Challenges of Finding and Implementing an ELN and LIMS

The best solution for a company transitioning from paper to an electronic system is to select a hybrid ELN plus LIMS solution. The ELN and LIMS components in a hybrid solution are integrated by a single vendor and should provide optimum transparent communication. Most organizations do not implement hybrid solutions for a few reasons: 1) Hybrid solutions combining best of class ELN/LIMS are rare. 2) The desirability of deploying both ELN & LIMS is not initially understood. Typically, when confronted with phase III compliance challenges, organizations choose to deploy a LIMS. Although excellent at organizing samples and results, LIMS does very little to reduce compliance/data volume issues at the bench. To address these issues. ELN functionality is required.

SciCord Drives a More Efficient Lab

The SciCord Informatics Platform provides a comprehensive, quick-to-implement, compliant solution – including LIMS and ELN functionality – to minimize costs, improve productivity, and reduce IT footprint. The table below illustrates an optimum distribution of functionality. The allocation attempts to create a contiguous workflow and utilize the strengths of each solution.  

Combining the Benefits

The strength of an ELN solution is the ability to easily document laboratory work. In addition, ELN solutions facilitate co-working and sharing of documentation between colleagues. Most ELN solutions do not support definition of Samples, Analyses, and Structured Results which are required for later stages of development. Work flows (document and sample review & approval cycles) are largely absent from ELN offerings as is adherence to GMP compliance regulations. By and large, an ELN is relegated to very early development or must be paired with a LIMS to effectively support later pharmaceutical development stages. The strength of a LIMS is management. Samples, Users, Instruments, Resources (solutions, standards), Structured Data, and Application Integration are all managed effectively by LIMS. LIMS software is at the center of an information web with the ability to process and report data as required by later drug development stages. The very structured nature of LIMS however hampers the ability to effectively capture lab data at the bench. Implementation and maintenance of a LIMS is also difficult for smaller companies without dedicated IT resources.