The marked trend by organizations
toward standardizing on critical information
technology (IT) systems and applications
has now moved into the laboratory
environment. An integrated approach to
selecting and implementing LIMS is
increasingly being employed by large multilaboratory
organizations that are deriving
considerable benefits from such a
move. A recent study by an independent
research firm has quantified the costs and
benefits of standardizing on LIMS, from
both the user and IT perspective. Companies
participating in the study reported as
much as a 40% reduction in total cost of
ownership (TCO) by standardizing on
LIMS, and realized annual benefits of
approximately $300,000 per laboratory.
Evolution of LIMS acquisition and deployment
Historically, LIMS were installed to
address the needs of an individual laboratory,
often conducting a narrow set of
research or testing procedures. Established
work flows and processes dictated the
functional requirements and instrument
interfacing needs of the LIMS. With individual
laboratories not integrated with the
rest of the enterprise, issues such as corporate
efficiency were rarely considered.
This has changed dramatically in the past
decade. As LIMS adoption has accelerated
and companies have grown through
mergers and acquisitions, IT departments
must deal with myriad disparate solutions.
With no unified LIMS strategy, laboratories
have largely continued to follow the
procedures to which they have become
accustomed, regardless of the efficiency of
these processes. Incompatible data structures
and formats make compiling and
sharing information between laboratories
arduous and time consuming. Administering
multiple LIMS strains overburdened
IT departments, which must be
equipped and prepared to support, maintain,
and upgrade a range of solutions.
Recognizing that a decentralized LIMS
approach virtually eliminates the possibility
of achieving enterprise-level
efficiencies, companies are making a
major push to harmonize their processes
and standardize on LIMS. Most
business and IT managers are quick to
recognize the value of reducing complexity
and migrating their laboratories
to an integrated LIMS. However,
given the daunting task of harmonizing
processes company-wide and standardizing
on a single global LIMS,
limited objective evidence exists as to
the value of such a decision and
whether a standardization project is
worth the expense or the risk.
Quantifying the benefits of LIMS standardization
Research and consulting firm IDC
(Framingham, MA) has conducted a
research project sponsored by Thermo
Electron Corp. (Waltham, MA) investigating
the business benefits that companies
realize when standardizing on a
LIMS solution, using TCO as a measure.
IDC’s study was based on interviews
with senior LIMS users and IT
managers at leading companies in
industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food and beverage, oil, and
gas. All of these companies had either
standardized or were in the process of
standardizing on LIMS. The study1 confirms
that, although standardizing on a
LIMS is a significant investment and
can require many months of work from
reviewing processes through system rollout,
the benefits are also substantial and
outweigh the costs.
The study identified three areas of savings
and benefits. Companies derived
approximately half their savings from
reducing direct costs, including hardware
and software costs, as well as IT staff and
end-user training expenses. Increased IT
and end-user productivity accounted for
the remaining areas of savings.
Reduced direct costs
Participating companies reported
economies from a reduction in direct costs
related to adopting a standard LIMS,
including significant savings from equipment
purchase avoidance, improved IT
staff efficiency, and decreased training
expenses. The IDC study revealed that
every dollar spent deploying a standardized
LIMS was offset by $1.50 in savings
on hardware and software. With an integrated
solution, companies saved the cost
of training system administrators and end
users for multiple LIMS, estimated at up to
$250 per user per year. In large organizations
with multiple laboratories, this could
be a savings of $100,000 and up.
Raising IT productivity
The IDC study revealed that LIMS standardization
and the centralization of
control reduced the IT department time
required for troubleshooting and problem
resolution, decreasing the amount of
system down time. IDC found that user
support activities, such as help desk and
user administration, declined by as much
as 75%, despite the numbers of end users
growing at 7% per year for the participating
companies. Time devoted to downtime
response activities decreased
30–90%. A number of contributing factors
can account for these reductions:
- With a standardized solution, IT personnel are less likely to be occupied by multiple systems going down at different times.
- Standardization of operations allows many of the manual IT administration and support tasks associated with LIMS to be automated.
- IT staff can devote time and energy to preventative maintenance issues and minimizing overall down time for their LIMS users, who can expect faster response times and quicker problem resolution.
Since IT departments no longer need
to maintain technical expertise on
multiple LIMS, fewer resources are
required. Global companies can thus
reduce the number of support centers
while still meeting the needs of users
distributed across multiple time zones.
The IDC study also revealed that IT
department time spent on applications
management and validation was reduced
by half following LIMS standardization.
Activities such as data management,
archiving, and reporting decreased by
70–87%. Standard configurations
and interfaces reduce the time
required for deployment, integration,
and upgrades of LIMS across
the organization. Developing and
testing one system for multiple sites
is much less expensive and resource
intensive than implementing and
maintaining nonstandardized solutions
across the organization.
Increased end-user productivity
The study also confirmed that
implementing a standard LIMS solution
has the potential for significantly
increasing end-user productivity. With
improved access to data and greater ability
to report and analyze data, users were
more productive with a standard solution
in place. Close to 60% of the companies
credit LIMS standardization with reducing
their time to market, while 77% felt a
standardized LIMS improved product
quality, which freed up on average 6.3 hr
of productive time to each LIMS user per
month. This number becomes significant
when multiplied by the few hundred
LIMS users a company may have in place.
Participating companies in regulated
industries reported that operating a
standardized LIMS enabled them to
benefit from consistent IQ/PQ processes
and documentation, leading to faster
and more efficient validation of their
systems. Not only do companies benefit
from lower implementation costs, but
end users also benefit from gaining faster
access to new functionality. Moreover, a
global LIMS compels companies to
update their infrastructures and eliminate
obsolete technologies that are
expensive to maintain and incompatible
with the company’s security guidelines,
benefiting end users even further.
Making standardization work
Many science-based companies now
view LIMS as an essential component of
their enterprise IT strategies. It is therefore
important to demonstrate visible
senior-level commitment to the standardization
initiative. In addition, good
project management, with local champions
and a dedicated project manager, is
critical to ensuring that the implementation
process runs smoothly and efficiently.
It is equally important to involve a representative group of end users as
early as possible in the process and to
ensure that they fully understand the
potential benefits of a standardized solution.
Involving select end users on a one-LIMS concept in advance will result in
distributed proponents who can help
explain the project’s merits to any dissenters
at the local laboratory level. End-user
involvement will also make certain
that the final result reflects the needs and
requirements of the broader organization.
While scientists may at first be reluctant
to embrace standardization, preferring
locally established processes, selecting
the best LIMS for the specific application
(QA/QC, DMPK [drug metabolism
pharmacokinetic]/bioanalytical, R&D,
in vitro, for example) is essential.
Establishing key vendor relationships
Standardization eases the administrative
burden and lowers the overhead costs of
managing multiple vendor relationships,
license agreements, and support contracts.
By consolidating purchasing with a
few key vendors, companies can earn the
most favorable terms and thus lower total
acquisition costs. A one-vendor approach
also increases the strategic importance of
the supplier and the ability to influence
the vendor’s future product direction.
Selecting a vendor capable of implementing
a LIMS is potentially more important
than selecting the appropriate technical
solution. The vendor must be able to provide
the implementation and support
essential to the long-term viability of an
enterprise deployment. A complex global
LIMS project requires a well-established
project methodology that can track
project milestones, communicate
progress reports, and enforce regular
project reviews. The vendor must be
able to serve as a global partner in
order to address the needs of both the
local communities and the organization
as a whole.
Summary
Standardization is by no means a new
concept to IT professionals. For companies
considering the adoption of an
enterprise LIMS strategy, the IDC
study presents clear, quantifiable benefits
that justify the difficulties and costs
involved. In terms of total cost of ownership,
companies participating in the IDC
study reported realizing a 40% savings
from implementing a standard LIMS,
averaging $300,000 per laboratory on an
annual basis. With quantifiable financial
and operational benefits from sources such
as the IDC study, the trend for companies
operating multiple laboratories to standardize
on a global LIMS solution will
only accelerate.
Reference
- Standardizing on LIMS: TCO and ROI for the multi-lab setting. IDC White Paper, Aug 2004 (www.thermo.com/informatics).
Mr. Neville is Director of Marketing & Business
Development, and Ms. Brown is Product Marketing
Manager, Thermo Electron Corp.,
Informatics & Services, 18 Commerce Way,
Ste. 5000, Woburn, MA 01801-1086,
U.S.A.; tel.: 781-933-4689; fax: 781-933-6322; e-mail: [email protected].