LIMS Cost Factors – “Avoid Overpaying”
LIMS Cost Factors – “Avoid Overpaying”
Author: Randy A. Bell
Senior Operations Manager
LabLite LLC
There are several areas to consider in establishing your LIMS requirements and specifications. In times of constrained resources and budgets, you can ill afford unnecessary spending. Purchasing a LIMS is a sound decision that can potentially save your organization time and money. However, before making your purchase decision you should have an understanding of what drives LIMS costs.
At the macro level, the main cost considerations are: the number of users, the amount of on-site support, customization, instrument interface, data conversion, and reports. This article individually addresses each cost factor.
Most LIMS providers charge based on the number of system users. Some will start with an initial rate then add to it for each additional user. The level and cost of training and technical support can also be tied to the number of users. Obviously the more users, the more training and support required. My caution to you here is to look for a set fee. We all have hourly and/or daily rates; however, you should be looking to pay for the system once; and if needed, pay an annual support fee. I recommend you avoid suppliers that expect you to pay by seat or renew their license every year, as this is an expensive way to go.
On-site support is an area that can be abused, and more often than not is unnecessary. If you opt for a custom built LIMS, you can plan on having an expensive live-in consultant. If you opt for an off-the-shelf solution, you should expect to pay for a pre-installation visit where you and your vendor will discuss your processes and further define system setup requirements. You should also expect on-site installation and training. Some folks also ask for on-site support for a period of time after installation. Although some initial handholding might be nice, I believe if the product is set up correctly, and the training is effective, it is probably not needed.
Some customization is usually necessary. A true custom solution is going to be much more expensive and painful to implement. Most good LIMS are designed to be configurable at some level. Having this built into the LIMS design does give you some flexibility. If needed, you should expect even off-the-shelf vendors to customize their program to accommodate your needs. The more flexible you can be, the less expensive the solution will be. If you are willing to use an off-the-shelf solution the way it was made, following existing process flow, it will be less costly than any custom application.
Instrument interface can also be costly, and not always needed. Most advanced instruments come with proprietary software that run the instrument and generate output. Some vendors will try to convince you that you need two-way control of the instruments from the LIMS. In my mind, it truly is not needed. The most important part of instrument interface is that the results can be captured and made accessible by the LIMS. Even this level of data capture can be expensive. The alternative is manual data entry of instrument results into the LIMS, which is adequate when many analytes are “not detected”.
Data conversion may not be applicable in all cases, but I thought I should include it. Labs that don’t have LIMS typically capture their data in some format. Converting existing or legacy data costs are driven by the amount of data to be converted, the format of the data, and whether or not the format remained consistent over time. As an example, if you wanted 5 years worth of data converted and it was in spreadsheets, but the format of the sheets had changed year to year, that would be more time consuming and expensive when compared to converting data with a consistent format.
Often reports are a contentious area but should not be. It is all about expectations. Most good LIMS come with some standard reports, and in some cases a report generation tool. Each report should serve a purpose or it may not be necessary. There are principally three types of reports; new report creation, mapping data to the reports, and changes. The easiest solution is to start with existing “approved” reports. In that case, the LIMS provider only needs to map data once and test. It is sometimes better to create 2 reports and give each person exactly what they want instead of trying to fit everything on one report.
Whether you start fresh or use existing reports you will still need to map the data. My advice is try to keep changes to a minimum. Some vendors will bill you for them; other will make minor changes as part of good customer service. From a management perspective, I would control what changes get made and by whom. As you start putting reports together, consider grouping them by function or category. An example being – compliance (state or federally mandated reporting requirements), management (productivity, trends, billing etc.), and operational (day to day test results etc.). As an FYI, some state and federal agencies have strict report formatting criteria, and may require electronic report submission.
In summary, when establishing your LIMS requirements and specifications you should have some understanding of the items for which you can expect to be charged. Hopefully, this article provided you insight to the main areas that drive LIMS purchase costs.
About the Author: Randy A. Bell is the Senior Operations Manager at LabLite LLC, a multi-disciplined, Connecticut based, LIMS software development company. He can be reached at rbell@lablite.com or by calling toll free at 1-888-954-5483.
