Background

The Health Protection Agency is an independent organisation set up by the UK government in 2003.
Its remit is to protect the public from threats to health such as infectious diseases and environmental or nuclear hazards. It provides advice, guidance and support to agencies such as the NHS, local authorities and the Department of Health.

As part of its operational requirements, the HPA needed a bespoke software tracking solution to manage the millions of samples held by the European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures.
The importance was such that the HPA decided to hire a team of software programmers and design a system to specifically address their needs.

This system is called ICAST - Inventory Control, Audit and Sample Tracking.

As the HPA used industry experts to create the software it didn’t suffer the same fate as other government run IT projects. The ICAST system is now widely regarded as an excellent scientific inventory control and tracking system.

Investment

With the success of ICAST, the HPA saw the possibility to release the software and share the benefits it offers. This led to a partnership opportunity where a partner could produce the system under licence and market it commercially.

An agreement between the HPA and Flaxlands Management led to us being that partner. Our task is to provide sales and marketing expertise to market ICAST effectively. The target audience being existing laboratories with a need to control large collections of scientific samples. These collections can be diverse, hazardous and spread over multiple locations and agencies. All things ICAST is designed to manage.

As part of this project, Flaxlands Management Ltd have set up a new entity to manage ICAST, called LabMACS.

LabMACS is a software house and I.T. consultancy committed to introducing the benefits of ICAST to the scientific community. Our aim is to highlight the fact that having a specifically designed sample tracking and inventory tool offers many advantages over other solutions. To promote the fact that it is undoubtedly the most efficient system for laboratories operating controlled sample collections.

This bespoke system helps reduce costs and improve sample and specimen control procedures by efficiently monitoring and tracking inventory.

For a successful commercial launch of ICAST:

• Flaxlands developed a specific business plan and marketing strategy unique to this product
• Supply ongoing sales and marketing expertise to support the business
• Partnered with the original ICAST programmer to support and develop it for the future.

The Way Forward

The partnership between the HPA and Flaxlands is designed to offer investment, research and the ongoing support of ICAST. There is a long-term commitment to our clients and ICAST, which includes system support and development. There is also a roadmap for the release of associated products in the future.

The scientific industry is a niche, and a very competitive one. The field of analytical laboratory sample tracking is even more so. LabMACS offers clients an excellent sample tracking system in ICAST. A system that offers significant advantages over its competitors, having been designed specifically to address the needs of the industry.
Offering a fully secure system, LabMACS allows laboratories to take control of their data with the ability to track and report against a range of criteria. Users are able to track everything by user, date, and time, and comment if required. They can then report or export all that data into ASCII, text or MS Excel formats for further analysis.

ICAST is a unique system that addresses unique requirements. LabMACS is dedicated to providing and supporting it throughout its lifecycle and beyond.