Thermo Re-Engineers Industry Leading LIMS for More Power and Greater Ease-of-Use

Thermo Electron Corporation today announced the commercial availability of SampleManager LIMS™ 9.0, an updated version of its flagship laboratory information management system (LIMS) for global enterprises. SampleManager 9.0 is built on the Microsoft® .NET platform, incorporates a Service Oriented Architecture, features an all-new, thoroughly modern user interface and introduces enhanced functionality.

“We are extremely excited and proud to introduce the enhancements made to SampleManager 9.0,” said Dave Champagne, vice president and general manager of Thermo’s informatics business. “With this one update, we have embraced open industry-standard tools, made SampleManager easier than ever to use, and provided a more agile solution that responds to our customers’ changing business and information technology needs.”

In addition to the changes made to 9.0, Thermo announced that it will leverage its 20 years of experience working with customers in the process industries to build industry- and application-specific functionality into SampleManager’s core to reduce customization for industrial labs. Purpose-built functionality and workflows will be offered as standard to increase efficiencies and productivity in industries long-served by SampleManager – petrochemical, chemical, and mining, among others. This commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) approach significantly reduces the risks and costs associated with customized implementations, maintenance and upgrades, and, for regulated industries, the cost of validating the system.

Technology

SampleManager was re-engineered to adopt .NET, a high-performance framework with great desktop integration, enabling users to easily extend the core system using industry-standard tools. .NET is a proven, scalable architecture with interoperability that is fully supported by Microsoft.

Because the client is based on .NET, SampleManager will support Microsoft’s open, industry standard development tools. This allows Thermo to continue to support its single-use technology, VGL, thus preserving the custom code written for SampleManager’s extensive installed base. Customers may choose to extend their systems using .NET and/or VGL. The .NET platform expands the pool of available developers compared to a proprietary language, contributing to a lower total cost of ownership.

The use of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) – the latest in the evolution of distributed computing – improves the way complex software, such as enterprise LIMS, is built. Code and services can be re-used and services can be implemented on a case-by-case basis. Major software vendors, including Microsoft, support SOA, which is governed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Interface

SampleManager 9.0 features a new user interface that exploits the latest technology, providing users with a vastly enhanced experience. Re-engineered as an “inductive” user interface (UI), it prompts users to take specific, pre-defined steps, making training and day-to-day use of the LIMS much easier. For example, the “Task” view tells the user only what tasks can be carried out on a select data set – thus reducing errors. SampleManager’s UI is also built on the Microsoft format, offering a familiar look and feel with menus and “drag-and-drop” capabilities for greater ease of use. The interface simplifies the application by breaking features into screens or pages that are easy to explain and understand.

Enhanced Functionality

SampleManager users will find enhanced specification checking and Web result entry in 9.0. Specification checking in 9.0 is multi-level, able to check against groups, lots, job and collections of samples – in addition to the standard single sample. Web result entry is all new, enabling remote users to get a sample and enter results over a web client.

As a leading LIMS for industrial process labs in multinational enterprises, SampleManager 9.0 is a full-featured, scalable solution that supports local or global deployments in multiple languages. The system is supported by the industry’s largest, globally deployed services organizations, providing consulting, implementation, validation, training, support and routine maintenance.

To download a presentation on SampleManager 9.0, visit the article webpage.