Software,Colony Management

By taking into account a few rules and some simple measures, organisations can get more out of existing software system.

Whether it is used to get better understanding of mechanisms, to reproduce results, to prove a theory, or even to discard a hypothesis, data is a crucial asset in research. Therefore data management is understood to be a very important task in every research program.

In their constant endeavour to make these processes more efficient, research organisations have begun using software systems—and system here can mean anything from a simple spreadsheet to a sophisticated enterprise system—to store and manage the actual research data as well as data which is required for supporting processes and legal requirements.

Sometimes one could get the impression that these software systems are growing within an organisation like weeds.

A variety of spreadsheets, programs, and software solutions can be found for animal ordering, material management, animal stock management, IACUC tasks, breeding, health management, environmental monitoring, and all kinds of scientific applications like LIMS, document management, or nowadays Electronic Lab Notebooks.

The reasons for this colorful software landscape are manifold but often we can hear a similar story: At the time there was an urgent business need to fulfill a particular scientific, regulatory, or process requirement, so somebody spent some evenings and weekends on a nice spreadsheet or database solution or purchased software, and the solution was put in place.

Over time the environment grows without a kind of “meta-plan” controlling it. One software package is bought for purpose A, another one is built using Excel for purpose B, the internal IT solved problem C with another kind of solution and all systems are doing a more or less great job, but do not (and even worse: cannot!) talk to each other.

Historically grown systems were once implemented for very good reasons (even though these reasons are sometimes forgotten by the organisation) and are used by people more or less enthusiastically to keep the business process up and running and to do what is called data management.

AM I GETTING THE SUPPORT I NEED?
Is this application zoo really capable of supporting your data management?

Let’s start with a very general definition:

“Data management is the development, execution and supervision of plans, policies, programs and practices that control, protect, deliver and enhance the value of data and information assets¹”.

Can a historically grown system environment support actual data management according to this definition?

Capture and store for sure—that is what all these solutions were built for. Probably they also offer at least some data control and protection, but what about delivery? And what about enhancing value?

Turning the question around: Do the systems in place within your organisation allow users to effectively find the data they put in, to re-use, to recombine it, to gain useful information and finally knowledge to benefit from?

Sounds too theoretical, more relevant for IT people than for you?

Well, probably it is quite relevant because these questions are directly affecting day-to-day work—your work. For illustration, just a few questions:

• Do you sometimes need to re-enter the same piece of information in multiple systems?
• Do you ever have to spend a lot of time creating reports containing data you know is stored in the diverse systems but you can’t get out?
• Do you ever have difficulties mapping data coming from more than one source because it is unclear how the bits and pieces are coming together?
• Have you ever asked yourself what meaning could be behind the particular piece of information you have just entered and what it could be used for?
• Have you ever had difficulties explaining to your team members why something needs to be recorded?
• Have you ever had difficulties sharing data with colleagues within your organisation because of different semantics?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then, sorry to say, there is room for improvement within your data management system because obviously your software systems neither deliver what you require nor do they sufficiently support you in realising the value.