Welcome to the premier blog entry for Labtimizer. With this blog I will keep you informed about current trends in Laboratory Management, what is going on at Labtimizer and let you know about worth reading articles about Lab Management.

In this blog entry, I would like to introduce myself, and to tell you a little bit more about my background and the concept behind Labtimizer.

The company was founded and is headed up by myself, Malte Niebelschuetz. I founded Labtimizer in Spring 2012 when I moved from Germany to San Diego, California.
I studied Business Administration and Information Technology in Hamburg, Germany. I have a long history in implementing successful business processes and IT solutions. For more then 15 years, I have been consulting and supporting individual departments and whole companies with their business needs. Before I left Germany, I was responsible for a corporate intranet platform. Due to a well-organized and extremely detailed structured system organization, we were able to reach more than 20,000 users with a cutting edge collaboration platform, addressing their very individual needs. Although the whole platform had over 20,000 users, usually one working group was not larger than 20 members. All these different groups had very similar but also different requirements. To fulfill all these individual needs, we implemented a platform, which allowed us to design management solutions that flexible, that we could provide outstanding process optimization to all different departments and working groups at the same time. For example, with the same software, we provided a tailored solution for the HR (Human Resources) department to support their daily tasks as well as several customized applications for different R&D (Research & Development) teams.

Maybe you are now asking yourself: “What does this have to do with Laboratory Management?” Well, let it put me this way; I am convinced that running a lab is similar to running a business – or a department in a big company. Of course, a lab has a lot of individual requirements and many specific parameters a “normal business” does not have. But so does every business. And what would you actually consider a “normal business”? Is a grocery store as normal as a hardware store? Does an auto shop has the same requirements like a warehouse has? Well, the answer is not that easy, but not that hard either. Of course, all businesses in this example are different. However, they all have some challenges and several tasks in common. For starters; they all have to deal with financial issues and most likely, all of them have to supervise and manage employees.
This of course, does not mean that they all should implement the same processes and the identical software to deal with their tasks. It means that it is very important to analyze your situation. Learn from others and understand your requirements before you make any decision. You do not have do reinvent the wheel.

Business Management and Laboratory Management have more in common then it might seems at a first view. Managing finances, managing staff, and managing staff knowledge are also common duties for P.I.'s and Lab Managers.
I believe that the following applies for both, laboratories and companies. Only well-organized institutions will be successful and stay in business in the future. As well as it is not enough for a successful company, to have the best product, it is not enough for a successful laboratory having only the best results.

Therefore, I started Labtimizer with that one mission: “Increase efficiency in laboratories!” I work hard on that every day, to ensure this for all Labtimizer customers and beyond.

Sincerely Yours,
Malte Niebelschuetz | CEO
Labtimizer
Process and IT consulting