Laboratory information management systems have become an indispensible part of any modern laboratory, irrespective of what its setting may be. However, depending on the type of laboratory and its individual requirements, a laboratory information management system has to be deployed. Generally, there are several variants of laboratory information management given below:

• Web based laboratory information management systems: Web based laboratory information management systems are those systems that function through the Internet. The servers, databases and other technology required to run the laboratory information management system efficiently are kept and managed by the vendor, while the laboratory is able to use the system with the help of a simple user interface. During the early days of web based laboratory information management, the user interface was rendered in HTML, which restricted the number of functions that the laboratory users could perform. However, modern web based laboratory information management systems have SOAP and XML based user interfacing, making them more interactive and giving the laboratory technicians more capabilities.
• Web enabled laboratory information management systems: Web enabled laboratory information management systems are a good choice for more remote laboratories that rely on a lot of field work. The functionalities of this form of laboratory information management is also provided through a web browser. However, the difference here is that there is no specific user interface software. This means that field researchers can log in to the laboratory information management system from remote sites and gain access to the main lab database. They can add additional information or retrieve information for the course of their field research. The remote access feature of web enabled laboratory information management systems makes them very valuable for laboratories that work on remote field specimens.

Laboratory information management systems for smaller labs

Laboratory information management is an important, almost essential, part of even the smaller laboratories. Laboratory information management systems are mostly considered to be large-scale management solution, and rightfully so. However, even small labs can find laboratory information management useful, which is why there are specialized laboratory information management systems offered by vendors. These small laboratory information management systems, also called Diet or Mini LIMS, are scaled down from the usually large laboratory information management systems. Although they lack many of the functions found in large-scale laboratory information management systems, Mini LIMS are perfect for smaller sized labs that require only a handful of features.

Choosing the appropriate laboratory information management system

Laboratory information management systems are completely customizable. This is because laboratories differ a lot from one another, even if they are the same type. However, even the customization can only be done to a certain extent. In order to get the best possible LIMS for a lab, you would need to select the type that suits the requirements of the lab.

If chosen correctly, a laboratory information management system can offer greater capacity for the lab, since it automates the lab's equipment to a large extent. Moreover, it also improves the efficiency of the lab, as there is a faster and more accurate throughput.