Choosing the Best LIMS: How to Apply an Effective Data-Driven Selection Process
This week’s post comes from Vincent Briere of Vertiance. Vincent is a strategic technology leader and business partner driving enterprise growth and business performance via scalable information technology. He’s worked in the area of business application selection for many years and has developed a rapid data-driven process. It’s a process we would recommend to the clinical diagnostic laboratories we work with when they’re selecting a laboratory information management system (LIMS). Welcome, Vincent!
Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of companies, helping them select different types of business applications to meet their business goals. Based on that experience, I’ve developed a four-phased application selection process. Companies that follow this streamlined approach can successfully choose software that fits their needs and requirements quickly and efficiently.
The four phases
1. Outreach and screening
In this initial phase, I recommend casting your net wide to gather as much information as you can. What you’re trying to achieve here is to quickly and effectively identify the key LIMS components that are important to your business and shortlist a few vendors to move forward with.
I suggest reading news articles — I personally use blogs like this one by Semaphore, which can be a great resource. Understand market trends, learn about relevant products, and have a quick introduction with vendors. But stop short of getting into extensive conversations with lengthy demonstrations and biased marketing content.
