Reviewing the Pittcon Rites of Spring


Ahh Pittcon -- one of the analytical world's rites of spring! Surviving a week of walking the exhibit halls and listening to paper after paper in the lecture rooms -- and being able to remember the majority of what you learned -- is certainly a rite of passage as well. This year was no different.

What with rushing from one event to the next, it's not easy to stop and smell the roses, nor for that matter to evaluate the meaning of what is learned. Throughout the week, however, several events unfolded which highlighted trends and indicated that the predicted LIMS industry consolidation has now begun in earnest.

Papers Highlight Trends

The first symposia on Monday morning covered LIMS: Global Implementation to Validation. Five papers were presented by key consultants, users and vendors in the LIMS industry, who discussed the challenges of implementing and validating a LIMS. As became evident, the intensifying regulatory requirements that will be delivered by the revised GMPs -- not to mention the HACCP and lab accreditation issues that will affect the food industry before next year -- are beginning to affect LIMS decisions. The easier it is to validate a LIMS, the less work is required by the lab to maintain it. Since time is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity in the lab and elsewhere, the LIMS vendors that pay attention to this detail will come out ahead.

The second LIMS symposium was held that afternoon and covered LIMS: New Perspectives & Directions. Ten papers were presented, almost all of which were given by vendors and industry consultants. As a result, the topics that were covered focused on technology, such as new client/server and PC-based LIMS advances, and how to use it, such as interfacing the LIMS to SAP R/3. The growing interest in connecting the lab data in the LIMS to other databases in the enterprise is driving the implementation of ERP systems such as SAP's R/3 solution. In addition, a LIMS web interface was discussed in several papers and such capabilities were announced by Beckman, Accelerated Technology Laboratories (ATL), and Lab Microsystems during the conference. Again, the ability to interface the LIMS to other systems, as well as to simplify the user interface, is segmenting the have's from the have-not's.

Vendors Build on Strengths

More than 30 different LIMS vendors were scattered between the two exhibit halls, making for some sore feet in order to visit them all. However, it's always interesting to see what new products the various vendors deliver based upon customer demand. For instance, both ATL and Analytical Automation Specialists (AAS) addressed the issues surrounding slow performance for Access-based LIMS. They both highlighted new LIMS that provide client/server functionality by utilizing either SQL Server or ORACLE on the server and Microsoft Access on the client. A nifty solution that erases upgrade and compatibility issues.

Modules were a force to be reckoned with this year. Just about everyone introduced an add-on module targeted for a specific industry niche. Here's a list of what was announced. AAS offered a new Sample Pretreatment software for water and wastewater applications, a new Sample Schedule module, and a new Project Analyte Management module to manage complex reporting requirements. Telecation announced a new Schedule module as well, while Hewlett-Packard showed their new QC Client module. Lab Microsystems zeroed in on automated QC Charts with a new module for that capability, as well as a new Data Warehousing module. Blaze Systems and Shell Services made a joint announcement regarding a QC Check module that Shell designed for their Blaze LIMS and is now marketing to the petrochemical industry.

LabWare came out with the most new tools, including their Lot Manager, Real-time Process Control Charting, Stability 2.0 and Contract Lab Modules. Perkin-Elmer Nelson announced a new add-on module, SQL*PROTOCOL, which is designed for bioanalysis and pharmacokinetics applications. Beckman featured a suite of compliance tools to met FDA requirements.

This emphasis on tools to enhance LIMS performance in specific sectors highlights another trend -- industry fragmentation and specialization. Just about every LIMS available was originally built to meet the needs of a specific market. The vendors then diversified in an effort to build marketshare. Now, they are again addressing specific market requirements. Expect to see more tools that address customized needs in the future.

Industry Consolidation

The consolidation issues that have been looming on the LIMS horizon were in full force at Pittcon. Axiom not only highlighted the acquisition of Lab Task, but hinted at the pending announcement of a further acquisition. Neill Martin, Axiom's LIMS Product Marketing Manager, states this acquisition will make Axiom the third largest LIMS vendor in the world and the largest in the U.S. For those of you who didn't figure it out at the conference, Axiom will have acquired Laboratory Microsystems by the time you read this, making an interesting collection of LIMS products and capabilities available under a single roof.

In addition, Interplant Consulting was purchased by Honeywell and is now known as Honeywell Interplant. Honeywell offers a plant information systems suite and hopes to integrate the laboratory into that product line with the acquisition of the Interplant LIMS.

A few vendors didn't make an appearance at Pittcon this year, most noticeably Purvis, Advanced Systems Management (or Enabling Technologies as the case may be), Applied Computer Systems, and Laboratory Information Management Systems, Inc. Thermo LabSystems opted to spend their Pittcon dollars on other tradeshows and will be sending out a demo CD-ROM shortly which they believe will provide a less hectic environment for assessing their product than Pittcon provides.

Interestingly, despite the general industry unrest, several new vendors chose to make a debut, including Advanced Technology, LabLite LLC, the Khemia Company, and ProLab Resources. Advanced Technology came to Pittcon for the first time to highlight VetStar, a 4GL client/server LIMS in use at various animal diagnostics labs which is also well-suited to food and agricultural labs. LabLite introduced a low-cost environmental LIMS written in Visual Basic with an Access-back end. The Khemia Company introduced Omega-ELIMS, an Access-based LIMS designed for environmental and industrial labs. ProLab Resources offered Synapse, their Access-based environmental LIMS solution.

It is both encouraging that the LIMS industry is still accessible enough that smart chemists can write a good program and enter the market, and that it is potentially lucrative enough to attract some big names from other industries. Is there room enough for everyone? Probably. This industry is still in its infancy which is why the commercial offerings are only just approaching off-the-shelf status, and also why specialized tools are required to meet specific laboratory needs. This means that the manual systems (and there are a large number of these) as well as in-house LIMS currently in use at various laboratories around the world will start to be rapidly converted in the next few years.

To meet this growing industry need, LIMS vendors will need to evolve their products from DOS-based systems to those that can provide simpler, more graphic Windows and web-based user interfaces, as well as access to more sophisticated functionality that 32-bit and client/server offer. Those that do will emerge as the survivors. Those that don't will be the casualties.

LIMS/Letter subscribers can find out more about Pittcon LIMS trends and events, in the May 1997 issue.

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