Re: [MLUG] LIMS, ELNs and such

["Vern Green" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Well Mike, you have just asked the question that thousands of people ask everyday. That question is "Do I build, or do I buy turnkey?"

 

Well, there are advantages and draw backs to both. Turnkey solutions usually are not exactly what you are looking for, but typically they will "fit" the bill with minor modification. Usually you pay a lot for functionality that you will never use. Usually your business practices have to change to fit the solution, rather than having the solution fit the business practice.

 

On the other hand, custom development might look interesting, and in many cases that is the best way to go. But what most people find out is that by the time they get through the requirements gathering and completely understanding everything the system has to do, that the custom built solution is not that much better.

 

You mentioned that you saw one of your guys put together a web form in a few hours, but one web form rarely completes the application. When it comes down to making all of these webforms work together with a database, perhaps interacting with the file system, then the application might not be as easy and cheap as it originally sounded.

 

Then of course there is the time it will take to put your application together. Also, will others have to use this system that do similar but different jobs than you and if so, then how much different is it exactly and how does the system have to work for them?

 

There are a ton of similar types of questions when embarking on a project such as this. And while I am sure you have thought through your needs, have you covered the needs of the other people who will use the system?

 

On 11/17/06, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:

I spoke recently to a professor who recommends that we use a LIMS
(Laboratory Information Management System) instead of developing our own
LAMP-based system.  Apparently there are LIMS out there that would be
nearly ready to manage the kind of data we will be collecting.  We want to
use a web-based data entry system based on PHP, have MySQL manage the data
and of course run this all on Linux with Apache and mod-ssl.  It all seems
pretty straightforward to me.

I get the impression that LIMS are expensive.  I also get the impression
that they aren't going to do more for me than the system we can develop.
Of course, there is cost in development, but I've seen one of my guys
develop a nice data-entry form in only a few hours, so I don't think the
development costs are all that tremendous.  I also think that there are
tremendous advantages in developing our own system.  For one, it will do
just what we want it to do.  It will also be very flexible.

The other thing my colleague mentioned was the ELN (Electronic Lab [or
Laboratory] Notebook).  I don't see why we need this, but I do see some
value in the concept.  On the other hand, the ELN seems to be many
different things to many different people and I saw a lot of confusing
verbiage that led me to wonder if it is not possible to simply say what
the ELN can do.  What, for example, is a "generic authoring tool?"  My
guess is that I don't want one.

I'm left wondering how much of LIMS and ELNs is corporate hype and how
much is real value for the consumer.  Much of what I read sounded like
unnecessarily complex jargon of the kind companies love to produce.  The
idea is to make the customer afraid to appear stupid by asking a question.

Any opinions?

Mike

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Thanks
F Vernon Green 
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