Why BSI?
Looking for the perfect system? Some issues to consider when trying to obtain perfection...
When looking for your perfect software there are several paths you can take. You can develop the system using your own resources (custom), you can purchase a commercial off the shelf (COTS) product, or you can take an existing system and customize it you meet your workflow.
To make the correct choice you must know your requirements. This means your requirements for inventory data, workflow, specimen data, reporting, interoperability, security, hardware platform, scalability, etc. And you need to project these requirements into the future! Maybe your specimen collection will be small (< 50,000 samples) for the first year, but what if it doubles every year? In eight years you will have over 12 million samples. Can your inventory scale to that size? Can it support the additional 20 laboratory technicians you need for your larger inventory? How easily can the system adapt to new workflow?
Armed with this knowledge you can then make the choice:
A Custom Job
A custom-written system will provide you with the ultimate flexibility to meet your workflow, because you are going to design the system to meet that workflow. However, there are a number of downsides to custom software. See Custom Software for more information.
COTS Software
Buying a prepackaged commercial system has the advantage of initial cost savings and system capabilities. But there are some drawbacks: see COTS Software for more information.
Customized Software
A customized system is COTS software that has been modified to meet your needs. This combines the proven features that a COTS system has to offer with the adaptability of custom software. See Customized Software for more information.
How Does BSI Measure Up?
Simply put, BSI is the best combination of everything: customized software at COTS prices. Not only does BSI have more features than any other specimen inventory system currently available, we will customize it for the same price as other COTS systems charge for the base system! We can customize your BSI database to meet your database, verification, inventory, and reporting needs. We can also work with you to match your workflow and your database setup. BSI is also scalable to tens of millions of specimen records. Also, BSI contains no per-user fees. BSI runs on the Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris operating systems.
Extensive customization at our affordable T&M rates are also possible - contact IMS for details.
