Sciformatix Announces Laboratory Information Management System, Breakthrough in Samples and Storage Management for Small/medium Labs

Sciformatix Corporation, a pioneer in Laboratory Information Management Systems for healthcare, biotech, chemical, environmental and other industries, today announced the release of SciLIMS Samples and Storage Management, a breakthrough solution for small to medium-sized labs. The new professional laboratory information management system (LIMS) operates via the Internet under the Software as a Service (SaaS) concept, eliminating the need for complicated installation, downloading, or user training.

One of the most pervasive needs in a scientific lab is managing the inventory of samples and associated information, along with their storage locations, such as freezers, refrigerators, cabinets, etc. SciLIMS Samples and Storage Management provides a comprehensive set of features, flexible end user adaptability, and a single source of data for a lab organization, helping labs to efficiently record, track, and find samples.

Small to medium-size labs represent a widely underserved market, according to Sciformatix president and CEO Thomas Kent. “More than 80% of scientific labs do not use a professional laboratory information management system. Not because they don’t want to, but because implementing a LIMS has been too difficult, time consuming, and costly. That ‘perfect storm’ of daunting factors includes commercial-off-the-shelf LIMS as well as home-grown solutions.” Instead, according to Kent, most labs still rely on informal systems, such as paper-based notebooks, Excel spreadsheets, or tracking systems cobbled together using tools such as Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro.

SaaS has proven itself as a secure, reliable, and easy-to-use platform for many applications, and promises to become the dominant delivery model for many others. “The Sciformatix vision is to bring affordable, easily-adoptable, and user-tailorable solutions to laboratories of all sizes,” said Paula Hollywood, analyst with ARC Advisory Group. “Unencumbered by product-centric delivery models, Sciformatix leverages the advantages of Web 2.0 technology to be the first to offer subscription-based LIMS.”

Besides the ability for customers to implement quickly, Sciformatix touts the product’s flexibility for customization without IT involvement. In addition to the cost and convenience factors that will appeal to small and medium-sized labs, Kent predicted that SaaS-based LIMS offerings will also be attractive to larger labs because of reduced IT responsibilities and superior growth management. “This all translates to a dramatically lower total cost of ownership. An implementation of our LIMS solution will be typically measured in hours or days, as compared to other solutions where implementations are normally measured in weeks, months, or even years.”

The SciLIMS SSM solution is priced aggressively, and is based on a monthly subscription that starts as low as $50 per user. Lab group and professional editions are also available, providing increased features and higher subscription fees. “The fact that the SciLIMS SSM solution doesn’t require a customer to purchase or maintain additional hardware or software, the pricing becomes even more attractive,” Kent said.

The solution also comes with built-in features for designing and printing professional labels, with or without barcodes, and accommodates barcode scanning. Sciformatix expects to make the product generally available in February 2009.