November 15, 2023
About LabKey
For many laboratories, trying free sample management software can be tempting due to the perceived cost savings. Although free sample management software may appear to be a viable option, many of these systems lack the features, flexibility, customization and support that labs need. In the long run, free sample management software can prove to be quite costly due to wasted time and resources in trying to implement a system that is poorly designed and will ultimately be ill-suited for even the most basic needs of many labs.
Free sample management software is often missing:
Complete and auditable record keeping
Most free sample management systems have a severe lack of audit capabilities. Some will even ask you to upgrade to a paid version for what is still limited audit functionality. Your sample management software should capture a full audit trail for each sample. This will allow you to track the full chain of custody, meet regulatory requirements, and have confidence in the data stored in your system.
Flexibility, customization and data integrity
Free sample management tools often lack the needed data validation and enforcement capabilities of robust sample management software. This can impact the integrity of data in the system and lead to costly errors. Free sample management systems will also often limit options of flexibility and customization. This includes forcing limits on user-defined fields or forcing the lab to change its processes to fit the system. Your sample management software should have the ability to be molded to your lab processes and requirements, not the other way around.
Options for scalability and growth
Often, free sample management software will limit the number of projects, data rows or users in the system. This isn’t usually an issue until a laboratory reaches these limits and is surprised by the cost to upgrade. Some labs share user logins to get around this, creating security risks and limiting audit and collaboration capabilities. Using a sample management system that is designed to grow with you, both in data size and functionality, will keep your lab running smoothly in times of growth and change.
Maintenance and support
Free sample management systems aren’t typically set up to provide support to their clients or solve their problems. Support and maintenance costs time and money that a free system is simply not able to expend. Underestimating the time it takes to maintain a system, get advice from a live person when you need it, and addressing bugs can mean more time away from your science and the critical work of your lab.
Hidden Costs of Free Systems
While a free system addresses pricing concerns, not every lab can get away with a free sample management system. There are several potentially expensive risks that labs should be sure to address when adopting freeware.
- The value of time
Labs can end up spending expensive work-hours putting together audit logs if their free sample management system doesn’t have efficient ways of tracking important information for samples. - The price of storage limitations
What happens to your data as your lab reaches the free storage limit? Do you delete older but relevant information about your samples, or do you pay for storage upgrades? - The cost of maintenance
Someone has to wrangle the system as an admin, and freeware doesn’t come with free and robust support. Sometimes this means hiring an outside contractor, using valuable and limited IT resources, or hiring a dedicated position. Other times this means taking up valuable researcher time.
Choose a product that is user-friendly & powerful—and won’t cost a fortune.
LabKey Sample Manager is an affordable and easy-to-use sample management software designed to help labs efficiently track samples, define laboratory workflows, and unify samples with assay data. Features include:
Sample Tracking – End-to-end sample tracking features including chain-of-custody tracking, sample types and sources, and lineage views
Freezer Management – Flexible and intuitive management of freezer capacity and sample storage locations.
Sample Data Integration – Integrate assay data with your samples and assign metadata for a complete picture of your ongoing experiments
Lab Workflow Manager – Assign samples to user-defined workflows and monitor the workflow completion status at each stage for every sample
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