A white paper which looks at the common factors that contribute to risk in LIMS projects has been published by Autoscribe, developer of the Matrix Gemini laboratory information management system (LIMS). Highlighted within the white paper, the risks associated with the various stages of a LIMS project include project definition; evaluation and selection of the system; implementation and rollout; and support and upgrades. Examples of projects that have run into difficulties due to inadequate risk management have been documented.
Autoscribe’s founder and CEO, John Boother, explained: ‘There are far too many LIMS projects that have collapsed or failed to deliver the expected benefits. Frequently projects end up significantly over budget with additional non-budgeted, on-going costs such as having IT consultants on site for many months after delivery of a system, because of inadequate planning.
‘Projects of this nature are typically characterised by a changed specification from that originally described, leading to system “configuration” continuing sometimes for years after original system delivery,’ he added.
