Biotechnology is one of the most exciting spaces to work in the world today. The pace of life-changing breakthroughs only continues to increase. At the same time, new technologies in discovery platforms, gene sequencing, machine learning and big data promise to fundamentally change how the labs that deliver these innovations operate.
New Research Techniques, Same Information Management Problems
But walk into most biotechnology labs, and you’ll find much of the software being used to manage information is just plain outdated. Researchers struggle with software that’s too hard to use, can’t be customized for their specific lab needs, and isn’t built to harness new techniques like machine learning. Whether it be a long customization process, an unwieldy platform trying to do too many different jobs, or a point solution that’s painful to integrate, lab information software can feel like more trouble than it’s worth. So lab researchers’ primary tools remain Excel worksheets stored on local drives, or even just pen and paper, despite the inefficiencies that these create.
We think that’s wrong. In nearly every other aspect of life, software has become a massive productivity enhancer. So why shouldn’t lab information software be just as easy to configure and use? Working with lab software should be a fast, smooth, easy, and – most importantly – painless process.
Limmi Gives Researchers a Better Option
That’s what we set out to do with Limmi – create software that will deploy into your business with minimal configuration, integrate with your exact workflows, and be easier to use than any traditional LIMS platform. We harnessed 30 years of experience in software and data science to build a new type of data management platform that’s built to be highly configurable, require no additional infrastructure for your lab, and easily integrate with your existing tools and workflows. Limmi makes it easy for your small lab to get started, but also scales to grow with you as you expand.
How Did We Do It?
First, we built a platform that doesn’t just add sample management to an existing ELN tool or other software stack, but is fundamentally structured around lab data management. We focused on delivering a system that is extremely configurable, making it easy to build your workflows with your own semantics, analysis logic, and integrations. We also designed Limmi to be easily integrated into common tools you may be already using in your lab: Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Sign, Chemdraw, and many others are easily tied into Limmi’s information system.
Then, we tackled the other major issue with existing systems today: creating a user interface that users actually want to interact with. We spent six months with our pilot customer, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, watching how researchers operate in the lab, integrating feedback on interactions with our software, and partnering with them to fashion new features that surprise and delight – like a built-in scanner that can be used on any device to avoid repetitive moves around the lab.
Last, but definitely not least, we flipped other data software companies’ standard “vendor lock” model on its head. These companies intentionally make it difficult for you to export or migrate your data. And they do this for a reason – it makes it hard for you to switch vendors! But, frankly, we don’t want you stuck using our system because you can’t get your data out. We want you using our system because you love it and it works for you. So we can easily export all your data in Limmi and migrate it to other systems if that becomes necessary down the road.
This is just the beginning for us! It’s our mission to build innovative data tools for the next generation of labs. We have many additional features planned over the next year, and we continue to be inspired as we watch how an easier data management experience can impact researchers’ productivity.
