to extract discreet result values like retention time, weight, etc., however it often fails to support labs with their wider data management needs. Labs on their digital transformation journey are often looking for software that acts as a lab system and enables them to manage the complete workflow of data as it enters the lab through to when it exits. Historically, LIMS software has also been complex, costly, and time-consuming to deploy and integrate with the other business systems in the lab.

Often LIMS purchases are also made because of the large number of functions they offer such as invoicing, customer relationships management (CRM), key performance indicators (KPIs) and more depending on the LIMS software purchased. However, the reality is many customers who buy LIMS are only able to use a small set of these tools. The decision often taken to limit the scope of the deployment is typically made as a result of the lengthy time it takes to gather all of the master data needed to successfully implement these functions, which can take months and sometimes years. As a result, the fate of many LIMS implementations ends with shelf-ware, lost time, and money.

However, all is not lost for labs looking for an easy to implement lab and data management solution that provides usable functionality and flexibility. Software solutions such as NuGenesis Lab Management System (LMS) combine high impact functionality with a high degree of flexibility, readily adapting to labs’ existing Informatics environments, enabling software integration and standardization without the complex, costly, and time consuming deployments often encountered with traditional LIMS solutions.

NuGenesis LMS provides five key functions of lab management:

• Sample Management (inclusive of Stability Study Management),
• Lab Execution,
• Inventory Management (Consumables and Instruments),
• Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN),
• The use of Empower Software as a chromatography data system,
• Scientific Data Management System (SDMS).

By combining all six of these key functions in one, easy to deploy solution, NuGenesis LMS provides a holistic approach to lab management, providing automation where labs need it most while also ensuring complete and compliant records. After two years of implementation of NuGenesis LMS, Shandong Loncom Pharmaceutical found that NuGenesis LMS:

‘has greatly improved the accuracy of the original data and test results. The software automatically captures various data through the uploaded electronic map, and then automatically calculates and generates the results through the pre -set formula. The errors we used to see that were caused by incorrect data copying and formulating have reduced greatly and vastly improved the accuracy of experimental data.’

Shandong Loncom Pharmaceutical also benefited from how easy to implement the software is, commenting that they were able to get up and running with the software very quickly:

‘I encountered no difficulties learning to use the software, it is very simple and convenient to operate. For our experiments, we can get started quickly, and the information is accurate, which greatly reduces errors.’

NuGenesis Lab Management System is a Lab System created to capture, not just discreet result values; it also captures the whole data set from the report to the RAW data files. Not only is it easier to capture the data from instruments and data sources, but it also scales easily, allowing labs to add new systems as data contributors as their laboratory grows. Shandong Loncom Pharmaceutical also hopes to take advantage of this as they discuss how they anticipate their use of NuGenesis will evolve:

‘We hope to further expand the coverage of electronic records, while continuing to optimize the use of features related to data reporting. Based on the two years of use, we plan to further realize the data mining and analysis of production quality in the future to increase product quality.’

NuGenesis LMS automatically catalogues data enabling easy searching and the re-use of all of the information captured, whether for Sample Management, Inventory Management, Lab Protocol execution, or use with other business system applications such as SAP. The advanced smart searching feature also allows users to apply parameters such as exclusion to streamline their data search and optimize the efficiency of their data management.

In summary, more and more labs like Shandong Loncom Pharmaceutical are opting for alternative solutions to LIMS software, such as NuGenesis LMS, that not only provide more comprehensive, automated lab and data management, but are also much easier to implement and integrate within their current lab informatics ecosystem.