Yesterday, I had written a post highlighting some of the problems smaller companies and labs face when they’re doing a product selection to purchase a LIMS, ELN or LES in Product Select on a Smaller Budget. Today, I want to talk about products selection, as a possible trend.
I’ll backtrack for a moment – selecting a new product is something that eventually happens to every laboratory that stays in business. It’s something that companies have been doing for decades. It’s not new in and of itself.
With that said, it just seems that this is a popular time to be talking about product selections. It’s a topic that I come across quite frequently with both potential customers AND people in the industry. Does this mean that the economy is finally recovered? Does it mean that labs with older systems are tired of what they have and want to see what is available in the latest products? Does it mean that smaller companies finally have the money to spend on a system? It’s probably a variety of all of these, to some degree, but that seems to be the primary conversation people want to have with me, lately.
Within the past few months, as I’d become more involved with iVention, I had wondered if I would give up the product selection activity. However, I’m now thinking that will not be the case for these reasons that seem to be occurring:
- Where companies ask me for assistance with systems that have nothing to do with the iVention features, it seems easy enough to declare a conflict of interest by being so tightly tied to a software vendor then move on.
- Where companies call me and just express a direct interest in iVention’s iLES system, it’s easy enough to answer some initial questions and send them on their way to deal with the sales people.
- As of right now, there has not been someone who has contacted me about a generic LIMS, ELN or LES selection where the iLES product would be a potential candidate. When that day comes, I suppose I’ll have to just bring the issue up with the customer and see what we work out.
As such, since there were no customers that called me and said they felt abandoned by my previous thoughts that I wouldn’t be doing product selections nor that asked for help finding someone else, I can’t spend time worrying too much about it but, if they hadn’t started, yet, they can still call and see what we can work out
Finally
For everyone else, I don’t quite know why the latest conversations all revolved around product selections. If you need to talk to me, personally, I’m here to answer questions. Otherwise, best of luck looking at all the latest and greatest and there’s a a lot from which to select.
Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/