Skip to content

Out on a LIMSThe Blog for People Who Risk Life and LIMS on a Daily Basis

iVention and GeoMetrick Enterprises - a New Customer

Volume IIEntry 69 of 90 in 20153 min read4 comments ↓

Written by Gloria Metrick on . Published as written. It may not reflect how these systems work today.

Some of you have or will be seeing that I am now showing up in conjunction with iVention US ( iVention US ). Before any rumors get started, let me tell those of you reading this exactly what this means and it doesn't mean that I'm giving up my customers (so, to you vultures that are now ready to pounce, just forget it!).

Learning New Systems
Over the summer, I'd written some blog posts that talked about the fact that I'd been trying to learn some new systems. One of those systems was the iVention LES (Laboratory Execution System) which is known as iLES. And, for this particular product, iVention US has offered me some opportunities to become involved with their operations. It's a unique opportunity and kind of a dream to get involved with a smaller company where I can do a variety of things and be involved more at the ground level.

What This Does NOT Mean
This does NOT mean that I'm abandoning my current customers, refusing any LabWare LIMS / ELN work or anything of that sort. While I'm getting more involved with iVention US, they're currently on my customer list - they're not my sole customer and I'm not giving up on other products or customers to work with them.

Other Considerations
I'm seriously considering whether I should give up doing product selections. Having such a tight tie with one of the software vendors makes the relationship with the customer and the other vendors in the selection a bit awkward. It's not that I couldn't probably still do a fine job of it but I feel funny about doing that. Also, product selection work isn't a major portion of my business so giving it up isn't as noble as you might think.

The major issue that is stopping me from just announcing I'm giving up doing product selections is that I should then go to all the places where I list my services and remove that. I'm just kind of busy to do that. On the other hand, not getting lots of calls for that, I suppose it's not a big deal to turn down the few companies that call me about that service, either, but I do like my services lists to be accurate. And, when people call me with business, it is just hard, hard, hard to turn down new business (and you other small businesses out there know this feeling, I'm sure!).

While I have worked to consult with other software vendors as my customers, in the past, it has been a more limited relationship where they pay for some advice, I give it, and we go our own ways. In this case, where I'm so tightly tied with this vendor that my name will be showing up in places like their blog and in Google+, it's different and more involved that the past vendor-as-customer work I'd done.

When I'm doing product selections, the software vendors involved can sometimes be skittish about having me see their information. I'm sure this new relationship won't make them feel any more secure about that, so I would suspect product selections would become more awkward.

Finally
Yes, I'm still providing LabWare LIMS / ELN and other implementation consulting just as I've been doing. No, I'm not abandoning any of my customers. No, I'm not going to tell iVention US any of the secrets other vendors have told me in confidence, not just because of the occasional NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) that we have but also because it would just not be a trustworthy thing to do.

Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/

The conversation

4 comments from 1 person, October 22 to October 23, 2015. Gloria replied 2 times.

  1. John H. Jones

    I hope the LIMS/LI industry matures enough to be more like other IT software like CRM, ERP, Accounting and the like. We need lots of IT contractors like yourself to know many different LI products so the customer has many different contractors to choose from.

    The LI vendors will have to make their products available to the IT pros much like Microsoft does with there MSDN along with full public access to training material and knowledge bases. I subscribe to MSDN and not only is there no NDA but they expect you to share information about their products. The competitors to MS even subscribe to MSDN. Our industry is not even remotely close to that level of sophistication let alone openness.

    We need industry leadership to blaze that trail and then the rest of the vendors will follow or get relegated to the back lot in the software world. Changes are coming and there are a number of things that will/are conspiring to bring on this inevitable change and maturity. Our industry is in for some very exciting times. It will result in lower prices, shorter implementation times, less coding and customization and overall improved product quality and customer satisfaction.

    There is a ways to go but the trend is there.

    1. Gloria MetrickAuthor

      I was nodding along with what you wrote until you mentioned "less coding." Years and years ago, we used to pine for the days when there would be less coding. Here we are in 2015 and we're still coding as much as we ever have, from what I can tell. Systems have more features that can be modified and the coding continues. Lately, I've come to the thought that we'll never minimize the coding. In addition, and for all the talk about doing a better job managing implementations, I see just as many horrible coding jobs than in the days when companies made lame excuses such as "This is LIMS - we don't have to know how to program because it's not about programming." One thing we've improved upon is that finally software vendors admit that these projects do need project managers and structure that are appropriate to the size and type of the project. Still, there's an awful lot of bad projects out there even in 2015. It's extremely disappointing.

  2. John H. Jones

    We can't put everything in the same category. If you focus on pharma type implementation, they go one way. If you focus on enviro, they go another and clinical, still another way. Clinical is actually the model that I would like to see applied to other industries. It is very cookie cutter and the implementation is in a matter of weeks (less than a month) for a fairly large install. It is because of how standardized everything is.

    We have hundreds of clients across lots of industries. In the clinical area, they do everything the same way every time. The variability is handled through true configuration (no code). Enviro... it is just silly. They all essentially do the same thing but they hit it a million different ways. They have little standardization. They insist on reinventing the wheel every time. Pharma.... the regulations and FUD speaks for itself.

    There truly is a better way to do things but each lab industry will evolve at different rates. I can say that 10 years ago we needed many more developers to do implementations than we need today and the trend is still evolving in a positive direction.

    LIMS developers are here to stay and rightly so. We just need to get the proportion right.

    1. Gloria MetrickAuthor

      I agree that we can't put things all in the same category and would also agree that there are more choices for software that requires no programming.

      BUT...if you look at the number of programmers that groups like LGS (LabWare Global Services) is hiring and all the programmers consulting firms like LabAnswer are pulling in, they're just getting bigger - the amount of development needed is incredibly huge.

      I think I recently said this in this blog but I'm actually shocked at how much programming our industry is still doing. Ten years ago or so, I thought we were at the cusp of changing that. I really believed we'd see that greatly diminish. In 2015, I'm totally blown-away at the amount of programming going on and there's little else in our industry that really surprises me.

Comments are closed. This conversation is from 2015. Ask us to remove a comment

Working on the same problem in your lab?

Talk to a laboratory informatics scientist