Time
to Replace your LIMS?
Replacing a legacy LIMS system is no small matter
Owing to ongoing global consolidation, stricter regulatory
environments and maturity of Laboratory Information Management
System (LIMS) technology, companies are opting to replace
their existing legacy systems with leading commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) LIMS solutions. According to the latest study by
the ARC Advisory Group, the demand for LIMS replacements
will be at least as large as that for new LIMS systems.
Replacing a legacy LIMS system is no small matter. Many
companies have years of know-how and historical data stored
in their existing system and this information cannot be
discarded, it must be migrated to the new implementation.
Why replace?
Highly customized implementation In most legacy and first-generation
LIMS systems, the technology and the business rules components
are compiled together and can not be separated. Due to
the dynamic nature of business, users have required their
vendors to customize the program code in order to meet
the new business requirements. In parallel to this, the
vendor makes modifications to the code in order to incorporate
new IT technology.
These two independent developments are incompatible with
each other, thus preventing the user from upgrading to
the latest technology while losing touch with IT trends.
Separation from the vendor's direction makes it more and
more difficult to modify business rules. So, in time, the
system not only loses touch with technology but with the
lab's own requirements as well. This episodic pattern is
very common with legacy and highly customized systems requiring
periodic investments in major upgrades. These investments
have a significant impact on the LIMS' total cost of ownership
(TCO) and make it difficult to project a positive return
on the investment.
Loss of key personnel Strict development
and validation procedures adhering to industry standard
methodologies
pose an extremely heavy burden on in-house development
teams. As such, homegrown information systems are aptly
recognized as no longer cost-effective. A turnover of key
personnel instrumental in the original establishment of
the legacy system leaves the company seriously exposed.
Legacy systems often lack ample documentation and "future
proofing" mechanisms that will allow the company to
continue trusting it with its most critical quality data.
Vendor refocused on other industries As
the LIMS market matures, a number of vendors regarded
as early dominators
of this marketplace have refocused their LIMS development
to a limited number of defined industries. These trends
are clearly recognized through some of the vendor's marketing
messages emphasizing their new focal point. More important
is the lack of ongoing industry-specific enhancements to
some of the LIMS products that may be regarded as driven
by users from the now "non strategic" industries.
As a result, many of these customers face the alternative
of further customizing their already highly tailored system,
or opting for a COTS LIMS from a vendor with a proven track
record of "future proofing" their installed base.
Globalization and company consolidation Globalization
and reorganization in all manufacturing industries are
driven by the need to improve the bottom line and proximity
to markets which have led to consolidation and mergers
of multinational companies such as Exxon and Mobil, Chevron
and Texaco, Total.Petrofina and Elf, Glaxo Wellcome and
SmithKline Beecham, to name a few. QA and IT executives
of the newly consolidated operation often will find several
LIMS systems implemented at the disparate sites posing
them with yet another opportunity for cost savings and
unification.
Article
continues below
A migration platform
One example of a migration platform is STARLIMS. From
its very beginnings in the late '80s, it poised itself
as a platform for conversions of legacy systems. Its multi-tiered
architecture completely separates the technology, business
rules and database components from each other. The independence
of components in multi-tier systems facilitates a complete
partition of development and maintenance tasks. The vendor
can supply new advanced features to the technology tier.
These enhanced features can be quickly validated and distributed
throughout the enterprise without compromising the business
rules or database components. This assures that the application
reflects a high level of technological adoption. Similarly,
users can modify the business rules component to meet the
needs of a dynamic work environment without parting from
the vendor's general development leading to a proficient
match to the business needs. Dollar wise at this stage,
the TCO declines to the level of ongoing maintenance costs.
The migration process
1.
Developing the "To Be" implementation based
on current business rules
The new LIMS implementation should not be hampered by
legacy business rules as these could be migrated and enhanced
within the new implementation.
2. Implementing the new system and business rules
The new implementation should be applied and tested prior
to the migration of legacy data. In the case of STARLIMS,
this means that the implementation has passed both factory
and site acceptance testing.
3.
Mapping legacy "As Is" data model to the
new implementation
In this phase, the existing data is mapped to the new
LIMS data model. For those fields that are not directly
mapped to the new data model, legacy fields are added to
the new implementation
4. Performing data migration
Once mapping is complete, an automated routine is used
to import the legacy data into the new system. The legacy
data can be provided through a variety of means including;
csv files, database backups or SQL dumps.
5. Testing and validation of the migration
Testing is performed to validate that the data stored
in the new system matches the data in the legacy system.
This involves the creation of a migration test plan and
running vigorous testing once the migration has taken place.
6. Legacy data publication.
Following
successful data conversion and parallel running of the
new system, the project team gains a real-world
view of the data sources and workflow efficiency. This
allows refinement of previous decisions and facilitates
a final decision about which of the legacy data is to remain
as "read only" and which data should be published
for continued modification.
Migration in practice
The Pacific Environmental Science Centre (PESC) is Environment
Canada's premier science center in Western Canada and provides
the core laboratory and field operations required for the
department's regional programs. The PESC had been using
a mainframe- based LIMS initially developed in the 1970s
encompassing 105 applications designed throughout its history.
The STARLIMS platform's comprehensive configuration tools
allowed complete migration of 25 years of legacy database
programming into a modern COTS within 117 days.
Summary
LIMS users expect flexible systems to support their business
needs, with prompt implementation times and a reduced TCO
throughout the lifecycle. Increasing the functionality
of solutions can make the purchase decision easier. For
example, the ability to apply either customer-developed
structures or the platform's own structures for managing
both static and dynamic data allows rapid adoption of the
latest technology without conciliation of best practices
already available in legacy systems.
by dana_h
Blizzard
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