From the initial inquiry to the go-live of your LIMS - communication is key
After Needs analysis, Consulting and Decision making is the starting point for technical-physical laboratories when introducing a laboratory management system. In this article, we show the steps from the initial inquiry to going live. And what happens afterwards.
Procedure, costs, project duration
At dacore, the project managers start consulting with the technical-physical laboratories after the inquiry. The functional areas are defined together in a workshop and the requirements for the individual software are specified. This results in a specification sheet. Based on this specification, dacore prepares an offer with a fixed price, which forms a solid calculation basis for the customer.
Once the order has been placed, the first step is to analyze the laboratory's IT infrastructure in order to ensure the best possible adaptation of the LIMS to the existing systems. The order in which the work on the individual functional areas of the software is to be carried out is then determined.
„Our customers then receive a prototype every four weeks. From the first prototype, they can work with real data in the system. This data is also retained in the wild prototype phase. The functions become more and more mature during this development process, the range of functions increases - and so does the experience with the system,“ explains dacore CEO Werner Fink.
The development of a laboratory management system usually takes between nine months and one and a half years - depending on the scope of the project. Once the final prototype has been released, the project is concluded with training for administrators and users as well as a roll-out plan - at the end of which the system goes live. The customer then decides whether and how to proceed.
A strong communication strategy is key
The communication strategy is the most crucial component throughout the entire course of the project. As the introduction of a LIMS is a complex project that changes familiar work routines, it is particularly important to involve the employees who will ultimately be working with the laboratory management system from the outset.
„That's the most important piece of advice we give our customers: take your people with you. The complexity is often underestimated. A transparent communication strategy helps to avoid misunderstandings and false expectations,“ explains Fink.
The communication strategy includes having a responsible project manager in the laboratory who is also given the necessary time budget for this task. The works council and data protection officer must not be added too late, but must also be involved in the process at an early stage, as sensitive employee data is recorded in a LIMS, e.g. during personnel planning. There must also be close coordination with the company's IT department during development.
„And the users who will later use the LIMS on a daily basis should be given the chance to work with the system as early as possible. This is the only way to find and solve errors at an early stage. The employees often provide decisive impulses for the functionalities of the system,“ reports Fink.
Project team
Who belongs in a project team for the introduction of a laboratory management system? To ensure that the project runs as smoothly as possible, there should be two central groups. The dacore project managers meet with the decision-makers on the customer side in a „Stearing Committee“. These are: Management, laboratory management and IT managers. The most important key points of the project are discussed once a month in this group.
There is also a working team. In addition to the project manager on the customer side and the dacore project manager, this includes one employee from each of the company's specialist requirements groups and, if applicable, the site managers if the laboratory has several sites. The details of the project are then implemented and the prototypes tested in weekly project manager meetings.
„Project management on the customer side is a central and time-consuming task. If a laboratory manager is supposed to do this on the side, it can't really work,“ says Fink from experience and advises customers to provide the project manager with the necessary time resources and to relieve him of other tasks for the duration of the project.
During the implementation phase, the members of the work team get to know the laboratory management system so well that in many cases they can even take over the user training of the employees themselves at the end. Prior to this, they spend two days as administrators at dacore or at the customer's premises familiarizing themselves with all the intricacies of the LIMS. User training then takes place in process-specific groups, as the measuring equipment team uses different functionalities than, for example, the employees responsible for resource planning. Proper documentation ensures that knowledge is not lost and is clearly presented for new employees. Training courses can also be held at any time to refresh content after a longer period of time. The project manager is available to the customer at any time after the project has been completed.
Requirements for the introduction of a LIMS
The introduction of a complex system that covers the most diverse departments of a technical-physical laboratory cannot really run smoothly.
„We often discover during the process that some things don't work, for example because users tell us that their workflow has not been mapped correctly. This is completely normal, as the project team cannot keep an eye on all the requirements of all users. That's why it's so important that employees are involved at an early stage,“ explains Fink.
During the development process and throughout the various prototype phases, these errors are rectified and the LIMS is adjusted so that it works in the end.
„Sometimes you have to make an extra loop or throw an already developed module back in the garbage can, but it is precisely these steps that ultimately contribute to the acceptance of the LIMS. Because then the employees see that their objections are taken seriously and taken into account,“ reports Fink.
For example, one customer wanted to be able to scan test specimens on the shelves from the forklift truck. However, it turned out on site that the barcodes could not be read correctly and the entire process had to be rethought and reprogrammed. In the end, however, a practicable solution was found. The example shows: This type of individual development, which tolerates errors and draws knowledge from them to make the laboratory management system better in the end, is not comparable with the introduction of standard software.