Keep Your Existing LIMS Stable, Supported and Moving Forward
Brain Station 23 provides ongoing LIMS support, development, integration and incremental modernization for environmental testing laboratories—without selling you another LIMS or forcing a disruptive replacement.
We Do Not Sell Another LIMS
Your laboratory may already have years of workflows, business rules, reports, customer data and operational knowledge embedded in its existing system. Replacing all of that is not always the first or best answer.
Brain Station 23 works with the LIMS you already use. We take responsibility for understanding it, supporting it, delivering improvements and creating a controlled modernization path around the parts that still work.
- Taking over an existing custom or vendor-dependent LIMS
- Resolving application and database issues
- Delivering new reports, workflows and business rules
- Building web and tablet interfaces for selected processes
- Creating APIs for new applications and connected systems
- Improving testing, deployment and release control
- Reducing dependency on one vendor or individual
- Establishing a governed backlog and modernization roadmap
Is Your LIMS Running—but Becoming Harder to Control?
The system may still process samples and produce reports. But behind daily operations, warning signs begin to appear.
Every important change depends on one provider
A new report, workflow adjustment or database fix must go through the same external vendor. Your internal team cannot confidently estimate, challenge or continue delivery if that provider becomes unavailable.
Small improvements take too long
What should be a manageable change becomes a multi-week project. The blocker is often incomplete documentation, limited delivery capacity or nobody owning the full system.
The backlog exists, but progress is unclear
Requests are collected, but priorities, estimates, owners and release dates remain difficult to see. Your laboratory knows what it needs—it cannot predict when improvements will arrive.
Modern workflows are difficult to introduce
Analysts may need tablet-friendly entry, faster search, a client portal or web access. But the existing system is business-critical, so rewriting everything feels too risky.
Releases create uncertainty
Changes affect sample processing, validation, reporting and shared database structures. Without reliable testing and release governance, each deployment becomes an operational concern.
Critical knowledge is undocumented
The application runs, but nobody can clearly explain the codebase, database, deployment and business rules. That is not full control—it is operational dependency.
What Are LIMS Managed Services?
LIMS managed services provide ongoing technical ownership of an existing laboratory information management system. Instead of hiring individual resources and managing every task internally, you work with an accountable team responsible for agreed areas of stability, support, enhancement and evolution.
This is not resource augmentation disguised as managed services. You receive a managed delivery structure with ownership, governance, measurable responsibilities and continuity.
Roles we bring together around your LIMS
One Team Across the Full LIMS Improvement Lifecycle
Support, enhancement and modernization delivered as controlled tracks around the same system—so your laboratory keeps operating while it improves.
LIMS Support & Issue Resolution
Application investigation, defect resolution, database troubleshooting, release support and root-cause analysis to reduce recurring operational friction.
Maintenance & Enhancements
Reports, data-entry workflows, validation rules, dashboards, permissions and performance improvements delivered through a governed backlog.
Development & Customization
New workflow modules, custom business rules, analyst tools, portals and department-specific interfaces that extend—rather than replace—your platform.
Integration & API Development
REST APIs, authentication, safe integration points and one controlled source of operational data across desktop, web and connected systems.
Legacy & Desktop Modernization
Incremental modernization—REST API layers, tablet-friendly analyst interfaces and automated deployment pipelines—prioritized by operational value.
QA & Release Governance
Manual and automated testing, dedicated environments, release planning, deployment pipelines, smoke testing and rollback planning.
Documentation & Continuity
Architecture, database, deployment, business-rule and workflow documentation so your laboratory never loses control when people or vendors change.
Support, Modernize or Replace?
Not every LIMS problem requires the same response. Match your situation to a direction—then let evidence drive the roadmap.
Incremental LIMS Modernization Without Operational Shutdown
An environmental and analytical testing laboratory operated a mature desktop LIMS supporting its full laboratory lifecycle. Brain Station 23 continued supporting and extending the desktop application while creating a parallel modernization track.
What we delivered
- Layered REST API built on .NET
- React web application
- Tablet-friendly PLM bench-sheet workflow
- Sample-distribution search
- Multi-layer sample data entry
- Optical-property management
- Analyst signatures & real-time validation
- Browser-based PDF generation
- Automated web and API deployments
- Dev, QA and staging environments
What remained protected
- Existing desktop workflows
- Broader laboratory operation
- Familiar user processes
- Existing database & historical data
- Reporting and administrative functionality
- Day-to-day work across all six departments
Experience Across the Environmental Laboratory Workflow
Order intake → Chain of custody → Sample distribution → Analyst assignment → Departmental analysis → Quality control → Reporting → Billing. We treat your LIMS as an operational system containing years of processes, dependencies and business rules—not a collection of screens.
How We Take Over an Existing LIMS
Five deliberate steps to convert an undocumented or partially-understood system into a visible, governed operating model.
Understand the System
Examine the current application, database, repositories, environments, backlog and delivery process. Identify workflows with the highest operational risk.
Create a Continuity Map
Document the application landscape, technology stack, integrations, authentication, deployment, environments, critical workflows and known risks.
Stabilize Delivery
Establish repository access, environments, backlog triage, release process, QA responsibilities, deployment ownership and knowledge transfer.
Establish Managed Governance
Define ownership, roles, support workflow, escalation, backlog governance, sprint rhythm, delivery KPIs and release responsibilities.
Improve and Modernize Continuously
Deliver support, defect resolution, new reports, workflows, APIs, web modules, testing, release automation and architectural improvements in parallel.
What You Receive from an Initial LIMS Continuity Review
Designed to answer one practical question: what should your laboratory support, improve, modernize or replace—and in what order?
Request a LIMS Continuity Review- Current-system overview
- Application & database map
- Critical workflow map
- Delivery & ownership assessment
- Vendor-dependency assessment
- Documentation-gap assessment
- Security & release observations
- Immediate risk register
- Backlog review
- Stabilization recommendations
- Modernization opportunities
- Recommended engagement structure
Engagement Options
Choose one track or combine them. The SAILab engagement is proof that support and modernization can operate in parallel around the same system.
LIMS Continuity & Support
Laboratories that need dependable ongoing support, issue resolution and system ownership.
Managed LIMS Development
Laboratories with an active roadmap of reports, workflows, modules and enhancements.
Modernization Workstream
Laboratories that need to extend a desktop or legacy system into modern web and API-based workflows.
Combined Support + Modernization
Laboratories that need to keep the existing system running while introducing new capabilities in parallel.
Accountable Delivery for Business-Critical Laboratory Systems
Accountable delivery—not isolated resources
A managed engagement has delivery ownership, governance and defined responsibilities.
Support and development in one model
The same engagement can resolve current issues while moving the platform forward.
Experience with a mature laboratory system
We have worked with a large desktop LIMS, shared laboratory database, API layer and emerging web channel.
Incremental modernization
Modernize individual workflows without requiring the laboratory to stop using the rest of the system.
Multi-disciplinary engineering
Development, QA, DevOps, database expertise, business analysis and delivery management in one team.
Quality and security culture
Brain Station 23 operates with CMMI Maturity Level 3 and ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications.
Who This Service Is For
- Environmental, analytical, asbestos & industrial hygiene laboratories
- Materials, water, soil, air and chemistry testing operations
- Laboratories with custom or heavily configured LIMS platforms
- Laboratories using mature desktop systems
- Laboratories dependent on a small internal technical team
- Laboratories dependent on one external software provider
- Laboratories that need improvements but cannot risk a full replacement
This may not be the right service when
- You only want to purchase a new packaged LIMS licence
- You are looking only for one temporary developer
- You need a standard SaaS product with no custom engineering
- Your existing system has no reusable operational value
- You require a full implementation of a specific commercial LIMS product Brain Station 23 does not support
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you provide support for an existing LIMS?
Yes. We provide LIMS support services for existing laboratory systems. Scope depends on your application, technology, database, current provider and operational requirements—including issue analysis, defect resolution, database troubleshooting, release support, documentation and enhancement delivery.
Do you sell a LIMS product?
No. Brain Station 23 is a software engineering and managed-services company. We support, extend, integrate and modernize the laboratory system you already use.
Do we need to replace our legacy LIMS?
Not necessarily. A mature or legacy LIMS may still contain valuable workflows, reports, business rules and data structures. We first assess what works, what creates risk and what prevents improvement, then recommend whether to support, modernize, partially replace or fully replace.
Can you take over from our current LIMS vendor?
Yes, provided the required access and cooperation can be established. A takeover normally begins with code, database, documentation, environment and backlog assessment, followed by a knowledge-transfer and transition plan.
Can support and modernization happen at the same time?
Yes. The SAILab engagement operated through two parallel tracks: continuous desktop delivery and incremental web modernization around selected workflows.
Can you add web access to an existing desktop LIMS?
Potentially, yes. In the SAILab engagement, a tablet-friendly web workflow and REST API were introduced while the desktop application continued using the same underlying database.
Can we begin with one workflow?
Yes. Starting with one high-value workflow reduces risk and creates evidence before expanding modernization.
Can you work with an undocumented LIMS?
Yes. The first phase focuses on understanding and documenting the system—code analysis, database mapping, environment review and business-rule discovery—before major changes.
Do you guarantee regulatory compliance?
No software provider should guarantee that without understanding the laboratory, accreditation scope, jurisdiction and validation responsibilities. We support technical controls, testing, documentation, traceability and release processes; the laboratory remains responsible for accreditation and formal approval.
How is performance measured?
Metrics are agreed per engagement and may include response and resolution performance, backlog progress, release predictability, defect trends, delivery throughput, documentation progress, system stability and modernization milestones.
Keep the System Running. Regain Control. Modernize What Matters.
A laboratory system can be old without being obsolete. It can also be operational without being under control. Let us help you see which is which—and build a managed delivery plan around it.