It goes without saying. Managing a lab can be a stressful career choice. Tackling daily task lists is not for the faint of heart. But fear not. There are some really great tools available to help make the job much more manageable. In our digital age, there are many products and services that can be used to improve lab management processes. I’ve put together a list of 10 lab management tools that do just that.

10 Lab Management Tools You Need

Laboratory managers, researchers, professors and other scientific professionals juggle a variety of tasks on a daily basis. Anything that can simplify the routine and increase efficiency is worth looking at. In order to save you some time searching around, I put together this handy list of ten laboratory management tools worthy of your review.

Quartzy

As Quartzy proclaims, “Great research starts with great lab management.” I couldn’t agree more. The free software (yes, it is free) offers several powerful tools to help tackle those to-do lists. They consist of:

1. Streamline ordering with an easy-to-use interface that allows you to view, act on and track your laboratories order requests.
2. Manage inventory. Track location and quantities of both commercial and in-house products.
3. Document organization.
4. Track equipment usage utilizing sign-up sheets. Gone are the days of lab equipment scheduling issues.

Related Read: Lab Inventory Management Guide

Lab Management University

LMU offers a variety of online courses designed for current and aspiring lab managers. There are 47 course topics to choose from and a rapidly growing user base (5,000 in just 2 years) solidifies Lab Management University’s relevance. The learn-at-your-own pace model allows users to enroll for topics of interest and complete them on their unique schedule. Upon successful completion, a Laboratory Management Certificate is awarded. That is a great feather to add to the cap!

Further strengthening LMU’s value is a core team of experts offering advice and training. An online curriculum allows students to engage within a community and multimedia resources. ASCP and APF members can enjoy a discounted rate of $499 per program while others pay $599. A fundamental and advanced program can be enrolled together for an additional discount.

The core Laboratory Management University course topics include:

1. Leadership
2. Personnel Management
3. Informatics
4. Compliance
5. Operations
6. Financial Management

Labguru

Labguru is a lab inventory and sample management software company trusted by big-name brands in pharmaceuticals and other research fields. The software provides a variety of tools to professionally and easily manage inventory, orders and track expenses. Visually, the dashboard is stunning. It is easy-to-use and provides a full scope of modules that make daily inventory tasks less time consuming.

One of my favorite features is the ability to manage all aspects of ordering and procurement. Track expenses, monitor requests and prevent duplicate orders. Shockingly, 50% of laboratories fall victim to duplicate orders. Laboratory managers understand the stress duplicating orders can cause both financially and logistically.

So how much does it cost? Pricing starts at just $10 a month per user. A complete list of features in each pricing category is shown below.

Image credit: Labguru

Related Read: 8 Ways to Stretch Your Lab Budget

Dropbox

You’ve likely heard of this popular company. Dropbox provides file management software that allows individuals and teams to upload and share documents, videos and photos easily and securely. Any docs uploaded to your Dropbox account are easily accessible from virtually any device. Easily take all of your important files with you! It goes without saying how valuable this service is when managing lab documents.

Individuals can work remotely from home or other locations while helping teams with projects and plans. Dropbox makes this much more convenient with their free app. There are several different plans to choose from allowing you to pay only for what you need. Dropbox allows users to pay-by-month or to pay for annual membership which includes a discount.

GoToMeeting

Do you collaborate often with colleagues and teams in other parts of the world? GoToMeeting is a great way to make connecting easier, more productive and highly interactive. Meet with others around the world using GoToMeeting’s software that provides live video meeting capability, VoIP and phone audio, take and share screenshots and the ability to record meetings. GoToMeeting will allow lab managers and other research professionals to connect with anyone via a personalized online meeting room. Share ideas, discuss projects, collaborate with remote team members and share anything using visual and audio tools.

Choose a plan that suits your needs. Pay-by-month or save with annual subscriptions. GoToMeeting is a great way for scientists, lab managers, financial offers and any other professional to stay connected with team members no matter where they are.

Quip

Quip “Changes the way teams work together.” Much like Dropbox, Quip allows teams to collaborate by sharing documents, spreadsheets, tasks and more. One of the features that stands out about Quip is that teams can interact within the interface via chat. I think this is extremely handy and quite neat! Skip the email. Messaging team members and sharing data is easy from any device. Discuss projects and tasks while sharing information all within the app.

Lab managers can assign tasks to individuals or multiple members of the team using Quip. Those tasks can then be discussed and checked off by those members as progress is made. Although this software is geared towards any business professionals working within teams, it would make a great addition to any lab manager’s tool box.

A free basic version is available with paid subscriptions starting at $10.00 per month for 10 team members.

LabRoots

Although the debate continues on about social media’s influence on science, I believe LabRoots is changing the landscape by using the power of social to positively influence the community. LabRoots is a leading scientific social media network devoted to connecting researchers. LabRoots is a place where people can share knowledge, interact with other professionals and learn from a wide array of resources like webinars, videos and virtual events.

Membership is free and users can build their network by interacting with others, sharing content and joining events.

Biocompare

Biocompare is another great resource for lab managers and researchers to find valuable information. Biocompare provides up-to-date product reviews, technology news and more.

So how do they do it? Biocompare provides unique search tools, product reviews, articles, webinars and videos. It is because of all this that Biocompare is a trusted source for laboratory product information. When on the fence about new lab equipment or supplies, check Biocompare. It is a free source that can help you make the right decision when making your next purchase.

Science Exchange

Science Exchange is a marketplace for laboratories to sell services. It allows collaboration between labs that want to outsource work to increase their capabilities. The intuitive platform makes it easy to search for services and request quotes.

Science Exchange handles all aspects of vendorization, allowing lab managers and scientists to focus on the things that are most important. The process is simplified from start to finish. See the steps below.

1. Search for a service.
2. Compare qualified labs.
3. Request quotes.
4. Compare quotes.
5. Manage orders.
6. Pay easily and securely.

Authorea

“Authorea is the collaborative typewriter for academia.” (Credit: Authorea.com)

Authorea has taken the task of composing research documents and made it sexy. This beautiful online software allows researchers and scholars to collaboratively read, write and edit observations and documents. I can’t begin to explain why you need Authorea as well as their video does, so here it is. (Video credit: Authorea.com)

experiment

Okay. I said this was a list of 10 lab management tools you need but I couldn’t help but show a bonus 11th. Crowdfunding has exploded and has found it’s way to scientific research in the form of Experiment. Experiment allows users to post research projects that they require funding for. Like the popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter, Experiment requires projects to reach their full goal to be successfully funded.

Members can browse a list of current projects and donate money to any that spark their interest. The results of successfully funded experiments must be shared openly.

Looking for funding? Have a look at Experiment.

Updated January 8th, 2020