Yesterday, I made a blog post having to do with why laboratory informatics services prices vary and explaining a few of the factors behind it: Pricing in Laboratory Informatics Services
I thought of more issues I should mention. They’re things that had seemed so obvious to me that I didn’t think to include them. But then, what happens when we think something is obvious and we don’t actually talk about it? If you guessed that others might not have thought it to be obvious and then just don’t have that extra piece of information, you figured out what I was going to say.
One more factor to consider when buying services in the laboratory informatics industry is that different types of services might have different prices. For example, a project manager, a business analyst, an implementer of software and a validation specialist might all have different prices.
Another issue is that different brands have different pricing structures. So, a resource to implement the LabWare LIMS might have a different pricing structure than you would find it you went to get a resource for the StarLIMS product or different than for the VelQuest ELN.
Additionally, finding a resource to write a custom system for you would be an entirely different price structure than someone who is writing code to implement a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) system. So, for example, even though Thermo is starting to use .NET products to develop solutions with their COTS systems, finding people to do that would usually have a different cost than bringing people in to develop a solution for you using the .NET products.
Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/