Implementation involves more than the execution and installation of a system.  It really begins with a discussion of all the important factors to consider in a project.  These focused conversations provide valuable information that we use to help us with planning and design – perhaps the most critical aspect of implementation.  Factors to address include the cost of customization versus configuration, an evaluation of the current state of the business and the desired state; we take a holistic approach to your entire Laboratory Informatics system.  Our consultants go through this process with you to ensure that, ultimately, we deliver the best solution possible for you. 

As is often the case, your business process may not align perfectly with your Laboratory Informatics system(s).  Whether you adjust your systems, or your process, we help you follow industry best practices for closing the gap between what exists and what is desired.  At J&R, implementation of a technically sound laboratory informatics solution is one of the fundamental services we provide. The key to successful implementation is an understanding of both the business and the software and the ability to translate between the two. This process is part mapping and part design.  Most importantly, it is highly results-driven.

While the same software may be designed for use by chemical production, environmental testing and pharmaceutical companies, the solution for each can vary tremendously.  Such variability adds a lot of complexity and many dimensions. While the solution may not be obvious, we develop creative methods of achieving it, perhaps in ways that were not even intended by the software.  It often involves custom coding or configuration, and must accommodate future changes with a reasonable approach and maintenance friendly design.

There is a lot of discussion about the terms configuration and customization, their implications and usage.  Software vendors tout commercial off-the-shelf systems while clients often need additional flexibility or functionality.  Yet the fear is that customization of those systems or reports may be time consuming and costly.  Does this mean configuration is the better option?  Or, are we simply arguing the semantics? We understand all sides of this debate; in fact, you can click here to learn more about our opinions in the blog Configured vs. Customized Software- Some Control Similarities. 

Meanwhile, whether we are customizing or configuring LIMS to meet the specific needs of our clients, it is fundamental to who we are and what we do, although not necessarily in the way you may think.

While writing custom code that performs exactly as intended is always the goal, the most critical work occurs before any actual code is written. Developing the functional requirements and creating a design that is extensible, that can evolve as your business evolves is what sets J&R apart from generic developers.  Our consultants, with diversified backgrounds in business and technology, understand your needs at a fundamental level.  We invest the time to talk with users, and attack each phase of development to ensure the proper planning, testing and documentation.  So you not only get code that meets the functional requirements, you get custom development that can adjust to unusual circumstances utilizing error handling, enabling the code or report to behave gracefully should something go wrong.  We also consider reusability; creating a deliverable or solution with more than just the intended purpose in mind, but without increasing your cost. At J&R, we design and build systems with future viability, saving you time and money, because the foundation is already in place.

Whether integrating two existing systems such as an ERP or CDS with LIMS, or middleware that allows these systems to talk to each other, the goal of SI is data sharing.  J&R consultants configure settings and code to enable data to flow freely throughout your entire Laboratory Informatics system.  By designing a system that allows you to use data in a maximum number of ways, J&R offers optimal extensibility -- as long as it’s appropriate, of course.  It is all about achieving a balance. We know you don’t want or need a monster solution; our objective is to provide the simplest solutions with the greatest future use.

In response to the question, what do you want your Laboratory Informatics system to do, our clients often pull out several papers and answer, “Generate these reports.” Ensuring that you have the ability to report on your laboratory data across multiple systems and data sources can be challenging.  A system integration strategy should be employed alongside the reporting strategy to determine if you really need the data transferred between systems or just reported on from multiple systems.  There is a big difference!  Furthermore, the desire to have ad hoc reporting capabilities which enable you to review mountains of data without necessarily knowing in advance what you want only adds to the complexity.  But being able to scroll through the data, manipulate it and extract data relevant to you at that moment is so much more powerful than simply generating a number of reports. With a dynamic reporting scheme design, rather than simply generating the specific reports you need today, we can help you meet your needs as they evolve. We also understand the difference between compliance driven reports and operational/managerial level reports. Creating an environment that allows you to obtain both in an easy fashion – that is intelligent business! To us, this is a smart reporting strategy; to our clients, this is turning data into information they can factor in to their decision-making and use to achieve their goals.

Validation ensures that a known process produces the desired results, and will do so again and again.  For those processes which must be kept in a validated state, any changes require documentation, assessment and follow-up validation. Should your LIMS system ever become invalidated, you could not regain its use until it was once again validated. Given the potential impact on business operations, all J&R consultants, regardless of role, have a strong understanding of Laboratory Informatics core validation principles.

The idea of configuration management has been evolving over the past decade. Gone are the days of storing custom code on an individual’s hard drive! The risk, and potential financial damage, associated with the loss of configuration settings and custom coding has driven the need for best practices in configuration management. Gaining control of your system will enable access to previous application versions as well as manage the code and settings for actual deployment in production environments. Bottom line: configuration management is critical for back-up, recovery and support purposes. You must be able to track, reproduce and deploy those settings from any point in time. Configuration management becomes a business decision: are you willing to risk losing the ability to revert back to a previous configuration or state in time if an upgrade or change does not go as planned?

In the day-to-day work world, we often get so focused on the immediate tasks at hand, that the big picture can become blurred.  With Laboratory Informatics, maintaining the many manual and computerized systems responsible for the data flow into and out of your lab is an important part of the big picture.  Years of patching systems or incorporating add-ons here and there can negatively impact the efficiency of your system.  At best, this can add unnecessary maintenance costs; at worst, it can contribute to a breakdown of mission-critical operations.  By understanding your current Laboratory Informatics system, both paper and electronic, J&R helps you to establish a baseline.  From this baseline, we then determine the most efficient method for managing your data today. Then when a change or an addition becomes necessary in the future, you can initiate it with confidence.

J&R approaches project management a little differently than some of our competitors.  We have a lot of experience with managing development teams, and we believe our unique approach comes with some equally unique benefits.

The difference begins with the consultants who comprise and lead the development team. J&R consultants are extremely well rounded.  So while each have their particular strengths, our consultants perform many roles interchangeably; from project manager to developer to technical writer. When the same resource performs multiple roles, you not only save on the total number of resources required on a given project, but you also gain efficiencies, like streamlined communication. In addition, when the project manager has diversified skills and experiences, he or she can offer solutions to developers that lesser experienced resources could not.  And by assembling a well-rounded team of consultants, the level of communication among those team members, and with their clients, is elevated. We think of it as speaking multiple shared languages; the languages of lab, technology and business.

Maintaining a sterile environment in a manufacturing facility to ensure that it remains free of any particulate or bacterial contaminants requires constant monitoring.  There is an ongoing flood of new data which must be regularly collected, organized, managed and analyzed.  As an alternative to paper forms and spreadsheets, there are systems and software critical to the process of data collection and storage which can be implemented. With expertise throughout Laboratory Informatics and a particular understanding of issues related to EM sampling, J&R Environmental Monitoring specialists can support a transition to a paperless laboratory.

There is a lot of documentation required in nearly all we do, and as a result, all J&R consultants are also technical writers. From training materials to design documents to requirements documents to validation, almost everything must be documented.  For some of our clients, we have also written SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures).  We understand the world where a quality product is defined by doing what you say (documenting your procedures) and saying what you do (following your procedures).  For us, it is simply another form of communication.

While J&R consultants are not training specialists, we are well-rounded and communicative, and therefore willing and able to conduct training classes for our clients who require it. Most of the training we do occurs in less formal one-to-one knowledge transfers.  Much of what we consider training is more personalized and customized and less formal than training performed in a classroom setting.  While vendors often conduct product training, we are sometimes asked to do so in their absence in order to provide a tailor made training program. We can conduct technical transfers to train your in-house support staff to take on the management of the system. Generally coming at the end of a project, we transfer all of the domain knowledge to enable you to be independent and self-sufficient.  

While many vendors provide support for their applications, sometimes the level of customization required makes this difficult.  So our clients may ask us to provide support for various aspects of their Laboratory Informatics systems. It may require us to work with other vendors, teams or internal resources.  Rather than supporting the software, we think of it as supporting our clients, acting as true agents of the business, to ensure the best solution is in place.