Pre-defined report templates allow customers to automatically generate regulatory required reports at a fraction of the time.
Case Study
Nova Biologicals is one of the leading full-service, NELAC-accredited laboratories in Texas, providing laboratory testing and consulting services to the water, medical device, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and food industries globally. The laboratory is one of the nation's largest providers of water testing for drinking and wastewater, specializing in microbiological, chemical and toxicological testing. It provides comprehensive diagnostic testing of specimens for the presence of infectious disease organisms and water testing under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Coliform testing makes up the largest percentage of the tests performed by Nova Biologicals, with approximately 10,000 water samples being processed on a monthly basis, all of which is undertaken in a single laboratory. Nova has been servicing its many customers, primarily in North America, but also in Africa, Asia, Canada, UK and Italy, for more than 15 years.
Previously, Nova managed its work using paper-based processes in laboratory notebooks and spreadsheets, supported by an out-dated laboratory information system. The laboratory system had significant deficiencies in that it only allowed entry of Coliform data and had limited reporting capabilities. Continued use would not sustain Nova's growing business in microbiology, medical device and pharmaceutical testing. In addition, since the old system was located on one computer, only one employee could use the system at a time, which created a major bottleneck in the laboratory and significantly limited the volume of samples that could be processed in a given day.
Nova Biologicals needed to change its way of working in order to comply with its State of Texas license. In doing so, it identified information management in its laboratory as a solution to future-proof the business. The company also recognized the need to move from its time-consuming, manual, paper-based processes to a fully automated, versatile and efficient solution set. After collaborative review of many options, Nova opted for a solution that included a purpose-built LIMS with functionality built in for meeting compliance requirements, and a document management system that provided the defensible tracking of all SOPs, staff training and certifications and critical reports.
The nature of sample testing means that there are peaks and valleys and some months, such as quarterly state reporting deadlines, are much busier than others. Nova may have as many as 1,500 Coliform samples to process in one day and in the past it was a struggle to manage these volumes because of the limited accessibility to the legacy system.
The new LIMS and Document Management System (DMS) solution has been instrumental in helping Nova Biologicals maintain its NELAC accreditation in the state of Texas, refine work processes and improve reporting to customers in terms of quality and speed. Very high sample volumes can be processed in a short period of time when necessary. The system offers the flexibility to be accessed by users from any computer with a web browser. With five members of the staff being able to login samples at the same time, staff bottlenecks have been eliminated, saving many man hours across the company. In addition, significant improvements in efficiencies and data quality have been achieved with the system's automation, built-in document management capabilities and report generation and distribution functionality.
