>
Technology
Whether you are an IT Manger, Plant Manger or Lab Manger, in a small lab to a large, multi-site operation, LABWORKS has a solution to meet your needs. Backed by over two decades of experience and one of the largest instrument companies in the world, LABWORKS helps you control your system and support your staff like no other LIMS company. Have a problem? Go ahead and ask us how to solve it! Our team of dedicated LIMS professionals have the experience to work through virtually any situation. Because, your LIMS should be under your command, not out of your control. Configure it. Control it. Believe it.
Here are some of the problems our customers face on a regular basis. Click below to see how LABWORKS provides a solution:
Modern Development Toolkit
The LABWORKS Development Team believes that leveraging the best tools that Microsoft can provide allows us to deliver more stable and supportable solutions. Unlike some of our competitors who write code in Access Basic or even older programming languages, our code is developed in Visual Studio 2005 utilizing.NET and will be upgraded to Visual Studio 2008 utilizing .NET 3.5 later this year.
LABWORKS is a highly configurable system which relies on a layer of business rules to manage how the system responds to specific conditions; this is an integral part of the LABWORKS platform, and minimizes the need to develop site specific solutions that may be difficult to support.
Our LIMS is available on two of the most popular database platforms: Oracle, and SQL Server, both of which are widely accepted in IT Departments. LABWORKS is also compatible with Microsoft Office tools, and can be interfaced to a wide variety of complementary systems. New versions of LABWORKS preserve the investment of existing users by featuring backwards compatibility for the database and the applications. LABWORKS supports test environments for qualifying new software releases, so that upgrades can be planned in accordance with IT objectives.
Back to Top
Presenting a User Interface that uses terminology and language familiar to the user base is critical to rapid deployment. Local Language Support is also important when more than one location (and language) is involved in the review of test data. LABWORKS LIMS has been designed with these requirements in mind.
The LABWORKS code base identifies strings that appear within the User Interface, and provides functions that replace these strings with selected translations based on the defaults established for a site or for an individual user. In addition to including a core set of translations, LABWORKS provides a translation tool that allows for further tailoring of the translated strings, or for the generation of another language. For example, a laboratory might create a variation of the existing local language, but modify it to more precisely reflect the terminology used within their company.
LABWORKS LIMS can be deployed across a variety of network configurations. Many of our clients use Citrix solutions to provide a secure, managed environment for LABWORKS operations. When multiple sites are involved, Citrix normalizes how the application is presented regardless of hardware and operating system variations.
LABWORKS LIMS features extensive use of Ownership Groups, which allow for various groups within a site or within a company to share a common database but not see everyone else’s data. Access to both laboratory definition data, such as location or product codes, test codes, or report templates can be controlled, as well as access to information about samples, analyses, and results.
The Process Scheduler component of LABWORKS 6.0 manages the scheduling of routine samples by coordinating products, locations, sample frequencies, and test codes into sampling groups that reflect typical operations. Process Scheduler also provides an alternate user interface focused on continuous sample status updates. This status view gives immediate visibility to a sample’s progress. The Process Scheduler interface allows users with the appropriate privileges to perform key LABWORKS functions directly from Process Scheduler, such as ad-hoc Sample Login, Results Entry, Results Review, Sample Approval, and Report Generation.
The OPC Gateway for LABWORKS 6.0 simplifies the integration of LABWORKS with process control systems that support OPC. This makes it easy to deliver test results to the process system so that operators can view critical data in a familiar format, and use the results as process control variables. The OPC Gateway is compatible with most major process control systems, such as Aspentech, PI Systems, Wonderware, Yokagawa, Emerson, Place, and others. No custom code is required to configure the OPC Gateway.
The LABWORK Explorer module is specifically designed to provide an effective, easy to use interface for personnel who need to monitor information but who are not involved in generating samples or results. Data Consumers who do not need full LABWORKS functionality have a secured interface to view data, generate reports, and where permitted, validate data. Depending on the needs of your company, data views can be restricted based on validation status of the samples.
In a highly interactive application like LIMS, speed and response time have always been critical components of system performance. This is particularly true when assessing web applications deployed across the web. LABWORKS utilizes the most recent AJAX technology from Microsoft to deliver web applications such as LABWORKS Explorer with superior performance, as this technology supports the ability to refresh a single control rather than an entire web page.
The same security rules for the core LABWORKS application always apply, whether your teams are accessing data through the LABWORKS Desktop or LABWORKS Explorer, and whether they are using a locally installed client or a web based client.
LABWORKS 6.0 includes Workflow Architect, which allows a site to tailor the lifecycle of certain laboratory objects so that they conform to existing quality processes. The Workflow Architect provides an environment where new object states can be defined and then graphically linked into a state transition workflow. Each individual transition within the workflow can be configured, so that certain transitions happen automatically, based on established rules and priorities, and others result from a manual transaction, which may involve site specific privileges, or require electronic signature events. State transitions in a workflow can also trigger activities such as notifications to occur, using the integrated messaging platform built into LABWORKS 6.0.
Often a quality plan may require different groups to be responsible for reviewing or approving different materials, test codes, or specifications. LABWORKS 6.0 provides ownership flags that can be used to restrict access for these items to users who are active members of defined groups. Privileges then further control what transitions an individual within the group is authorized to execute. All transactions in the management of these laboratory objects are also subject to audit trailing, as may be required by your Quality Plan.
With over twenty years of experience delivering laboratory solutions to clients in a variety of industries, the LABWORKS team understands that LIMS are often deployed as part of a larger corporate quality or management system. We have developed the LABWORKS 6.0 platform to provide better mechanisms for integration with a wide variety of external systems.
The LABWORKS 6.0 platform features an integrated messaging foundation that supports program to program, user to user, or program to user communication. This works in concert with LABWORKS application modules to provide event driven interactions that are a key component to systems interfacing. LABWORKS also provides instrument interfacing services for your laboratory instruments, with choices including a library of standard pre-built interfaces, as well as more tailored, workflow driven solutions. LABWORKS can also be interfaced to Process Control Systems that support OPC, and to MRP/ERP systems such as SAP.
Want to learn more about LABWORKS? Order our FREE LABWORKS Insider's Kit and learn the difference LABWORKS makes-first hand from our customers and team.
Click here to request your Insider's Kit today.