Out on a LIMS

Out On a LIMS® Blog is Moved

2020-12-29T17:16:13Z

The Out on a LIMS® blog is now back here on its original web-site at https:\\outonalims.com\.

If you want to read the Out on a LIMS® blog, it will remain in its archival form here at its original web-site.

In other news, by the end of January 2021, iVention US will be hosting the blog in its archival form. The web-site will remain as https:\\outonalims.com\ but you will see the domain owners change, if you are interested in that type of thing.

Thank You!

As before, thank you to all of you who read my writings, over the years, and who helped contribute to them. Someone told me that archiving these posts will mean that my knowledge isn’t lost. It isn’t lost, anyway. I’m not dead. I’m working on more projects. I’m just not writing these posts, any longer. If you want my expertise, you’ll have to come apply for open jobs with my current employer.

Also, we all owe our thanks to iVention US who has graciously agreed to take over hosting this blog archival. I appreciate it and I’ve also heard from a number of readers who do, as well. So, to iVention US, once again, a big Thank You!

As For Me

As for me, I keep working on projects, doing my work and pushing tasks forward. Working with a new system has been interesting and with a new community of people, adding to the interest-level.

After all, learning new systems, LIMS or otherwise – it’s just what I do for a living. Working with new people is the challenge and that’s what project work is all about.

For anyone who thinks LIMS, MES, ERP or any other system is just about getting the data in and basically getting it all to work, that’s just not true. Get past that and you’ll find your systems are better built, more maintainable, and better able to handle what the users need it to do.

New About the Out on a LIMS® Move

2020-12-10T13:38:50Z

The Out on a LIMS® Blog is still going to move and this web-site will be shut down. As with many IT projects, this one is also being delayed.

Updates

iVention US has offered to take on the “Out on a LIMS®” blog to archive it. Initially, we talked about making this move mid-month, this month, December 2020. However, as with many software vendors, they have a number of end-of-year projects that need to be finished before everyone leaves for vacation. As such, when they asked if we could postpone the move, I agreed to it. There’s no rush.

In the meantime, I will leave the GeoMetrick Enterprises web-site running in order to allow people to read this blog. It does say that we’re not taking new customers so I hope it’s clear that we’ve moved on.

Meanwhile, best wishes for a great holiday season to all!

The MOMi Guide Technology Example

2020-11-05T14:00:00Z

This MOMi Guide Technology post will give yet another example of the manner with which information is requested to create the guides.

MOMi Guide for LIMS

I have already written several posts regarding the MOMi Guide, with the last post announcing the arrival of the MOMi Guide for MES and the new schedule for the MOMi Guide for LIMS. This will be the final installment of my blog posts regarding the MOMi Guides.

Here are the previous posts, in case you would like to (re)read them. Two of the posts give general ideas regarding what the guides accomplish. They also illustrate the method of gathering and reporting information. The third post announces the arrival of the MOMi Guide MES, of course:

The MOMi Guide – Overview and Configurability

The MOMi Guide Typology Example

The MOMi Guide for MES

One Final Example – Technology

Here is one last example of the type of information that MOMi requests from software vendors. Here, we see examples of the types of technology that customers might be interested in. In this first screen shot, you can see the form that software vendors fill out. This form asks technology questions regarding more standard items, such as operating systems and databases:

Image not kept: MOMi Technology Aspects

In this next screen shot, you can see the final report section regarding what the above form shows us as entries. Of course, the responding software vendor’s identifying information is hidden. However, in a final report, you would realize that that information is combined with the technology information they filled-out. In this example, you can see that the information above is then shown in this report about the vendor’s software.

Image not kept: MOMi Solution Information

Finally

As a reminder, the MOMi Guide for LIMS software will be delivered to us around January of 2021. This blog will not announce its arrival. Instead, remember to watch the MOMi web-site for upcoming information.

As another reminder, MOMi will be adding more software guides for next year and the year after. They will eventually represent six total software categories.

The MOMi Guide for MES

2020-10-29T14:35:35Z

The MOMi Guides are being delivered but with both good and bad news. The good news – MES is available, today. The bad news – LIMS is not.

What?!?!?!

You read that, correctly. If you want to buy the MES Guide from MOMi (Manufacturing Operations Management Institute), you can rush right over to your computer and buy it. Oh, wait, you’re already here. Well, you can just pop into their MES Guide link, here, and buy it, right now. After all, why procrastinate?

But some of you are thinking, “Hey, what’s the rush? It’s not like it’s something really exciting like a LIMS Guide.” Well, maybe it’s not quite as exciting as the LIMS Guide, but I’m convinced it has plenty of good MES information in there. It has 43 MES vendors from across the world, for starters.

Where is the LIMS Guide?!?!?!

That sad wail you hear is me upon hearing this news.

In any case, here’s what happened – a number of the LIMS vendors seem to be in an end of year crunch and not able to finish their responses to the MOMi Questionnaire. If you saw my previous posts on this, imagine those types of questions but a whole lot more of them. You’ll realize it’s a big job to respond to this, as it is to process it all.

As such, the MOMi LIMS Guide might not be published for another couple of months. Here are the first two posts of examples of what would be in there, when it is published:

The MOMi Guide – Overview and Configurability

The MOMi Guide Typology Example

Meanwhile, Buy the MOMi Guide for MES

The timing on the MOMi Guide for MES is just perfect because it gives you time to buy multiple copies to give out as Christmas gifts to your cohorts in the industry. If your own company is listed, make sure you buy a copy for your mother. Whether she knows what “MES” stands for, she’ll still be proud to see your efforts recognized in this guide. If you don’t happen to celebrate Christmas, it could be a terrific gift for any occasion. For that hard-to-buy-for person-who-has-everything, I’ll bet they don’t already have this! 🙂

Out on a LIMS ® Not Going Away But Moving

2020-10-22T13:13:00Z

Just two posts ago, I wrote about the fact that the “Out on a LIMS ®” blog would be going away, soon. As it turns out, it’s moving, instead.

Did I Lie to You?

Nope. I absolutely am not maintaining this blog past my activities to write about the MOMi (Manufacturing Operations Management Institute) Guide. When MOMi publishes The Guide, I will write more about that, and that will be my final activity, except to tell you the details of the final move of the blog. Then, I will disappear into my FTE job and you will not hear much from me, ever again. That is true of most “regular” employees in “regular” jobs.

Let’s just be serious about this, for a moment – I’m not in a job where there’s any public writing to do. That’s not the type of job I landed. Do not expect to hear much from me. If anyone had wanted me to publicly write based on my experience in the industry, they would have hired me to do that. They didn’t. I’ve moved on. It’s as simple as that.

And, as is the way with human beings, some of us will stay in touch, others will not.

What Happened?

There were a lot of sad people out there. Some of them posted this blog to web-site areas that preserve web-sites and blogs. There were also those who made suggestions on how to do that.

First of all, I will tell you all that I AM touched by all the kind and encouraging words I received about my blog and the efforts to keep it going. In addition, I did want to share my experience, to inspire people, to be a leader, and to make everyone realize that we’re not in this alone. Nothing any of us does is new. Seriously, it’s not. There were many times that I came up with what I thought was new, myself. I then soon realized that many others were coming up with the same thing. The difference is that I had contact with a lot of other people. I kept in-contact with enough people to realize we were all dealing with the same types of issues.

In any case, words can’t express how much I appreciate all the people who have contacted me to tell me how much they enjoyed and will miss my efforts.

iVention US Happened

Finally, Doug Holbrook of iVention US caved in and said he’d archive my blog. Was he literally the saddest of anyone? Sadness is difficult to measure. However, he was sad-enough that he volunteered to host the “Out on a LIMS®” blog when I’m done with my final posts for MOMi.

Here’s the deal: he’s going to host “Out on a LIMS®” as an archive along with hosting his own web-sites. Since it’s an archive, neither he nor his company will be adding to those posts. My suggestion is that he turn off the comments, as well. That will will minimize the work required to maintain it. And, after all, the purpose of this archive is just that people can continue to retrieve this information.

Not Much Changes

So, for anyone who might be sad that there aren’t new blog posts coming through, keep this in-mind – nothing really changes. As I’ve written about projects, programming, leadership and other topics, these don’t change that much. Even as I work as an FTE, it’s basically the same things I wrote about. There’s nothing new from that aspect. The software I work with was new for me as was the industry. However, dealing with the projects and the people is exactly as I’ve written about, all along.

As companies buy new software and start new projects, some of them might believe they’re unique. They’re not as unique as they think. Each project has it’s own nuances. No project should be treated with the cookie cutter approach, which marketing and sales calls “best practices” but neither should they reinvent the wheel.

Finally

With all that said, if you can’t find the project and people information you need from this archive, you might not be looking hard enough. It’s probably all in here, somewhere.

Remember this, too – all those hours of effort I spent writing this blog, my old newsletter, magazine articles, giving webinars and presentations – it wasn’t wasted. I did that all to support my business. Now, I have an FTE job and I don’t have to do the “dog and pony” shows, any more. Everything in life is a trade-off.

Me Getting On My Soap Box, For a Moment

But here’s one thing I find of odd – people have all sorts of thoughts about the job I’ve done, all these years. As a consultant, I’ve travelled very little in the last ten years, despite staying fairly busy.

Here is a partial list of some of the work I’d done, remotely. I occasionally hear from consulting companies and customers who can’t make this work, but they should have called the experts in to make it work. There are plenty out there besides just me. Anyway, here’s my short list:

Worked with the project managers to develop the project plans.
Performed business analysis.
LIMS system administration work.
Solution/database/software architecture.
Programming/scripting/configuration.
Worked with software vendors to make their products viable for new industry segments they wanted to get into.
Talked about the software strategy with customers and software vendors.
Given overall guidance on projects, programming, remote work and variety of other topics.
Worked alone and also with teams of all sizes.

So, what I say to everyone who says things “we can’t do business analysis” remotely or “you must not have been working with teams” or “we’re not comfortable with remote work” I say that you’re stuck in a different time. And it doesn’t take a camera to make this work, either. One more time, I will say what I always say when I’m standing on my soap box – it’s not about the tools (like cameras or Zoom or whatever). It’s about the processes and the people.

Learning From This “Out on a LIMS ®” Blog

And, if you learned nothing else from this blog, I hope you learned not to rely on any tool for your success. Rely on well-trained people and appropriate processes.

If you learned only this, then my time wasn’t wasted.

The MOMi Guide Typology Example

2020-10-13T12:00:00Z

In a previous post, I gave an overview of the upcoming MOMi (Manufacturing Operations Management Institute) guide plus gave the first example, of configuration. Now, learn about Typology.

In the Last Post: MOMi Guide – Configuration

The link to the first post in this series will probably show up at the bottom of the post page. However, just to make extra-certain, here is the first post, again: The MOMi Guide – Overview and Configuration.

The MOMi Guide Typology

Where configuration is about “how” you implement a system, the typology gives you information about “where” to implement it. It gives an idea what types of labs this brand and type of software might run in.

The other purpose to this example is that you can see that MOMi has given limited responses. The scale is from 1 to 5. No-one can accidentally put a 0 or a 10, for example. Nor can anyone say 2.5 to indicate that it’s “about halfway there.”

Image not kept: MOMi Guide Typeology

Here is my reason for showing you this type of example. It is to help those of you who will eventually read The Guide to understand how responses have been elicited.

For example, some areas as for check boxes. Others have sliders, such as this. One of the purposes is just to make the responses easy to understand. Another purpose is to help enable visualization. Where you have a discrete 1 to 5 scale, you can more easily create a pie chart with some of the graphing tools than if you let people type numbers.

Typologies – More Thought

So, back to the actual typologies, themselves. What is the MOMI Guide Typology section really about? Let’s think about the variety of different situations out there.

First of all, I think we all know and actually do say that there is no product out there that is suitable for every situation. What we don’t specifically think about, though, is how suitable or unsuitable a product really is for a particular situation. Often, we think of it as an either/or situation. Then, we start looking at features.

Suppose that we knew that a software vendor believed their product to be best for the industry we are in. And suppose we also knew they felt it was not as good a fit as for some other industries. That sounds like an honest assessment to us. Hopefully, it is both honest and correct. But it might mean that we would give a little higher focus to the product, in that case.

Of course, let’s suppose someone claims they’re at a 5 for a “Commercial/QC” lab. Then, we see that they don’t have features that relate to manufactured batches. In that case, we still might not consider the product in our final list. Still, the fact that it helped us narrow our list down, at all, is still of value.

The Guide – Various Response Types

In any case, I just want to get across to the reader that different types of information require different response types. Some questions are more along the lines of “yes or no” or “true or false” while others might have some gradient to them, such as this one.

If you go back to last week’s example, you’ll see that the software vendors were asked to give their responses as percentages, where the responses in a section were required to add to 100%.

Next Time

The next time I write about The MOMi Guide, I will have another example to give. My goal is to get readers who have an interest in The Guide to understand the methodology behind its compilation somewhat better. In addition, to give them an understanding of the types of information it will provide.

Out on a LIMS ® is Going Away, Soon

2020-10-06T12:54:00Z

The actual web-site and trademark from the “Out on a LIMS ®” blog will be going away within a few days. That is not actually THIS blog.

Out on a LIMS ®: The Blog For People Who Risk Life and LIMS On a Daily Basis

For many years, readers saw this branded blog and recognized it both by its name and its tagline. That is why I trademarked it, in the first place.

For years, when I would show up at one conference or another, people would come up to me with a little smirk on their face and ask me, “Are you Out on a LIMS ®?,” to which I would reply, “Yes, every day!” I would always clarify this to mean that, every day, I “risked life and LIMS.”

Out on a LIMS ®: The Web-site and Trademark

Learning about trademarks, talking to my trademark lawyer, obtaining the trademark, and maintaining it – these were all interesting business skills to learn, at the time. But, let’s face it, once you’ve done something like this, then the challenge is mainly over. Then, you spend your time having to defend your trademark. That’s part of the trademark process. That part is just work – it’s tedious, basically.

Later, when my original webmaster moved-on, I then decided I would maintain both this and my GeoMetrick Enterprises web-sites, myself. That is yet more (uninteresting) work. For a small business, like mine, if we compare working with a webmaster to doing the work myself, which one is less work is something of a discussion.

For example, back when I needed someone to create graphics and design the site, there is no way I should have done that, myself. I made an initial try that was so hideous that all my customers threated to drop me if I didn’t fix it! When more templates and easier options became available, at that point, I could create something that people didn’t hate and could maintain it, myself. Of course, I always had the work of writing all the content. Even in initially hiring a marketing consultant to guide me, I still had to write the content. So, along the way, I still had quite a lot of work to do to keep this all going.

OutOnALims.com Versus GeoMetrick.com

Around a year-and-a-half ago, I decided to combine outonalims.com and geometrick.com. I wanted to minimize my maintenance efforts. Doing that did make maintenance easier for me. In combining the two, my original intention was to maintain the “Out on a LIMS ®” brand within geometrick.com. Completing that effort went on my “to do” list and pretty much stayed there.

While you will see the reference to “Out on a LIMS ®” in a few places on geometrick.com, I did not return to the task of making the brand’s move to a different web-site as complete as I had planned. Instead, the entire effort to combine the two web-sites made me realize that I was just tired of working on all of this. As such, it was probably not the actual seed to my discontent but more like a nail in the coffin of my business with regard to my attitude toward continuing the work it takes to maintain it all.

Saying Goodbye to Out on a LIMS ®

As such, the outonalims.com web-site expires on October 12th, 2020, which is just a few days away. I don’t remember the expiration to the “Out on a LIMS ®” trademark but its somewhere in the future. I no longer need to know the exact date since I don’t intend to keep it around. As such, I’m going to mark the trademark as “discontinued” or whatever the USPTO’s term is for that, but I’m no longer going to defend it, which is one requirement toward maintaining a trademark.

Do I Feel Sad?

Quite a lot of people feel sad at the passing of these blogs. They ask me if I feel sad. Most of the time, I don’t. Most of the time, I feel relieved.

However, in writing this post, I do feel a little sad. More than that, though, I feel a sense of nostalgia. A big part of my life went toward building and maintaining artifacts of my business, such as “Out on a LIMS ®” which is older than just this blog. “Out on a LIMS ®” started as an on-line newsletter, was doubled to be both that AND a blog for a while, as well. Then, when I felt too stretched maintaining both the newsletter and the blog (as well as writing for some of the industry magazines, at the time, plus work with various conferences, etc…), I finally stopped the newsletter.

As I write this, I think of all the people who loved the name, who enjoyed the articles, who learned from it, and some of whom became friends, over the years. Some of those friends are no longer walking this Earth with us, but many of them are still here and still friends. Stopping the blog doesn’t take that away.

With that thought, I feel no remorse in discontinuing the trademark nor do I feel any toward my lack of renewal of the web-site. Instead, I feel thankful for all the opportunities this blog opened up for me, over the years.

Back to Discussing THIS Blog

This actual blog is not yet going away. I know this is a little odd, since I just said the web-site and trademark “Out on a LIMS ®” are being discontinued. In addition, THIS blog actually is the same one, just moved to a new web-site. With that said, THIS blog, here on the GeoMetrick Enterprises web-site will stick around until December 2020, as previously stated.

I am keep these actual posts around for two previously-stated reasons:

Write about my final topic. Now, you know it’s the MOMi LIMS/ELN/MES Guide.
Give readers a little extra time to read or re-read posts that interest them.

The MOMi Guide - Overview and Configurability

2020-10-01T13:43:00Z

My final activity in this blog is to discuss the MOMi (Manufacturing Operations Management Institute) Guide, covering configurability, first.

Why I Am Writing About the MOMi Guide

Let me begin by telling you about MOMi. MOMi is an outcropping of people who specialize in manufacturing operations management, including software. That software includes LIMS/ELN software that is suitable for manufacturing processes. The group writing this Guide used to write the Guide in a “past life,” so to speak. They have begun a new effort to create this guide.

They asked me if I would write the foreword to the 2020 Guide and to tell my readers about it. I looked at the work they were doing with the Guide and believed that would be a good fit with my blog topics. However, all that happened back when I was still consulting. Before I began my current position, I asked my future employers for permission to finish my work with MOMi and they did give me the permission I needed so, here I am, writing about this.

Just to be clear, my current employers are unrelated to this effort. I do not speak for them in any way with this blog post.

More on the MOMi Guide

The MOMi Guide had previously covered MES systems. This year, the Guide will now cover LIMS/ELN, as well. These guides are quite a lot of work so MOMi is currently working with just these two topics. Next year, they will add two more areas, and they will add the final two the year after that. There will be six total software types covered, two years from now. For one example, a future topic that they will add is PLM (Product Lifecycle Management). So, you can imagine that each year adds not just quite a lot of questions that are specific to the type of software, but another list of software vendors, as well. That is why they are adding topics, incrementally.

The Content of the MOMi Guide

With all this said, if you wonder what is in the MOMi Guide, a lot of it is what you would expect from a guide, such as this. It includes a wide variety of questions that are combined into logical groups. Unlike other guides, keep in-mind that this guide is specifically focused on software for manufacturing. From looking at the drafts of the Guide, I would not say that narrowing the focus means that they have fewer questions and topics. Instead, it is more that what they do have is particularly relevant to this specific area.

MOMi Guide – Configurability

Let me start with the MOMi Guide Configurability section. We always have the conversations about what it means to be “configurable.” When we select software, we want to know if it’s “configurable.” Then, if it is, what type of configuration is it? For example, in GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) software, we might write a thousand lines of code and still call it “configuration.” So, the topic of configurability is always of interest to us when we go out to buy or assist someone in buying a new system.

For that reason, the first example I want to show you from the MOMi Guide is the Configurability section. Keep in-mind that all of this is still in its Draft mode. The sections are not yet reviewed nor is the final layout yet determined. With those warnings, here is an example of the Configurability section as filled-out by an example software vendor:

Image not kept: Configurability Instructions

Image not kept: Configurability Items

Notes

As you can see, software vendors get a Microsoft Excel workbook full of these types of questions. They fill them in and send the entire thing back. To deliver to the rest of us, the effort was made to reformat the responses to something helps us visualize the responses. There is a lot of work done by each software vendor to fill out the responses. Next, there comes much work from MOMi to double-check that the responses are correct. Then, they check back with software vendors when they think there is a mistake.

To present all of this, MOMi works to find the best way to show the results. In this case, pie charts seem to be a way to help us understand the combination of responses from this example software vendor:

Image not kept: Configurability Pie Charts

In this example of the Microsoft Excel sheet with some responses and its potential report, you get an idea what the sections will tend to look like.

Finally

So, this is just meant as an introduction to the MOMi Guide. In upcoming blog posts, I will give yet more examples. While this post was meant to give you an overall idea regarding how the process works to create and deliver the Guide, the next posts will give a wider idea of the types of topics in the guide.

Of course, this is the LIMS/ELN example. You can imagine that, in this particular case, the MES example would look quite similar, if not identical. When the Guide gets into specific questions that relate to product features, of course these two will not look alike.

Still Not the Last Post: Updates and Comments

2020-09-18T13:30:00Z

The strangest part of my employment transition isn’t my new environment – it’s getting other people to accept my transition.

Why This Still Isn’t the Last Post

The last post will be issued somewhere before the end of November. I have one last commitment to keep and my post will revolve around that commitment. It’s something of interest to the industry and I’m pleased to have been asked to participate in it. I had gotten involved with it before I was offered my current position. Then, my employers were kind-enough to allow me to see it through. More on that another time.

I’m bringing this up because people have had all types of questions about what the last post would be about. Some even wrote to ask me to write about specific topics. However, no, I won’t be writing about topics upon your requests. I have already selected my final topic and you’ll see it when you see it, basically.

No, Not Accepting New Customers

No, I’m serious – I’m not accepting new customers. If you saw the home page of this web-site, that’s what it says. Not only did I promise my new employers I would close-down my business once a few final commitments were handled, but I don’t have time to keep running my business.

What’s a bit funny to me is that a lot of the larger businesses sneer at us smaller businesses. They don’t understand the work it takes. That, in addition to all the different types of knowledge you have to have to stay in business. I agree it’s not the same as running an entire department at one of the huge companies. But I would also say that being able to understand budgets, marketing, strategy, and other issues at some level are more valuable skills for a wide variety of jobs than a lot of people seem to realize.

No, I Really Can’t Do Work on the Side

As a fairly regular occurrence, one person or another will suggest to me that I could still do some work on the side. No, I can’t. I’m not getting a new business license when I move to Illinois, for starters. Secondly, I canceled all my business insurance. Even if both of those weren’t true, I just don’t have the time. Also, my current employer might frown upon it.

I was just talking to an industry friend about this how even simply maintaining this blog is too time-consuming for me. That’s the case even without writing anything and with using a platform such as WordPress. There are just a lot of maintenance details to handle that I am looking forward to getting rid of in the near future.

The Things That I Don’t Miss

After doing the same things for so long, I almost don’t know where to start about the list of things I don’t miss.

Let me start with the blog. The impression I’ve gotten from a number of readers is that they don’t believe that I won’t miss writing this blog. Seriously, I don’t miss it at all. It really was just a part of running my business. And, while I tried my best to provide something valuable to read, it was just part of my job. (However, I did enjoy the people I met as a result of writing this blog. That is something that I actually will miss!)

I don’t miss spending inordinate amounts of time in LinkedIn. I don’t miss the LabWare LIMS / ELN, the SampleManager LIMS / LES, etc… Being the expert in systems like these just isn’t that interesting. This is especially true when, like me, you’ve worked in most of the industries and functions that these systems are applied to. Even consider the systems I’ve used limited times, such as the Labvantage system. Even they are only as interesting as the project I’m working on. Each system has slight variations. Even then, after you’ve worked with a number of them, they start to look a lot more alike than you might think.

The bottom line is that, for me, the systems don’t make projects interesting – people and their processes make the projects interesting. Software isn’t that hard to learn. It’s been my job for a long time and it’s a skill you learn like many other skills. People who haven’t done this think it’s impossible. It’s not. Figuring out the people and what they’re doing – that’s the challenge.

Comments on Strange Numbers

In considering shutting down my business, I thought about the fact that my readership numbers seemed strong, for whatever that’s worth. You know that I take all these numbers with a grain of salt. But I realized I was satisfied walking away from them – in leaving on a high note. I think I did mention this in a previous post.

In announcing I was moving on, suddenly, yet more people were interested in linking with me. More people have read my past blog and LinkedIn posts. More people have joined this blog than in the same amount of time beforehand Of course, part of that could be that they realize they have to read anything they’re interested in before it goes away, so that could be a big reason behind the bump in the numbers.

Unexpected Bonuses

First of all, I do find it a little surreal that I just show up to work, my boss might assign me some things to do, I probably actually do them and, just by magic money shows up in my bank account. Seriously, this is the best deal ever! As much as I loved invoicing and collecting the money (I seriously loved that part!), it’s nice to have someone else take care of it for me.

Past that, every day, it seems as if there’s some other unexpected perk that I’d never have even thought about.

But one thing I do also seriously like has to do with talking to friends and family. Except for the few consumer products I’ve worked with, over the years, when friends and family asked me about my latest customer, and I then told them, they’d say, “Who?” In later years, I think they stopped asking. They had no idea who any of the companies were or what they did. Now, I’m truly shocked how many people know my employer and then respond with things like, “You’re so lucky” or “They’re awesome” or “What a great company” or some other such enthusiastic reply. That’s not the response I used to get when I worked for some of our industry’s services groups. However, some of the words people would use to describe them would put this blog into a different rating category so I won’t include the comments, here.

In any case, if you’re about to ask me if they’re all that great, well, it’s hard to say. They actually might be that terrific but remember that I’m still new. I’m still figuring it all out. But I’ll admit it’s nice to work for a company that people both recognize and don’t hate.

The Disclaimer

And, of course, just to make this as clear as possible, this blog is unrelated to my new job, does not in any way speak for them. In addition, if you’re offended by anything I just wrote, please direct the heat my way because they really weren’t involved in any way, shape or form. 😉

Almost the Last Post

2020-08-12T13:50:33Z

This is almost the last post for this blog. There will be at least one more post past this. Read more to find out the details.

This Blog’s Readership Are the Best Readers, Anywhere!

I’m shutting my business down. As the owner and, currently, the only member of this business, there will be no-one left to blog.

In a way, with strong readership numbers, I wondered whether I should keep blogging. However, I don’t think I want to spend the time on it. I’m taking an FTE (full-time employee) type of job and will be busy with that transition. Plus, it wouldn’t be appropriate. In addition, I already started committing my time to other activities.

I want to thank all my readers for so many kind thoughts and words. Many of you write directly to me rather than adding comments or “likes” that the public can see so you don’t realize how many thoughtful people there really are out there. I should tell you there are quite a lot of them.

It’s kind of a frequent thing that one person or another will write to me to tell me how much my blog means to them, how much they appreciate it and how much they learn from it. Occasionally, people also tell me how much I speak for them. If you remember the Lorax, I feel like “I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees!.” I’m glad to know I spoke for so many people out there.

Why This Blog is Going Away

I’ve decided to go out on a high note. With that said, my time is finished, here. Here are some basic thoughts on shutting my business down and moving on:

I’ve done everything I can think of to do with my business plus more. I’ve written for all the magazines, been on the advisory board for conferences and software vendors, been a media sponsor, conference chair and won awards. Also, I’ve worked with a wide variety of customer industries, plus had a number of software vendors as customers.
I’ve worked with all the major LIMS brands except for one, plus many smaller brands.
As consulting has changed, over the years, I find myself spending more and more time marketing in order to get more but smaller blocks of work in order to fill my time. In essence, I’ve become a Marketing person almost as much as anything else. The amount of time I spend on it has gotten out of hand, in my opinion.
You might think I’ll miss blogging, basically giving my unsolicited opinion whenever I want to. However, I guarantee you that I’ve written on every topic I wanted to, and multiple times in many cases.

So, with all that said, I’m getting a chance to work in an industry I haven’t yet worked with. AND…I’m finally getting to work on the very last of the “big” LIMS products. My list will be complete!

Why This Isn’t Quite the Final Post

I have several final commitments, one of which is coming up, later in the year. I need to leave the web-site and blog operational for that. So, watch this space!

Another Reason Why The Web-Site Will Remain Running Despite the Lack of New Blog Posts

At this point, there is a lot of information on this web-site. There are many of these blog posts, it has articles and such in the Resources page, and there is other useful information on this web-site. If you think there’s anything you’ve missed or that might be useful to you, here’s your chance. While the site is still up, come and read to your heart’s content!

Otherwise, you’ll notice that there’s a page on the Home page of this web-site stating that we’re not taking new customers. A few of you will point-out that I could just keep the business running and do some work on the side. But, no, I’m not doing that. I’m not keeping all that insurance you all need me to have, I’m not re-registering my business when I move to my new job’s location, and I’m not going to try to fit it in. All current customer work is now finished or passed to other companies. Plus, I came up with plenty of uses for that extra time I now have now that I’m no longer doing the marketing. I’ve already filled that time. In fact, I fear I might be too busy to take on my new position! 😉

A Few Last Details

Warning: I’m no longer fixing the broken links. If you see something you want and it’s no longer available at its original link, let me know and I’ll just send it to you.

Notice: Somewhere at the end of 2020, probably around mid-December, I’m also going to stop paying hosting and domain fees – this site will then become inactive.

Where I’m Going: I’m not going to announce where I’m going until my start date, which is August 24th, 2020. It’s not official until I start, but I’ll add it to my LinkedIn profile once the official day comes. In the mean time, I’m going to work at shutting the business down and a variety of other things.

LIMS Sunk Cost Fallacy

2020-08-06T14:05:00Z

The LIMS Sunk Cost Fallacy is the misconception that, because you already invested a lot in your LIMS, that you should invest yet more. It’s the gambler’s mindset.

LIMS Sunk Cost Fallacy Background

There are plenty of projects that have been canceled because of projects overruns. It’s not the norm but also not uncommon to stop a LIMS project and restart it. This might be either with the same product brand or an entirely different one. Likewise, there are also plenty of truly disastrous projects out there that continue to be implemented long past the guides of common sense would dictate.

The “sunk cost fallacy” is this – you have sunk so much time and money into something that you can’t stop it and lose all that you have put into it. It’s not just incorrect but it makes it appear that you’re making a rational decision.

Picture this: you’re a gambler who has lost most of your money but you won’t stop gambling until you win it all back, even if you continue to lose everything and possibly to go into debt. That’s exactly what you’re doing when you’re making these types of project decisions.

Let’s suppose that you’re using an external services group to continue to get your project completed. Their goal is to keep working until it’s all done. They want a “win” as a good reference. Plus, selling you more services is good for them. Some of them might caution you that you’re digging your hole deeper. With that said, I don’t think there are any that will insist on a work stoppage.

For More Information on the Sunk Cost Fallacy and Other Number-Related Bad Choices

I frequently write about how we misinterpret numbers. Just one example is Numbers are Liars, As Usual. When we get marketing numbers, we insist they mean things that we have no proof of. We see an increase and immediately label an increase with some positive aspect that we desire.

Human beings can make some good estimates when we’re talking about simpler numbers. Distances or cost amounts would be common examples. However, we have a terrible track record with statistics or other more complex situations. Project overruns comes into that category.

If you’re interested in learning more about why we’re so optimistic yet so wrong so consistently, here’s a book that gives lots of detail and examples. It’s not an easy read but I found that it does a great job of explaining and illustrating the issues:

Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

If you’re only interested in the LIMS Sunk Cost Fallacy, not numeric estimation issues, in general, then this book will not be a good choice for you. The Sunk Cost Fallacy is one small topic. However, overall, where better understanding of why we see so many ridiculous claims about numbers or to stop yourself from doing it, this is the right book.

How You Got to the LIMS Sunk Cost Fallacy

As with so many things in life, when bad managers aren’t sure what to do they keep doing what they’ve been doing. Continuing a project that has entirely gone off the rails is one of those situations. The “hey, we don’t know what to do so let’s keep doing the same thing in case we get lucky” strategy is fine if you have unlimited resources. But even the pharmas, who are some of the richer groups in our industry, even they don’t actually have unlimited budgets.

The other problem is that too many managers rely on outside people to be responsible for their projects. It’s easy for us all to say we’re project experts when we’re selling our products and services to you. But that doesn’t make it true.

Here’s the usual LIMS industry car analogy: If you bought a car and the sale rep claimed it was great but the car then barely ran, wouldn’t you try to return the car? Aren’t you responsible for where your money goes? Well, it’s the same for laboratory software and projects. You’re responsible for ensuring what you bought is what you’re getting, which is an operational system.

Yet More Thoughts

Of course, this blog post ignores the issue that, in some companies, if you admit to making a mistake, then your career is over. In those cases, letting the project continue might not be a bad strategy. Maybe you can get promoted before anyone realizes it’s a problem and you can foist it onto the person who takes over your old job and blame them for the failure.

Possibly you should be more savvy about buying from people who offer silly things like “turnkey” systems and other fictitious items.

Do you think I’m being cynical? Or just realistic? I would say it’s both because I’m telling you that I’ve seen a wide variety of what I’ve just suggested. Some of what I’ve seen has been recent, too, so it still continues.

LIMS and Artificial Intelligence - Similar Issues

2020-07-30T13:41:10Z

A LIMS and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have similar issues in their implementation. It comes down to the issues we have with implementing any software.

Background on This Topic

Earlier this year, I’d been working to take high-level courses and workshops on topics such as AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning). I picked some topics because I just find them interesting. However, there are often enough similar issues between what we do in our industry and these other topics that you’d be surprised what you learn from these topics that might seem unrelated, at first. Taking what seems like unrelated courses can help give perspective on what we’re doing in our industry.

Side note: This is where I took a class on how storytelling helps you with your blog posts. This is where my posts got out-of-control with the stories I included. I had to redo all the posts I made with the new storytelling approach. The other related topic where the storytelling got out-of-hand being the one on CyberSecurity and Ethical Hacking.

In any case, the issues of programming LIMS and Artificial Intelligence share implementation issues. This is true all the way from finding out what the user wants and needs all the way down to ensuring that everything works and that the user finds value in what you’ve provided them. And I will try to tell this without as much of the super-long and incredibly boring story that originally took over this blog post.

First, My Smart and Stupid Home

I don’t have a “smart home.” However, some portions of it do include some automation and AI/ML. Mainly, I’m talking about my entertainment system.

Let me draw a more specific picture. My entertainment system takes up more of my network and has more purchased equipment and software than my office does. Some portions of it run both locally and in the cloud.

Let’s label me – I’m the user, here, and I want yet more than what I already have. This isn’t atypical of the user in any system.

In any case, between all the free and purchased software/apps, and all the equipment running, there are just a few features I’ve wanted to have but that I’m lacking. Everything I have basically works well together and has lots of features and power. I shouldn’t be complaining about the relatively small number of things that it DOESN’T do. After all, some of the apps make truly insightful guesses about what I want. You’d think I’d just appreciate that rather than focusing on its shortcomings.

I hear a lot of snickers, now, from some of you reading this. Because you also know that’s not human nature, for the most part. Even in our LIMS/ELN/LES systems, we bemoan what we don’t have in them, no matter how much we DO have. It’s human nature to pay attention to the gaps.

Still, Why Can’t I Have it All?

There’s one major problem. The features I lack in my system are tasks that are easy for me to do but that I find to be tedious. Doesn’t this sound familiar? Think about your LIMS and the last time you asked for a feature that was easy and tedious for you but where the LIMS still couldn’t take over that task.

Unfortunately, whether in a LIMS or some AI system, that’s NOT the criteria for an easy feature to add.

Explaining Why Things Are Harder Than We’d Expect

Customers occasionally tell me they don’t understand why something is so hard to provide to them. Unfortunately, when we’re implementing software, there are certain elements we can provide more easily than others. In this, it doesn’t matter if it’s an LIS system or an AI/ML app.

When we talk about these “machines” we’re talking about computers. So, it all comes down to some amount of programming, in case you’re not seeing what these all have in common.

In any case, regardless what we’re doing, the tasks that are easy for people to do aren’t necessarily the ones that are easy for machines to do. But, as humans, because certain things are easy for us to do, we think they’re easy to make the “machine” do, as well. That’s just not true.

Illustrations of the Issues

While human beings are fine at calculating things by typing into a spreadsheet, they can’t process thousands of transactions per minute, for example. This is an area where machines clearly have the advantage.

However, where dexterity is required, there isn’t yet a machine that is as good as a human being with fine manipulations.

So, for example, it’s currently too difficult and/or expensive to automate a toothbrush. But what IS available is a toothbrush that you do still have to move around on your own, but that will ensure you’re brushing long-enough, not missing spots and using the right amount of pressure. Now, the timer and pressure sensor don’t seem to be that big a deal over the older electric toothbrushes that basically already do all that, but now as these machines add the feature of also tracking the zones of your mouth now begins to seem a bit complex.

Still, even though every mouth might be different, mouths are very specific things. For a machine (in this case, the toothbrush) to “learn” the landscape of your mouth is a fixed situation. It’s amazing but still quite limited.

Yet, despite this, the machine is still not able to actually do the brushing for you. Now that it can figure out where your teeth and gums are at, you might think actually doing the brushing SHOULD be the next step. Unfortunately, that requires dexterity, which is what you have and the machine does not. And, even if it’s technically possible, it’s probably too expensive to be practical in time for your next brushing session.

My Point in Discussing LIMS and Artificial Intelligence

We need to think differently about the way we build software than we do about our manual processes. This is true for both LIMS and Artificial Intelligence.

For example, for many, many years, we’ve talked about the fact that, in a “paperless lab,”the challenge is that you’re not just replacing a piece of paper. A paperless lab isn’t one that replicates the lab you had with paper – it’s an entirely different system made up of entirely different processes.

Thus, this is the challenge we all have on our projects. It is to come up with new processes that make use of whatever new technology we have while not trying to make them do things as we humans would have done them.

Let me give one more example – have you watched a robot perform on a manufacturing line? If you have, even if it does a repetitive piece of work that a human previously did, it does not do it in the same way. A human being doesn’t rotate their arms or fingers the way the robot does. We don’t move our arms vertically or horizontally the way the robot does to move to a new position.

Likewise, in our software, the way the software presents the screens to us isn’t always the way we approached the work when we were recording it without the software.

The Digital Transformation

Remember that the digital transformation doesn’t replace paper, but gives us new processes. It’s not about a specific tool or even a specific type of tool. That applies whether the tool is a piece of hardware (such as a robot arm) or software (such as a LIMS or AI/ML code).

Finally

My point is that software is not the same as the human brain. Our machines are not the same as the human body. Regardless where we apply this, it’s the same. This is true whether it’s for LIMS/ELN/LIS or for AI/ML.

LIMS Resource Plan B

2020-07-08T12:36:00Z

What do you do if you’re suddenly faced at a lack of LIMS resources? Is there a way to have a LIMS resource plan B that works for you?

LIMS Resource Plan B – Some History

I was looking around to see if I could buy some LabVantage manuals and what they might cost. It might not be possible, but a few people have called me about doing work on that system. I haven’t worked on it in a while. I thought reading the manuals (yes, really, and please don’t tell anyone! 😉 ) might help refresh my memory regarding details that aren’t coming to-mind. Strangely, I remember details about security, nodes, tramstops, SDCs/SDIs, how patients are linked to their samples and other database details, using JasperReports and dashboards. But, for all the time I’d spent on the web pages, a bulk of the work I did, I need some visual refresher. Also, the workflows have blended in with all the other workflows I’ve worked on. In my head, I’m having a difficult time splitting them from others I’ve worked-on.

I never did find manuals. If any of you reading this have some extra ones, I might be interested. This will partly depend on your price for them. It will also partly depend on whether I think I’d end up working with this system fairly soon.

But what I did find, was a recent court case filed on June 16th, 2020: LabVantage Versus the United States Governmental Agencies. It has to do with the government refusing to grant a work visa to one of their employees. It says that it will greatly impact their efforts in working with companies such as DNA Diagnostics Center and Roche during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is There a Shortage in LabVantage Resources, In General?

I do get the occasional call about the LabVantage system. However, these customers are also not quite breaking down my door to get me to work on these systems. Part of this is due to the fact that it’s not one of the systems I specialize in, such as the LabWare LIMS / ELN or the SampleManager LIMS / LES. People who call me say it’s difficult to find people but that’s not the same as there being a shortage. And, in some cases, they’ve found other people and not needed me, after all. Some of this is the issue that it takes a lot of leg work to find resources. This is true of any of the systems we work with.

So, for those customers who are looking, I would say that you should get all your facts together before you call. Be able to tell people what your timeframe is for your work. Also, whether or not it’s going to be remote. You need to be able to tell them how many hours per week you think you need from the person and for how long. Think of all these and any other relevant details, ahead of time. Without the details I just mentioned, you shouldn’t be calling or e-mailing anyone, by the way, because I know those are the first questions I ask. I’m sure that’s the case with most of the LIMS / LES / LIS / ELN services companies out there, too.

Is There Some Other Potential LabVantage Resource Shortage?

So, here’s the difference between what I just said and what the court case brings up. In the case, it mentions that the person has something special to offer. It also talks about the timeliness of denying the work visa, as the work relates to COVID-19 implementations for companies like DNA Diagnostics and Roche.

In today’s software world where so many people think we’ve all gone to remote work, how can the issue of having someone in one country or another be an issue? Right offhand, I can think of a few reasons.

First of all, when you install equipment, you do have to go to the place where it is to be installed. I know I’ve written about the fact that my customers don’t have me create label formats on-site, any longer. They ship me a printer and label stock, I do the work, then ship it all back. But to actually install the label printers and barcode readers does require someone to be on-site.

Past that, even if it’s not a physical task, not every group is able to do software work, remotely. There are many reasons for this. I’ve talked about the fact that you need good management and project management, for starters. Plus, there are a lot of people who think they’re experts in this who really aren’t. They’ve now done it a very small amount and they think it has to do with the software you use to support your operations or using a camera. That’s not true. It’s about work practices more than it is about anything else.

Plus, I find there are still many people with bad internet connections. Some of them aren’t good candidates for working remotely. Before I moved to Carroll, Iowa, I made sure I would have a strong network to work off of, since my work depends on it. Not everyone has the luxury of deciding whether to move somewhere based on their internet offerings.

So, What is Your LIMS Resource Plan B?

Here we are still working during a pandemic. Some of you already were using remote consultants and workers, to some extent. Now that so much additional work is now remote, at least temporarily, some of the consulting companies that hadn’t previously done remote work are scrambling. Some are claiming they’re experts in this because they want the work. Others can’t quite figure out what they’re going to do because it’s not that easy to do if you don’t have the right people.

And you might not be doing that well with the remote plan, either. You as a customer might not be able to get this to work with your people. Some of you can’t wait to get your people back because you miss them. Others can’t wait because you’re struggling to manage their people, remotely. For the most part, though, most of the groups I speak with claim they’re more productive than they were in the office. That’s a topic for another blog post, which I’ve written in the past. But it can easily be true.

With this, I’m not going to say that switching between remote and non-remote is a good plan. If you had mainly used remote consultants, switching to a consulting firm with local offices isn’t always and easy switch. They might not have extra people, you might not have a place to put them – there are a variety of factors to this.

LIMS Resource Plan B Examples

Even with previous remote work, there are new situations to consider. For example, if you require people to come to your site to pick up your corporate laptop to do your work, what do you do when there are travel restrictions? This would be an issue whether you’re trying to onboard a consultant or an employee. So, you have to think through all the details and find out if you can work around them.

Strange as it might sound, there will possibly even be projects that will switch to a different LIMS product. This does happen. However, if you switch, it still doesn’t mean that another software product will have any more available people than the one you’re abandoning.

Some customers are using recruiters to try to ensure they get enough people. In too many cases, their entire strategy seems to be to add yet more recruiters to the mix. When they don’t find the right people, they seem to add yet more recruiters. But what it does, many times, is just to add more people looking at the same pool of resources. As always, I’ll tell you that when a customer uses recruiters instead of directly calling me, I just get multiple calls about the exact same thing. You don’t get more people, necessary, just more calls to the exact same people.

Conferences Should Pick This Topic Up

I haven’t participated in a conference in quite some time because I’m tired of the same-old-same-old. There’s always a talk about requirements gathering. Somebody will give a workshop on how to better manage your project. They tell what a terrific success their project is, despite what we all heard from the people who actually worked on it. 😉

My point is that the topics don’t tend to vary, much. My suggestion is that the upcoming conferences talk about how to create a Plan B for getting resources. Even when there’s not a pandemic going on, there are sometimes shortages in various parts of the industry. And resourcing is part of project planning, anyway. It’s just another way to talk about how to get around yet another project-based issue.

It would be interesting to hear from companies such as DNA Diagnostics Center and Roche about what they ended up doing and why. Overall, though, I can envision a workshop that has people share ideas. One topic would be with regard to various strategies for getting through a resource crunch. It could also allow people to share ideas on the various ways to find resources.

And, by the way, this isn’t my way of trying to get my way into a conference. I’ve already started turning those down. As an industry expert, it’s just that I see a need. I’m identifying it. And I’m leaving it to someone else to do the work, in this case.

Competing for LIMS Staff

2020-06-25T16:01:52Z

How do you compete for LIMS staff? Small companies and projects, especially, find themselves looking for ways to attract people away from the larger ones.

Background on What I Have to Say About Competing For LIMS Staff

I have now spent the majority of my working career working as a consultant with a wide variety of companies. These companies vary wildly both in size and in industry. I have worked on some of the largest and the smallest projects, at this point. These days, it’s the way that business has turned that large projects don’t need my services as much as the small ones, Despite all my years working with any variety of systems, interfacing them, or any aspect of my work, my work has begun to increasingly move toward the smaller projects.

With that said, regardless of the size of the company or project, there are always staffing issues to ensure that everything gets staffed, properly.

First of all, consider that people like me are some of the few who even have the option to go off on our own. We have the experience and contacts to do it. Remember that we make up an entire pool of people that answer that question, “Where have all the experienced people gone?” That’s the first thing to consider but there are still plenty of talented people out there. The other “place” a lot of the experienced consultants have gone is that they now have “regular” jobs within the customer companies.

In any case, I’ve worked with a lot of customers regarding their issues. Customers and potential customers speak to me fairly frequently on their frustrations.

With that said, here are some tips.

Competing for LIMS Staff If You’re Huge

Suppose that you’re a huge company. Let’s say that you’re a top 5 pharma or consumer goods company. Even if you’re not nearly that big, this is still the section for you. Suppose that if you have the tiniest amount of work you need done. Many of your employers no longer seem to allow exceptions to allow you to go outside your preferred vendor program to get those people.

Just plan that you have to stick with your preferred vendor programs and you have to live with that. If you’re not getting enough people you really are going to have so many projects going on that it makes sense to hire at least a few people that have great skills, if you can get them. If you can break out of the silo approach, find people that can work across as many of your areas as possible. They can do some of the work. They can also manage the teams of people you will get from your preferred vendors because you need someone internal to make sure you’re getting the people and work you’re paying for. I know it sounds like a lot of work. That’s why you might need more than one of them.

Yes, start by trying to hire the right person! Once, again, if you’re going to keep them in a silo, it’s not going to work as well as if they can be applying their expertise and learning within many areas. Also, they can act as backups for each other, if you have several of them. Here’s an analogy for you, “Do you seed your lawn one seed at a time?” No, you don’t. Instead, use a “spreader.” Get people who can be “spread” among your projects, applying their technical knowledge among them. I want to stress that I’m not talking about the situation where you hire them for six months to get things up-to-speed. I’m talking about making a long-term committee to a direct hire.

Let’s go back to the issue of that small amount of work to be done for that specialty system. Many of these specialty systems can be handled by that one person. They just have to learn about it. For example, as a consultant, I’ve had to learn many systems, both large and small. I’ve worked with the LabWare LIMS / ELN, Thermo Fisher Scientific Informatics SampleManager LIMS / LES, LabVantage LIMS / ELN / LES / SDMS, learned the AutoScribe LIMS, iVention iLES, and others. I have to interface these with a variety of systems and, as such, had to learn a little something about these systems, as well. I could go on-and-on on the different aspects of various industries I’ve worked with but I think that’s both boring for me to write and you to read. So, just imagine it’s massive and we’ll move along.

In any case, it doesn’t take a consultant to do that. If you find someone who has had to learn multiple systems in their job, they’re a great candidate. But remember, learning the second system is just as hard as learning the first. It’s the person who knows two systems that can probably learn the third and fourth systems.

Competing for LIMS Staff if You’re Small

If you’re small, you’ve probably already been thinking about ways to compete with the big companies and projects. You’re usually thinking about it with regard to employees and the benefits you can offer.

By the way, depending how small you are and how much LIMS or ELN work you have, just hiring someone with good skills can be the best option, if you can get them. But if you do have enough work to keep them busy, they’re still likely to get to points where they’re overwhelmed and need outside help in order to keep up with demand.

You have an advantage because you can work with the smaller consulting companies that the larger vendors can’t work with. Now, you’re probably thinking that the big vendors will just subcontract to us. That’s not entirely true.

Here’s something most customers don’t know: we don’t pay our insurance and other fees per project. Whether I have a host of smaller projects or merely one large one, my insurance and other costs don’t change. One large project is nice to get because there’s less overhead in the fact that there are fewer invoices to send out and collect, for example, but the general costs remain the same.

But you have to get out there and ask the right questions to do this.

Competing for LIMS Staff for the Middle

If you’re in the middle, I find that you’re very likely either to have the advantages of both of the above groups or of neither.

There is only one thing that you might have to your advantage and which I find many of my customers take advantage of. It’s the Purchase Order.

Sometimes, limited amounts of work can be done via a Purchase Order. If you split your work into blocks, you might be able to get it all done with several purchase orders. Each purchase order should be for one block of work. one for each block of work. It’s common that these have a “to not exceed” figure included. It is common for my own current customers or those who intend to use my services to call for help in breaking the work down for this purpose. I mean to say that, if you’re going to give someone business, this way, they’re usually accommodating in helping you. Some will charge an additional fee for this.

One more great thing about purchase orders is that most of them have the legal terms you need. They ask for the insurance you need the consultant to have. They give the payment terms you want to enforce. Learn more about this through your Purchasing and/or Legal departments. Start with Purchasing because most or all of what you need to know can come from them.

One More Tip When You’re Competing for LIMS Staff

Regardless what you plan to do, always check with your manager and/or the Purchasing Department. Do that, first.

There have been quite a few times a potential customer has called and I’ve asked if they have a preferred vendor system or other limitations and they don’t happen to know. And, since they don’t happen to know, they feel confident they can find a way around it. This is true especially if they’re told that “there’s no-one available.” But, hey, they found me, so it’s not true, correct? Well, it’s not that simple.

For those of you who have found me skeptical, you’ll find that I do spend some time trying to educate you on what to ask. I will probably spend a little time talking about your project. But I will keep that skeptical but polite tone. And, in the end, some of you will be ultimately frustrated to find that we can’t work together.

Here’s the issue – why should I take a Lot of your time when I suspect it might not work out. Granted, it’s also taking up my time. However, I do love to talk about your projects because I always find that interesting. Really, it’s just the old project management skill of “expectations management.” Why shouldn’t I manage your expectations to try to alleviate the final frustration if you end up in that situation, is how I look at it.

GeoMetrick Enterprises Would Love Your Business if You’re Competing for LIMS Staff

Truly, I would love to work with all of you. But when you come down to it, it’s not that easy. You don’t just pick a resource based on their skills and just insisting they belong on one project or another. If they’re not coming from the right preferred vendor, they might not be an option.

And to those who have come up with the idea that I could come and be an employee for a few months, go back to what I said, above. Insurance and other business costs aren’t project-based. They don’t go away just because one customer needs a short-term employee. However, I sincerely appreciate the idea that you’re thinking outside the box and want me around that badly.

Three Leadership Tips Plus a Bonus Tip

2020-06-18T13:05:00Z

During an exercise to determine my own leadership style, I came up with a list of these leadership tips that I might as well share. You can apply them to a variety of situations.

Learning to Lead

Just the other day, I was speaking to a prospective customer team about using my services. They needed a highly-experienced person in the main software, their LIMS. They also needed a variety of other technical knowledge that I happened to have. It was one of those situations that seemed created just for me. There are many consulting companies out there competing for something like this. Thus, I was focused on ensuring that they understood how well I matched what they needed.

It was going fine until they asked me this question – “What’s your leadership style?”

Just to be clear, potential customers frequently ask me questions I’ve never before been asked. I’m expected to be able to think quickly in these situations and am usually ready for them. Despite this, this one threw me. I completely fumbled on the answer because I started to think too much about it.

Like many people, I tend to think of “leadership” in association with “A Leader.” This is a person with an arrow drawn over their head pointing at them with this title capitalized – we would all see it and recognize this person is A Leader and not just someone doing some leading. It’s a person we see on TV such as Civic Leader or a CEO, for example. The mistake I made is that, like many of you reading this, I wasn’t thinking directly of myself as “A Leader” who has a “leadership style.” In any case, my response seemed to kill the meeting. Despite any experience or other skills, my response to this left them in silence. I could hear the crickets chirping. Obviously, they were done with the conversation.

After the fact, as a business person, I reminded myself that this wasn’t a “failure.” Instead, look at it as “a learning experience.” As such, I sought to learn something from it. Otherwise, it remains a total disappointment and a means with which to beat myself up. Even better, if I could turn the situation into a blog post, too, that’s yet another bonus! 🙂

Leadership Interview Preparation

I wanted to do a better job if anyone in the future ever again asks me this question. So, I went back to all the situations where I had a leadership role. In each of these, I looked for comments made regarding my leadership abilities. I do save a lot of these things for purposes of reference and learning. The result was that I found quite a bit more than I’d realized I’d had.

At this point, if you thought it was as easy as doing only this, you’ll be disappointed. I found exactly the same comments most of you might find. They were comments such as “She’s the best leader I’ve had on this project” and “Her leadership skills are excellent.” They were good for my ego but had no useful value in and of themselves.

However, that’s not quite why I looked them up. I sat and thought about the situations where people made those comments about me. Then I considered the tasks we were doing and what my leadership role was. I was able to remember what I did that caused people to make these positive comments. In that, I did actually come up a picture of myself as a leader.

In any case, for anyone looking to get their start in leadership roles, here are my leadership tips.

Leadership Tip # 1: Listen

Most of us find that leading people is difficult. For starters, when you get into a new situation, you don’t know what personalities you’ll be working with. You don’t always know their skill-level. Sometimes, you’re taking over for someone else and need to learn the history of where the group is at in terms of their achievements.

The easiest way to start is just to listen to them. Get an idea what the “mood” is like and why.

Even once you’ve gotten started, continued listening is a good habit to have. You’ll find out what they think about your leadership capabilities. You might or might not adjust some of what you’re doing. However, even if you don’t agree with them, it’s useful information to have. In addition, there will be times when team members know things before you and it pays to get some of this information sooner rather than later.

Leadership Tip # 2: Make Decisions

Being a leader depends on making decisions. It’s not always about making a “good” decision but about making the “least bad” decision. You might have not perfect information and you might later need to adjust the decision, but leadership depends on setting goals for the group and getting them to those goals. You can’t do that without decision-making.

I’m shocked at the number of people in leadership positions on projects and teams who refuse to make decisions and let the rest of us fumble along with no guidance. Many times, they seem to think if they don’t make a decision and the outcome is bad that they can’t be blamed. Well, they can, actually. Now, whether the people in charge show any leadership in holding people accountable or not is a different story.

Leadership Tip # 3: Admit Ignorance and Mistakes – Show Courage and Honesty

Going back to the decision-making tip, you will occasionally make mistakes. Sometimes, you’ll make mistakes based on your own inexperience. Other times you receive bad information. Also, there are times when situations just change and no longer fit the original decision

As much as you might dread doing it, you can’t seriously believe yourself to be a leader if you can’t face your team, admit whatever it is that needs admitting, and change course, if needed. Time is of the essence. Don’t waste time (and usually money, as well) pretending that you’re perfect. We all know it’s not true!

Personally, I value courage and honesty in the leaders I work with and the ones I look up to. Since I happen to value these qualities, they happen to be qualities I try to pursue in my own leadership style. For me, as uncomfortable as it can be to do these, I believe it makes project work outcomes much clearer and better, overall.

The Born Leader?

Is there such a thing as a born leader? I don’t know if there is but I would venture to say that a lot of us had to actually learn to do it. I don’t know about any of you, but I haven’t watched the great leaders of our time either aspiring to be one of them or thinking I shared any traits with them.

As with anything else, if you work hard at it, you probably can learn to do it. I know I’m always looking to learn in aspects such as this. As with anything else, there are myriads of books and seminars on it. In the end, take the opportunities you get to do it, learn to succeed in it and you’re on your way to creating great outcomes with the people you’re leading.

With that said, here’s your bonus tip. And, yes, since we can all count, I could have just said this was “four leadership tips” but everyone likes a bonus so this sounds a lot more exciting than just saying “four leadership tips.”

Bonus Leadership Tip: Silence Isn’t Leadership

Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion regarding the fact that leaders can’t stay silent – that a leader must speak-up. Thus, if you want to improve yourself as a leader, you now have to speak up.

I have some news for you – if you were silent, what you were doing wasn’t leadership, anyway (read more about the difference between Leaders Versus Managers).

First of all, every time someone looks for a manager, team leader, CEO, or whatever the leadership position is going to be, they almost always ask for “good communication skills.” It’s part of the job. There should be few people who could be in these positions and not know that that’s a requirement. In most cases, it’s actually stated as “good writing and speaking skills.” Do you notice that speaking is a part of the job, to begin with? If you’re in a leadership position, don’t say you didn’t already know that.

Second of all, the people working for you aren’t mind readers. They don’t “know” what you want them to do. You have to find a way to spell it out. Really, when you tell us we’re not doing what you want and say to us, “Because you KNOW what I want you to do” and then act as if the rest of us are just stubborn and troublesome, no, you do actually need to tell us. We really don’t “know.”

Fast Forward in Time: One Week and One Hour Into the Future

So, then I got to the next similar opportunity to regale someone with my great technical skills and leadership qualities. This time, I was ready. Did I fumble it, this time, you might wonder? No, I did not – because they didn’t even ask the question. But I’m ready, now! 😉

Numbers Are Liars - As Usual

2020-05-28T13:36:00Z

Numbers are liars. Many of you have heard me say this or read my posts on why numbers mislead us. Lately, I have yet more reasons to remind everyone.

Numbers Are Liars – Some Background

With my numeric background, of course I want to look at the numbers. This is the case for my blog, my articles, or the performance of any presentation I give at a conference. These are a few examples. And, over the years, I’ve noticed all types of odd variations. I can quickly explain some of them. Other bits can be explained upon some research or upon reoccurrence. Others are never fully explained.

With that, I’ve found that I’m able to come up with plausible explanations for the largest of variances. This is true even when I can’t prove them. Here, we’re talking about articles and not research data so this is sufficient. After all, my efforts to explain these variances aren’t my actual job but just one part of what I do to support my job.

What I’ve found more than anything else, is that the numbers don’t necessarily mean what we’d like them to mean. Every time someone tells me they’re “number 1 in LIMS” or that their publication has “one zillion readers,” I happen to know that whatever numbers they used to “prove” that don’t prove it in the way that the listener would expect. Too often, numbers are used to lie to us. This is especially true when we’re talking about a marketing or circulation situation.

I’ve occasionally written about how numbers mislead us. In Top Posts of 2019 for This Blog, I talk about this in a way that I hope helps readers understand this issue. Most of the numbers we’re sent are flawed, unless they’re based on actual scientific research, and that includes most of the survey data we get.

A Big Surprise – a HUGE Jump in Reader Numbers

With all that said, I now claim to have really hit the “big time” with a post that really went “viral” and “captivated the masses.” It was such a “hit out of the park” that I can’t believe that industry people aren’t flocking to me to get my autograph, at this point. Yes, that’s how severely popular that post was.

Let me step back a moment to explain something – posts tend to have slightly different cycles. Some posts quickly attract readers, then reading quickly drops off. Other posts seem to build slowly with regard to readers.

Or, was it?

Well, here’s the surprise part – my last post’s numbers skyrocketed past anything else I’ve ever written by an order of magnitude and is still climbing. In checking against various resources with different tools and looking at many aspects, at this point, I’m totally stumped. I have no idea why that post’s numbers are so extreme. Over the years, I’ve come up with all types of explanations for big jumps in the numbers. However, this jump is beyond explanation, even when you consider my vivid imagination for these types of things.

The bad news is that things that can’t be explained can’t be replicated. The good news is that people really want to read that post for whatever reason they have for it.

Back to The Lies When Numbers are Liars

So, just to be clear, while some people would look at the numbers and declare victory and start marketing themselves as the most wonderful LIMS services vendor, ever, here at GeoMetrick Enterprises, we’ll just remain a bit skeptical that these numbers mean that. I will hold my Marketing people back from publishing these types of claims if you readers will remain skeptical, as well.

And Yet More Lies – COVID-19 Data – More Numbers are Liars

Let me start out by saying there is a lot of great research and data-crunching going on with regard to COVID-19. Some of it will be junk science but most of it (let’s hope) is well-produced.

With that said, there’s also the contingent of people (myself included) who scrape all that data and process it, on our own for our own purposes. Most of what we’re doing isn’t useful for any true predictions. Actually, I refuse to tell anyone much about what I’m doing only because I don’t want anyone to think it’s validated in any way nor that it has any real value.

In any case, some people have been merely watching the numbers and using them for a variety of predictive purposes. Every week, I seem to find an occasion to say to one person or another that “numbers are liars” as they watch the numbers go up and down and make declarations based on them.

As I claim that numeric increases don’t mean we’re all about to die any more than seeing them decrease means we’re all cured, they often become incredibly annoyed when they ask what those numbers then do mean and I respond with, “Nothing. They mean nothing.”

It’s Just Like Everything Else With Numbers

As I’ve been saying, for years, you can’t just look at numbers and believe them. You need their context. You need some assurance that the number-crunching was valid.

In any case, I found something particularly interesting about these COVID-19 numbers. That is that having this discussion with ordinary people isn’t much different from having this conversation with the people in our industry who come up with untested explanations for their numbers. Once, again, when a little number-crunching helps you do your job in some way, that’s fine – but it doesn’t mean it’s something worth sharing with the rest of us, either.

Finally – Numbers Are Liars

Between the one post with the astronomical and unexplainable numbers, and also my dealings with people trying to make sense of the COVID-19 numbers, I felt a huge burden of lies streaming down upon me. By that, I mean all those numbers and all the misleading explanations of them.

In any case, any time someone starts a sentence with “The numbers prove…” I’m quick to respond that those number don’t prove anything because numbers are liars!

Plug and Play LIMS

2020-05-07T13:38:00Z

Plug and play LIMS – did it become a reality? Even though more things can connect to more other things, plug-and-play still isn’t reality.

In the Last Week-and-a-Half

Just in the last week, this is a partial list of a few of the tools I’ve had to download and/or use. It doesn’t even include the LIMS products and their proprietary tools:

TypeScript
Node.js
Python
Chrome Browser
Safari Browser
Firefox Browser
WordPress
AEM (Adobe Experience Manager)
SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio)
LINQPad
MS Excel
Google Sheets
MS Word
Google Docs
Lighthouse
Chocolatey
MS Azure
AWS (Amazon Web Services)
Slack
JIRA
Asana
E-mail
A wiki
Git
GitHub
BitBucket

Does your life look like this? I hope not. And if you’re wondering how many different logins I now have for everything, just don’t ask…

Have Things Changed? Not That Much

In the old days, many things did not work together. To get anything to work with anything else took programming.

Ummm…it sounds just like right now, doesn’t it?

So, every LIMS-to-SAP or LIMS-to-MES or any other something-to-something interface is a lot of programming, for starters.

Plug and Play LIMS – a Turnkey System

Just like the concept of the “turnkey” system, which still is just something sales people talk about and none of us actually have, a plug and play LIMS doesn’t seem to be a reality, either.

There are always more tools. Professional-level tools tend to need some work to get them to work with other tools. Here in 2020, anyone who believes these marketing terms really hasn’t been paying attention to the world around them.

Back to Plug and Play LIMS

In any case, as I go from project-to-project, people are using a wide variety of different tools. Today, while more tools can be used with more different situations, they don’t necessarily entirely integrate.

Even as the most simple example, with many LIMS, we tend to create database queries that we can run from inside the LIMS but that are in the native query language. One traditional example is that, with something like the LabWare LIMS / ELN, we often write the more complex queries using SQL. Most people think of SQL (Structured Query Language) as something so standard that we can port it from machine-to-machine. However, anyone who has ported their LabWare LIMS / ELN to their desktop to use with a database besides the one they are using at a network level might find that their queries won’t necessarily run. That is because there are slight differences between different databases. A command that works in SQL Server might not work in Oracle and vice versa.

So, even within something we think to be pretty standard, such as SQL, it doesn’t just port from one database to another.

Here’s another example – if you’ve worked with any mobile applications, you’ll see that screens render differently between different models of what is the same brand and type of device. Programming for mobile devices has gotten more standardized but there are still individual program blocks that have to be created specifically for various devices.

A Note on Interfaces

For all the LIMS-to-ERP, LIMS-to-MES, LIMS-to-etcetera interfaces we’ve created, each one has slightly different issues. Granted, each time there is a new combination, a new set of people are assigned as if it’s a 100% brand new concept, to do everything as if it has never before been done. While I find that ridiculous and frustrating that few services companies know how to leverage the experience that’s out there, I’ll admit that there is always some aspect that is different. Each customer does have their own custom tables and fields, for example. That is NOT the same as being 100% brand new – I just want to stress this point! However, let’s admit these are never plug-and-play, either.

Finally

No matter how time marches on and how much things change, in some sense, they remain the same. We still have a multitude of different tools. Things don’t “just work” together. Thus, there is always a lot of money to be made in any tasks that pull data out of the system. That’s true whether that data is pulled out for something like knowledge management or to interface with other systems.

Unfortunately, this means that many companies will remain without as many interfaces as they’d like. There’s limited money to make all this happen and that’s just the bottom line. Companies might dream of more automation but, in the end, are limited by their budgets for these types of projects.

With that said, it’s as if they all got together and made a secret plan to purposely use all entirely different tools. Yes, it’s a LIMS conspiracy and I’m a LIMS conspiracy-theorist! 😉

LIMS Industry Economy Thoughts

2020-04-30T13:25:00Z

The LIMS industry economy is the topic of many a discussion, lately. Various people have different projections on where we’re headed for the rest of 2020.

LIMS Industry Economy Discussions

People wonder about jobs, about cut-backs, about production, and about all sorts of topics. As such, the LIMS industry economy as a topic fairly regularly pops into discussions that weren’t intended to necessarily focus on that.

Even within that, there’s a wide variety of situations within the industry. As such, there’s no specific answer with regard to how the economy will affect specific businesses. While few companies seems to take a doom-and-gloom approach to this none are exactly hopping with glee, either.

Some Thoughts on Hiring

In the current LIMS industry economy changed, hiring has gone up-and-down in the past couple of months. Many companies have entirely stopped their hiring processes. Some of them have merely postponed hiring those positions,. But others have actually cut those open positions and decided they’re not hiring them, at all, at least for the near future. Yet there are even others that are still working on their hiring processes, but doing it more slowly and merely trying to finish some early steps of weeding-out the candidates without getting to the final hiring steps.

At the same time, there are some companies that do truly still need certain positions filled and have not stopped their hiring processes. On top of that, some of them still insist the final interview be done in-person and on-site. These seem to be those that can find applicants that can drive to the interview, as hotels are open, at least in some states.

And for all the brouhaha about positions going remote, most positions sound as if they’ll soon return to being on-site. There are a few companies that are hiring people as remote workers, for the time being. But that often comes with the understanding they’ll have to move to be close to the site once everything reopens. However, these seem few and far-between with regard to full-time W-2 positions.

Then, On Consulting

As for consulting, I’m not clear if there are actually more companies doing on-site project work or not. For people who do the type of work that I do in implementation, it can typically be done off-site. As such, I don’t think I see enough of the other types of work to comment on whether anything has really changed. In our industry, remote work has been around for a long time. Thus, it’s possible that most work that could be done remotely is already being done that way.

Some of the services groups are wondering if they’ll need to cut back on people. Yet others are talking about other potential ways to cut back, such as cutting salaries.

More on the Survival of Services Groups

Whatever happens, the large groups won’t stop being large, but might possibly be leaner. Small groups can’t afford to cut back too much on their actual staff or they’ll no longer exist.

But, with that, for those projects that have become bloated, where too often the solution is to add more people rather than finding the root cause, those projects might end up having to work harder to find root cause, now. These groups might be given the ultimatums to either fix the issue and become more efficient or to be replaced.

Getting Small or Being Small?

With these changes to the LIMS industry economy, the smaller the services groups are, the more likely they will be to be able to do more work with fewer people, to begin with. That’s no guarantee. I’m just pointing-out that it’s more likely to be the case. It’s not that there aren’t small services groups that are as unproductive as some of the big ones, but they’re less likely to exist.

The reason is this – the smaller you are, the more reason you have to give a customer to use your services. As a small company, myself, I will just tell you that that is usually the case. These days, customers tend to value what they think is the security of using the largest firms. That is, unless they’re have a good reason to do something else. One such reason is that smaller firms can often be more flexible and also more productive.

Note: Regarding what I said in the previous paragraph, I do occasionally get a new customer merely because I’m so flexible in the way I deliver services and in the options I give them. I tend to think other small services groups probably would say the same. Big groups typically can’t or won’t do this. While it helps to be an expert, it doesn’t always hurt to be nimble. See LabWare LIMS, We’re the Experts for examples.

Options in the New LIMS Industry Economy

In this new LIMS industry economy, I have to wonder if the smaller firms will be in a better position to take on some of the consulting work that remains or will newly arise. Of course, I’m biased being so small, myself, but I’m serious in this question. I don’t mean that I think my phone will start ringing off the hook with new customers. What I mean is that I won’t be surprised if some of even the biggest customers at least rethink the bloated projects they’ve supported for so long.

Another opportunity is for the customers, themselves. If there are some layoffs, customers might hire some of these people and do their projects, themselves and with fewer people. If they have all the management, project management, LIMS and other skills, already, this could be an economical plan. Pre-virus, there seemed to be an increasing number of customers looking for people who could manage global LIMS projects. Post-virus, maybe that will continue to be a rising trend – one person who does a LOT of tasks.

LIMS Industry Economy and the Budget

Where will the budgets end up? I don’t think we’ll truly know the impact of current events until we progress further into the year. In a lot of cases, I’m finding that, with budgets already set, work continues. I think when companies start to roll into their next budget year is when we’ll find out what the true effects are going to be.

However, I have heard that some customers buying entirely new systems have decided to wait. Possibly they’re uncertain if they’ll get money in the next budget year to finish the project. Maybe they’re working with reduced staff and can’t commit to use their time for a new implementation. There are all types of reasons why this might be the case.

IT Folks Read Sports Poems

2020-04-21T13:15:00Z

IT folks read sports poems. It’s just what it sounds like. Read more to learn the details of this effort. You might even be interested in participating.

Keeping Up With the Times

Living in our current times presents us with various challenges. In many cases, we’re not actually required to give things up as much as adjust our ways of enjoying them.

Sports

As some of us have noticed, the sports seasons have mainly been canceled. There are now ongoing discussions regarding the feasibility of planning for upcoming seasons.

I do still see families playing various sports in their back yards. They haven’t given up sports. Not all of us have family members or yards to play sports in. But we don’t have to give up on sports, either.

Changing the “Game”

Just because we can’t watch new games on TV or attend them, it doesn’t mean sports are gone for us.

I know I have plenty of fond sports-related memories to recall. In addition, I’m convinced some day in the future that I’ll have even more.

Meanwhile, I wondered what else we can do besides just remember our favorite favorite sports stories and memories.

Sports Poetry

Then, it came to me. We can give tribute to our favorite sports by reading sports poems. These poems bring back the thrill of the game, remind us of favorite sports moments, and bring back all the great memories we might have.

Details and How to Participate in “IT Folks Read Sports Poems”

Start by just listening to these “IT Folks Read Sports Poems” podcasts and thinking about your own favorite sports and teams. Share favorite sports stories as a response to the posts. Forward the posts to other fans who enjoy that sport.

Or, for all you sports-loving IT folks out there, join us in the effort to spread sports poetry and memories. Here’s all it takes:

Get a sports poem. It can be about a specific sport or sports, in general.
Record yourself reading it.
Post it with the hashtag #ITFolksReadSportsPoems #sports #poetry and possibly a hashtag with your name and a hashtag for the name of the poem.

Choices for Step 1:

Write your own poem.
Find a public domain poem. It will usually include a statement at the bottom that says something like “This poem is in the public domain.” That means it’s no longer under copyright.
Find a poem that you can get permission to read in a podcast. This usually involved writing to the author or publisher for permission.

Choices for Step 3:

Post it, yourself.
If you don’t have a way to post it and need help, contact me. I might be willing to host your recording and post for you if you don’t have ways to do that. If you need my help, contact me, first.

IT Folks Read Sports Poems – Poem # 1

Right after I make this blog post, I’m going to post my poem, first. It will be in LinkedIn, which is where any post I make of these will take place.

#ITFolksReadSportsPoems #sports #poetry

Remote LIMS Work: Six Months Until Never

2020-04-16T12:21:53Z

The latest formula is to begin a new job or contract with remote LIMS work until the virus restrictions end. All bets are off on what happens, next.

The Model

There is this new magic concept where you create some opportunity that begins with remote LIMS work (or ELN, LIS, LES). It works like this:

If it’s a permanent job, the new employee will start by working remotely. Then, soon after, they’ll start by working on-site at their new job. Whether that requires moving the person from one area to another in-between or not depends on the job and the person.
If it’s a contract job, it’s for six months. The person starts by working remotely. Then, a miracle occurs and they might have to move to the area, might have to travel to the area – it’s not determined. But, it doesn’t seem to matter. Apparently, if you’re a warm body and able to start, remotely, the rest will work itself out?

Since I do (rarely) take on subcontracts, I do speak with recruiters about contract jobs. And, seriously, I’ve had more of them call with no idea what happens once the remote part is done that I’ve lost count.

Six Months Until What? Maybe Never?

It’s not just going to work out. You have to have an agreement on how it will be handled.

One recruiter seemed to suggest that the virus could actually go on for six months so why worry about it. And, to that, I just insisted that I wasn’t interested in taking something on and pretending I might do whatever the customer wanted, when I didn’t know what that would be and wasn’t going to pretend I was all that flexible about it.

Note to The Consultants

When you insist you aren’t interested in something because of the travel or the location, there will be the occasional recruiter who will try to push you into it by telling you that the customer could change their mind once you get on-site for a bit. They’ll insist it’s happened.

It has happened but it’s rare.

Here’s my rule of thumb – whatever deal you make for yourself, plan that the entire project will be under that deal. I don’t mean you can never ask for changes. However, when you take it, plan that that is what you’re likely to have to stick with for the entirely of the project.

Note to the Customers

In times like these, when you get someone that is supposed to start, remotely, then might travel or come on-site or whatever the plan is, you don’t really know that that’s what the consultant is agreeing to. So, directly ask them at your first opportunity.

If it turns out that the person was misrepresented, at least you know. At least you can decide what you want to do. It’s better than being surprised, at a later time.

And, if you get some wacky situations, that’s what you get for not calling GeoMetrick Enterprises, directly, to provide all your services. We, of course, are the experts. That’s especially true for remote LIMS work.