LabLogic Systems reports increasing take-up of its Debra Adme Lims by major pharmaceutical companies deploying an enterprise-wide system running on the Citrix access platform
"Our experience over recent years has been that large multi-national companies who used to have individual databases at each site are moving over to an enterprise-wide system with each individual site connecting to a central database, no matter where they are in the world," explains Huw Loaring, the company's systems director.
"Among our Debra users we have companies with sites on the east and west coasts of the USA connecting to the same database and even transatlantic implementations.
"One of our biggest customers is planning to have six or seven locations all linking their data within the same database.
"The biggest advantage of these multi-site deployments is the sharing of data, of course.
"If companies have all their Adme compound information in a central location studies from different sites can be compared quickly and easily, which is a huge plus".
Even single-site Debra users are often choosing Windows Terminal Server or Citrix for software deployment.
"This approach makes implementation easier for IT departments, because all they have to do is to give users access to a certain Citrix server so that they can use the application through a web browser; no more installations on individual PCs, or reliance on the company's network infrastructure to run the system from a central location.
"The Citrix protocol is very easy to use (in many ways similar to the old 'dumb' terminals that were view-only, with all processing done on a mainframe), saving time and line-capacity and therefore money.
"There are a couple of hurdles to be overcome when working like this, of course," says Huw Loaring.
"The hardest is often harmonising procedures and techniques between sites, but LabLogic's product specialists can be used during the implementation process as impartial consultants and independent mediators to help decide what is best practice.
"More and more pharmaceutical companies are seeing Citrix as a useful tool for quick implementations to multiple users that enables the sharing of data throughout the enterprise.
"LabLogic will continue to add more support within Debra for customers wishing to go down this route."
