eLabJournal

Functionality and Superb Customer Support

Opmerkingen: Our overall experience with eLab Journal has been exceptional. We are glad we chose to partner with them because they were definitely the right choice! They have helped us immensely and we would not have achieved a successful project outcome without them.

Pluspunten:

Working with the team at eLab Journal to implement our LIMS and make enhancements as our laboratory has grown has been a wonderful experience. Everyone we have worked with is responsive and collaborative. The software itself has amazing functionality and provides the features we need to act as an efficient, high throughput testing laboratory.

Minpunten:

When we implemented the software in 2020, some of the menu items and navigation seemed disjointed and not exceptionally intuitive. eLab Journal has evolved since then and we have seen improvements. The team is also open to our feedback as system users.

eLab has helped manage a veritable flood of samples

Opmerkingen: Overall, I'm very pleased with eLab. It has greatly streamlined the tracking of sample receipt and downstream processing for thousands of samples, allowing me to set up standard procedures that even novice undergraduate students can follow without difficulty. Likewise, the pricing was very competitive and the team at eLab has been very responsive and pleasant to work with.

Pluspunten:

This product has greatly facilitated the standardization of sample intake and inventory. Likewise, I really appreciate the ability to set up lab protocols (with version tracking) and standardized experiment templates. These features, in particular, make it easy to bring on new lab helpers in an undergraduate setting. There is no need to manage and track shared files or folders, and when a student leaves, their records and activities are preserved. The interface has generally been quite intuitive and easy to maneuver, and customer support is responsive and helpful if a user runs into problems.

Minpunten:

There are still a few glitchy (largely aesthetic) areas. For example, the "Lineage" button appears to multiply as one clicks on or manipulates successive sample records. This can be resolved by refreshing the page, but it is not guaranteed that you will remain on the same sample record when you refresh. This doesn't seem to impact the integrity of sample records, but can be annoying when working with a lot of sample records. There is not yet a function to create copies of plates of samples (e.g., whole-plate aliquots, series, or downstream product). One can work around this with batch importation, but I do look forward to this feature eventually being incorporated.

Overwogen alternatieven: Benchling en SciNote

Redenen om over te stappen op eLabJournal: eLab offered a combined electronic lab journal and inventory tracking/management platform that was both intuitive and economical.

Online journal

Opmerkingen: Better for the environment and also don't have to worry about losing/spilling stuff on lab notebook.

Pluspunten:

Once again it allows for easy access to other lab mates by simply sharing it with them. No issues with legibility or whatever.

Minpunten:

Takes a while getting used to actually typing in experiments, protocols, data, etc. but it can be more convenient than conventional paper.

ELN and more

Opmerkingen: This software caters to the small biotech co's by providing a single solution ELN that integrates data and inventory management. As such, the pricing is in an very effective position to enable those same small biotech companies to acquire and use their software efficiently. Great customer support and service, this offers an appreciable and competitive value. This software is very good and taking in data, especially as a PDFs. Probably among one of the best ELNs out there. Unfortunately it's not a 'do-everything' solution, and does have some quirks. It would also better help these smaller co's that use it through implementing a less expensive 'module' add-in service that could pull from vendors like Fisher/VWR. This would allow for easier inventory management, and wouldn't require expensive custom solutions smaller companies wouldn't be able to afford anyway.

Pluspunten:

The ELN is easy to start using from ground zero. Many features are intuitive, and easy to navigate. Organization is implemented nicely, and searchable.

Minpunten:

Frequent users will start to see issues with flexibility in correcting erroneous details of entries (not yet finalized), or setting up high-functioning templates for repeated experiments. More advanced features to integrate into ordering/inventory management are not modular add-ons, and treated as more expensive custom solutions.

6 month of eLAB and don't want to miss it anymore

Pluspunten:

We're working with several microorganisms and getting them organized into easily trackable collections are a big plus for us. In general we're using the customizable samples a lot, also for tracking individual fermentation batches. Together with the barcoding feature, tracking and identifying samples has become really straight forward. Another great feature is the collaborative approach we can use, when we work on different projects. Everybody in the team can contribute with individual experiments and still everything is organized into the same project/study, which makes tracking the overall progress really easy.

Minpunten:

One of the things that certainly need some improvement is the data-management system. You can store data within experiments and in a dedicated file-storage system, but these are not interconnected (at least not that I know). And to work with the file-storage is also not the most straight forward way to organize your files. A little more database management functionality here could go a long way.

Overwogen alternatieven: Labfolder

Redenen om over te stappen op eLabJournal: Labfolder has a very bad reputation for being rather slow and most importantly unstable.