2018-06-21 Alternative Solutions To Top 3 Barriers When Switching From Paper To ELN

2018-06-21

This is a response to a blog posted by SciNote, discussing the top 3 barriers and solutions when switching from Paper to Electronic Lab Notebook. At Labii ELN & LIMS, we have better solutions:

Solution to Barrier 1 – Price and budget: Pay Per Use

Based on SciNotes’ study from academic users, Free is the only option. Labii however, has a different perspective after doing 2 NSF ICorp programs and interviewing more than 300 companies and academic users. A research notebook is the most important asset to a scientist. If there is a fire, the notebooks are the only things the scientist should grab and run with. Are they not willing to pay for a penny to have the most important asset to be protected? No. They are not willing to pay for some useless electronic laboratory notebook, that works just like a word document and could not bring much value to their research. Read more at Is an ELN too expensive for you. Labii is continually adding functionalities to its Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). At the same time, we offer Pay Per Use options to allow scientists, especially those from academic backgrounds, to be able to start using a quality Electronic Lab Notebook with a cost less than a cup of coffee.

Solution to Barrier 2 – Ease of use and complexity: Flexible and intuitive software

Labii agrees with the solution for this barrier, and most importantly, we are already moving in this direction. Labii, together with University of Cambridge (life sciences) has realized the diversity of requirements, and the difficulty of meeting their requirements. Labii creates a system that

1) allows users from a different company to decide what kind of data to store. They are not limited to reagents, samples, icons, et.al. They can freely customize the names and can add any other categories of data like plasmids.

2) allow users to define the attributions/columns of one type of data. For a particular column, a wide range of details can be customized, like what type of data, if it is required or optional, et.al.

3) For a specific record, the details can be freely added via adding sections with various widgets. For example, a manual can be attached to an equipment record.

Solution to Barrier 3 – Scattered data: All in one place

Labii is the only company that provides a product with integration of Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Users can decide how to use the platform via document management, file management, and inventory management in Labii. To learn more, schedule a meeting with Labii representatives (https://call.skd.labii.com) or create an account (https://www.labii.com/signup/) to try it out yourself.