Project Approach

Only few laboratories have the expert knowledge to successfully plan and execute a complex LIMS selection (and -implementation) project. It is essential to setup a multistep selection procedure with the proper selection criteria after each step. Furthermore you need to gain the skills to stay in control of the project to avoid that vendors (or their "independent" representatives) take control and steer the project towards their own solution.

In case you don't want to gain the necessary skills yourself, a solution is to hire a real vendor-neutral expert. This expert should have no commercial ties with any of the LIMS vendors and have nothing to gain from which vendor will get the project.

Real vendor neutral experts are scarce throughout the globe. This is one of the reasons the "LIMS Project  Academy" was founded by proven vendor-neutral and experienced (60+ successful projects) LUFC LabConsultants to provide "Online" LIMS selection & implementation coaching & community, "Anywhere and Anytime",
to laboratories around the globe.

Preparation

Unfortunately many laboratories enter a LIMS vendor selection ill prepared. Too many LIMS selections enter into the vendor selection (demo) phase prematurely. It is impossible to evaluate a demo against the right criteria when you haven't already gathered and documented the functional and vendor requirements first. What happens is that the premature demo's are evaluated poorly and decisions are influenced by vendor marketing and sales skills. Implementation success rate of ill prepared vendor/solution selections drop significantly, resulting in projects going over budget & time and not delivering a usable outcome and dissatisfied users.
Many laboratories do not know which preparation actions need to be taken in which order and which steps are essential and can't be skipped without compromising the project end-result.

LIMS Project Academy educates project members on how to run a LIMS selection project from start to finish towards the best match with the LIMS software & vendor service offering. We will guide the project team through all the necessary steps by means of coaching and an engaging member community for mutual sharing of knowledge and experience.

Knowledge & Experience

Laboratories in general replace their LIMS every 10-15 years or sometimes even less.
This means that most laboratories will not spend a significant amount of time to keep up-to-date with current market developments. Many of our customers asked us early on "what a modern LIMS can do". The better first question is "what functional capabilities does my new LIMS need to support my processes/workflows effectively and what do I need from the vendor to implement the LIMS  within scope-budget and set timeframe". This gap in knowledge/experience, how understandable it may be, puts the laboratory in a serious disadvantage against the marketing/sales power of the LIMS vendor. Judging vendor marketing-messaging, URS responses and demo's becomes significantly harder without this, making the expert help of a scarce and potentially costly vendor-neutral consultant necessary.

LIMS Project Academy wants to provide a more cost effective alternative to the classic way of using full-time onsite consultants.

LIMS Project Academy provides training, coaching and hands-on support to equalize the knowledge/experience gap between customer and vendor. In this way the customer (lab) is able to stay in control of the project and can make decisions based on software functional features and vendor service capabilities.

Managing Vendors

Managing vendors is an essential part of a successful LIMS selection phase.
Often due to a knowledge gap, many laboratories first contact vendors and ask for a demo. 

Vendors love the opportunity to get in early into the project and offer their guidance. As attractive as it may seem to get (sometimes free) pre-sales consultants from a vendor to help you during the selection phase, it is not the recommended first step before you gathered and documented your requirements and exactly know how your new LIMS will need to support your laboratory workflows.
Vendors will always have their own end-goal in mind: Selling their own software and services. Many vendor consultants are very capable to gather requirements during the implementation phase, however they can't propose requirements that might damage their chances to get the project.

The customer (laboratory) needs to stay in control of the selection and control should never be handed over to a vendor or its representative.

LIMS Project Academy provides community, one-on-one coaching and (when needed) hands-on support to equalize the knowledge/experience gap so that you can stay in control and select the best LIMS for your needs, free from excessive vendor marketing & sales influences. 

Resources

A LIMS selection & -implementation project needs the right resources to become successful. During the 60+ projects we completed successfully, we noticed that finding the right resources (people+skills+time) at our customers (laboratories) has been one of the major challenges during the execution of the projects. Many laboratories have little idea up front of the resources the execution of a successful LIMS selection and -implementation requires.

LIMS Project Academy's online platform provides central access to vendor-independent resources, either LIMS expert consultants and/or customers that have already (partly) worked through the same challenges. Cooperation between customer resources and vendor-independent resources is most efficient and results in the best project result.

LIMS Project Academy provides training, coaching and hands-on support for you as a customer to use your scarce resource as efficiently as possible. Our LIMS Project Academy member community provides a platform for mutual support between members and experienced LIMS consultants.

How to address LIMS selection & implementation challenges?

In the LIMS Project Academy introduction video on our website we made a thorough comparison of a few ways you may address the common LIMS project challenges, starting from the selection phase. One conclusion was that it makes a lot of sense to involve vendor-independent resources to close the knowledge and experience gap(s) between customers and vendors. Another conclusion was that vendor-independent resources are not always easy to find and you need to make sure they are really independent. LIMS Project Academy is going to provide easy access to these vendor-independent resources, building on the knowledge and experience of LUFC LabConsultants and its founder Louis Uunk, who is known for providing vendor-independent services to 60+ projects for the last 15 years in LUFC LabConsultants.

LIMS Project Academy translated the need for vendor-independent support into a new online platform providing both community and coaching for LIMS selection and implementation projects. In the sections below, this we be explained further.

LIMS Project Academy services to manage these challenges!

LIMS Selection Coaching

LIMS Project Academy's online coaching program is targeted towards an individual project team belonging to one company. This means that coaching will be adapted to your project team's specific needs. The coaching will be done through our dedicated LIMS Project Academy coaching platform, also providing a LIMS community to "Engage - Learn - Share".

The LIMS selection coaching program offers dedicated expert guidance for every part of the project. An independent LIMS selection consultant/coach will stand by your project team through regular online coaching and knowledge transfer sessions. 

LIMS Project Academy provides guidance during several parts of the project:

• Project preparation & management involvement.
• Project approach, do's and don'ts.
• Business analysis & business case.
• "As-Is" => "To-Be" transition.
• Workflow charting and workflow optimization.
• Determining the role of the new LIMS in your company's IT landscape.
• URS, RFI, RFP documentation
• Vendor selection procedure.
• Vendor demonstration phase.
• Selection criteria and decision process.
• Transition towards implementation. 

Depending on the status of your project, not all of the above might be applicable. During an online intake session, the coaching program will be tailored to your project team’s specific needs and translated into an offer for a tailored coaching program.

LIMS Implementation Coaching

The target customers and the way LIMS Project Academy delivers LIMS Implementation coaching is similar to the LIMS Selection coaching program. The project coaching topics and the role of the LIMS Project Academy consultant/coach are however very different.

LIMS Project Academy's consultant/coach does not take-over the role of the vendor-consultant or project manager. The consultant/coach will operate more from a steering-role between customer and vendor.

The consultant/coach may be involved in one or more of the following:

• Provide project structure
• Safeguard essential steps
• Efficient and effective coaching
• Knowledge & Experience transfer
• Project steering
• Safeguard optimal end-result based on your requirements
• Make sure customer stays in control
• Assist in vendor management in case of project hick-ups or disagreements