My dad's stronger than yours... Mostly

I spend a lot of time on Lab-i, as you may have noticed from my sporadic blog entries. I am all for technology and progress and customisation. However, despite my near-fanatical dedication to technological innovation, I wasn't too excited by the idea of integrating Lab-i with business intelligence (BI) tool EasyAsk.

I guess it's a my-dad-is-stronger-than-your-dad frame of mind. As far as I was concerned, Lab-i could do anything a BI tool could do. Turns out, my opinion wasn't exactly accurate. I attended a presentation on the integration of EasyAsk with Lab-i, and I had to admit that EasyAsk's dad might be just as strong as mine, metaphorically speaking.

Now, I don't mean to suggest that Lab-i is not a force unto itself. I mean: it's a software solution that can automate an entire laboratory. If that's the coolest thing I've done today, I'm okay with it.

To laboratory technicians, having a good LIMS is the answer to a prayer whispered while donning the white coat in the morning. To laboratory managers, keeping track of how many samples are being tested, what tests are being performed and which analysts are working on which batch is equally valuable. A LIMS like Lab-i therefore takes care of the actual laboratory. Pretty neat, right?

However, a laboratory remains a business. To make sound business decisions is as important to the success of a laboratory as a good LIMS. Good decisions are based on comprehensive data, which is automatically recorded by Lab-i. By integrating EasyAsk, decision makers can gain instant access to all available data by typing a question - get this - in natural English.

It's kind of like talking to a family member. "Hey, grandma, how many samples did we analyse between two and three in the afternoon on Tuesday two weeks ago?" The only difference is, your grandma knows. Immediately.

So, you take the Lab-i database, link EasyAsk to it and let EasyAsk analyse the available data to enable you to make better business decisions. What's more, EasyAsk has a righteous dashboard feature that updates in real time, so you can see exactly what's going on in your laboratory as it happens.

I think I might owe EasyAsk's dad an apology.