What's New - July/August 1997

New Analytical Consumer Survey on LIMS

The Analytical Consumer has just conducted its fourth survey in seven years of LIMS users, with detailed responses from the USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia. This year's survey once again found that "home-built" is the market leader. The report is in the June issue of the Analytical Consumer newsletter, and reveals reasons why labs choose to develop their own system or to buy from commercial LIMS vendors. In addition, the survey provides information about the success and failures of labs with both commercial LIMS and home-built systems. The study is a snapshot of what labs actually use and what they think of the equipment, systems and support. The 62-page report, along with the 1997 LIMS survey, is available for $150 US ($160 outside North America). For details or to order, contact the Analytical Consumer at 118 Pheasant Hill Lane, Carlisle, MA 01741. Tel: (508) 369-9079.

Delaware Computing and Baan Company Create Strategic Alliance

Delaware Computing and Baan Company have announced a strategic alliance for Total Quality Management (TQM) to offer users of Baan's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and of Delaware's LIMS an integrated solution for TQM. The alliance has development and marketing implications. To Baan customers, Delaware's ILIS-NewEra LIMS will be bundled with BAAN IV and BAAN V to produce a unified BAAN TQM solution. The integration will offer companies in the process industry a complete solution for quality management processes throughout the supply chain, from product development to purchasing, manufacturing, sales, and distribution. The end user interfaces of both systems will be highly similar to further enhance the seamless integration. For details, contact Delaware Computing at Meentwal 1, 3432 GL Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 3060 31822. Fax: +31 3060 38984

LabVantage Solutions Acquires Automated Compliance Systems (ACS)

On July 1, 1997, LabVantage Solutions (formerly Axiom and Laboratory Microsystems) announced the acquisition of Automated Compliance Systems (ACS). ACS' SeedPak and Pro-LIMS solutions will now be folded into the LabMaestro product line. "Our business is to continue to build LIMS as well as provide a broad array of lab solutions," states Don Seitz, former ACS President and now working for LabVantage Solutions. "SeedPack fits under the LabMaestro banner in a very complementary way since it is designed for the environmental, clinical, health and water/wastewater niches." All current ACS offices will remain open under the LabVantage Solutions corporate umbrella. For more information, contact LabVantage Solutions at 201-601-8888.

Mergers & Acquisitions in the Lab Equipment and Analytical Instrument Industries

Infocom announces the availability of a report entitled Mergers & Acquisitions in the Lab Equipment and Analytical Instrument Industries: 1984-1997 that investigates over 350 mergers and acquisition deals. The report is compiled by the same people who produce the Analytical Instrument Industry Report (AIIR). The Infocom report provides information on issues such as industry perspective, geographic expansion, product distribution, technology-driven acquisitions, product range diversification, and more. LIMS aren't included unfortunately, but lots of other tools are. For details, contact Infocom at P.O. Box 78, East Grinstead, United Kingdom RH19 2YW. Tel: +44 1342-835935. Fax: +44 1342-833488

National Instruments Adds Arbitrary Waveform Generator Capability to VirtualBench 2.0

Natioanl Instruments has announced the addition of arbitrary waveform generator capability to their VirtualBench product. VirtualBench 2.0 software for PC-based instrumentation provides ready-to-run, programming-free functionality for oscilloscopes, dynamic signal analyzers, function generators, digital multimeters, and data loggers. VirtualBench converts PCs into custom-defined instruments with graphical interfaces. In addition to the arbitrary waveform generator, Version 2.0 adds Windows NT support for all instruments, and three new utilities for streamlined DAQ operations. For details, contact National Instruments at (512) 794-0100 or visit their web site at http://www.natinst.com.

Perkin-Elmer Announces New Turbochrom Workstation CDS

PE Nelson has introduced a new Turbochrom Workstation Chromatography Data Ststem (CDS) which provides advanced data handling for commercial gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) instruments used in many types of analytical laboratories. The Turbochrom Workstation software takes full advantage of Microsoft's 32-bit operating systems, Windows 95 and NT. Attractive features of these applications, such as support for long filenames, pre-emptive multi-tasking, enhanced software security, and the Windows 95/NT look and feel, are completely incorporated into the system. For details, contact PE Nelson at (203) 762-4000 or 888-PE-CHROM.

Rheodyne Introduces New LabPro Automated Fluidics Instruments

Rheodyne introduced the first phase of a new family of self-contained, motorized, multi-position automated fluidics instruments for precision and repetitive fluid switching applications. The new family of "plumb and play" productivity enhancing tools include several devices each specifically designed for a particular fluid switching operation, such as a solvent selector, inert low pressure unit, and injector with purge. For details, contact Rheodyne at 6815 Redwood Drive, Cotati, CA 94931. Tel: (707) 664-9050. Fax: (707) 664-8739.

ScienTek Releases New Version of TeamLIMS

Scientek Software has updated their TeamLIMS product to the Visual Basic 5.0 environment and compiled it into the native code. As such, TeamLIMS is now a 32-bit Windows application and is supported in Windows 95 and NT 4.0. The Access 1.1 database can be converted to the formats of all later versions of Access using an existing TeamLIMS function. The updated product is available for US$349. The low price is designed to allow users to explore LIMS capabilities before making a substantial financial commitment. It is sold as is; no support will be available due to the nominal cost. For details, contact ScienTek at (714) 832-7435.

SDI Uncovers Increased Spending on Analytical Instrument Company R&D

The latest issue of Instrument Business Outlook (IBO), a twice monthly publication from SDI, provides information about analytical instrument company spending on R&D. The latest figures show that the amount spent on R&D rose to an average of 8.6% of gross revenues, after having dipped to 8.4% of revenues in 1995. The increased level of R&D spending did not reach the levels instrument companies spent in 1993 or 1994, when the average was 8.7% of gross revenues. For additional details, contact Strategic Directions International (SDI) by telephone at (310) 641-4982 or by facsimile at (310) 641-8851 in the U.S.; or by telephone at +33 (1) 30 99 62 50 or by facsimile at +33 (1) 34 74 81 62 in Europe.

SDI Highlights Analytical Instrument Stock Performance in Index

SDI states in their International Business Outlook publication that the stock index for analytical instruments was flat in June, compared to rises of 5%, 4% and 3% respectively for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. The slowdown in the instrument stocks, which have recently been faring better than the market as a whole, was led by instrument industry leaders Thermo Instrument Systems, down 11% for the month, and Perkin-Elmer, which had no growth during the month. The index appears in the June 30 issue of Instrument Business Outlook, a twice monthly publication which tracks the performance of instrument industry stocks and publishes the index at the end of each month. For price and subscription information, contact Strategic Directions International (SDI) by telephone at (310) 641-4982 or by facsimile at (310) 641-8851 in the U.S.; or by telephone at +33 (1) 30 99 62 50 or by facsimile at +33 (1) 34 74 81 62 in Europe.

Thermetics Detection Highlights Container Inspection System

Thermetics Detection has been awarded U.S. patent #5,602,890 for their InScan XR-100 container inspection system which produces multi-dimentional images of each container on a production line. The system provides accurate measurement at conveyer speeds of 2400 containers per minute for container materials including glass, metal, plastic, and foil. Containers showing underfill, overfill, low or high pressure, or improperly seated lids or caps are automatically rejected. The system maintains a complete record of all rejections and their causes. For details, contact Thermetics at 220 Mill Road, Chelmsford, MA 01824. Tel: (508) 251-2000. Fax: (508) 251-2091

Vision International Opens West Coast Office

Vision International, a high tech firm that provides end-to-end information technology solutions for government and commerical applications, has announced the opening of a West Coast office in Los Angeles, CA. Vision International markets the EDGE Product Family suite of visualization and analysis tools for ground systems such as the operational ground processing system for the Air Force (ALERT) and Army (JTAGS). For more information contact Vision International at 5301 Shawnee Road, Alexandria, VA 22312. Tel: (703) 658-4000. Fax: (703) 658-4021.