From QSIUK
9 June, 2009: Replace Your Legacy LIMS
Overcoming the legacy of LIMS with WinLims Rental
The world’s current economic climate is forcing organisations big and small to re-assess how they run their businesses and investigate new ways to retain dwindling capital resources while making their operations run more efficiently yet also maintaining their competitiveness.
To achieve improved efficiencies, many organisations are increasingly focusing on how to optimise one of their key strategic resources – the Laboratory Information Management System, LIMS.
For many it is a constant struggle to keep their LIMS infrastructure updated and avoid the pitfall of falling into the obsolescence trap. The extra pressures imposed by the recession make the struggle even more crucial.
“There must be lots of people sitting out there in the middle of this recession that want more efficiency from their LIMS but they cannot achieve it because the system is outdated and too long in the tooth. They would love to ditch their LIMS legacy system and replace it with something that is more modern and more efficient without having to incur any additional outgoings,” suggested Clive Collier, the managing director of Quality Systems International (QSI). “The problem with many of the vendors in the LIMS market is that their solutions are not truly ‘out of the box’ concepts. The software is not seamlessly integrated so when updates are needed they have to customise the software to match the customer’s requirements. As a result, every time there is an upgrade it often calls for more customised coding. With WinLims Rental we have been careful to provide it as a true ‘out of the box’ solution. QSI offers the same software to everybody and that means customisation is kept to a minimum”.
“There are probably a lot of companies out there that have old LIMS systems and they are offered upgrades when they approach their LIMS vendor but often only at quite substantial costs. LIMS vendors do not tend to offer free upgrades because almost every system is customised for the client. The vendors invariably charge for every upgrade which makes buying a new LIMS a costly proposition if you want to remain competitive in the future”.
As many organisations begin to re-assess their LIMS strategies they are starting to realise that it is now possible to get a new LIMs on a rental basis for the same yearly outgoings as they will pay for the annual support fees of a LIMS that they purchase outright.
“With our WinLims Rental offering, managers are recognising that they can actually afford to change their LIMS solution to get a new, modern system up and running that will work for them without costing them any more money than they are currently paying to a LIMS vendor for annual support fees,” explained Collier. “The capital cost of purchasing a LIMS is just one issue to be considered. When buying a LIMS outright businesses often overlook the high cost of the annual support fees. For example, typically between 15 and 20 percent of the purchase price can be charged every year as a support fee. WinLims Rental is very attractive because it cuts out the up-front capital purchase expenditure”.
WinLims Rental is a new tax efficient solution that allows a full-functionality Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to be brought within the reach of every laboratory.
For those needing to conserve working capital, WinLims Rental is the ideal solution because it does not involve a large capital outlay, expensive running costs and offers a low up-front cost.
The system is designed to self-install and includes installation programmes, tutorials and interactive training aids which virtually eliminate set-up costs.
By adopting a rental strategy an organization is able to pay for the LIMS through its return on investment (ROI) each month. WinLims Rental provides an opportunity to evaluate and prove the benefits of LIMS without the usual long-term commitment. Customers have the option to cancel the rental at a month's notice. The rental agreements can also be easily converted to a subscription contract or full purchase at any time, keeping an organization’s options open.
WinLims Rental, which enables an organization to grow its business more efficiently and avoids the obsolescence trap, also allows laboratory managers to see time and cost savings while providing the capability to address a number of other strategic objectives such as data security, traceability and validation.
