Share thisWith proper research, you can find the colony management software that is right for your facility.
Choosing the right colony management software for a facility can be extremely difficult. Not only are there a large number of options to choose from, but there are also many technical, political, and social issues to consider. However, a properly implemented solution can provide many potential benefits. As always, knowledge is power, and being aware of the options is the best way to succeed.
OPTIONS
Since the dawn of agriculture, people have been keeping track of animals, originally using clay tablets. Today we have computers and various software solutions to make our lives easier. These typically fall into the following categories, generally in order of increasing sophistication:
Spreadsheets
These are usually used by small facilities where scientists track their own data.
The pros of spreadsheets:
- There is little training required to implement the system.
- Upfront costs are low.
- This solution works better than pencil and paper for sharing, backing up data, and statistics.
The cons of spreadsheets:
- Accounting, reports, statistics, etc. require a lot of work to setup.
- Data backup requires some manual intervention. If multiple files are used, data loss is likely.
- If all data is kept centrally in one file, there are limits to the number of rows in this file.
- The more data that is kept, the harder it is to find what is needed.
- It is difficult to keep this data accurate so it reflects the current status of the facility.