Mosaic Vivarium

Lower Cost Barcode Scanners

2011-12-16T20:25:00.001-08:00

We’ve used the Motorola (Symbol) barcode scanners with great success. However, one of our customers recently pointed out that there are less expensive alternatives. For example, check out this model for about $30 bucks:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OUQ174/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

If you are OK with using the wired USB scanners, this is a good alternative.

Now someone just has to find a less expensive Bluetooth-enabled scanner…

Fix for Firefox 8.0.1 and Mosaic Vivarium Cage Side Assistant (CSA)

2011-12-15T14:25:00.001-08:00

Despite the fantastic work of the Mozilla folks, it seems like every time a new Firefox version comes out something breaks. Firefox 8 is no exception.

Users have reported problems with the Cage Side Assistant under Firefox 8 on both the Mac and the PC. Two pieces of good news here:

We did a quick test of Safari 5.1.2 on the Mac: all of Mosaic Vivarium, including CSA, seems to work. With Apple’s improvements, Safari now seems like a viable platform for using Mosaic Vivarium.
We have a work-around for users of Firefox 8.0.1 (Mac and PC).

Here’s how to allow Cage Side Assistant to work properly under Firefox 8. First, make sure you have the latest Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 installed by visiting this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx

That’s all you should need to do for the Mac.

For the PC, put on your work gloves, because we’re going under the hood for this one.

Open Firefox 8, type “about:config” into the address bar, and press the button:
Type “ipc” in the filter box, then double-click on the “dom.ipc.plugins.enabled” entry until its value is “false”:
Close all Firefox 8 windows and restart Firefox 8. CSA should now work normally.

What did we just do? Firefox runs some plugins (like Flash and Silverlight) in a separate process. The idea is that if the plugin fails, Firefox doesn’t crash. Great idea if the plugin still works correctly… If you are technically curious, some related information (pre-Firefox 8) may be found here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins

Please login to your Mosaic Vivarium account and send us feedback if you are still having problems.

Tablet Computers for Mosaic Vivarium

2011-11-15T19:32:00.001-08:00

Tablet computers are becoming useful alternatives to laptops for laboratory animal resources (LAR) data entry directly in the animal room. We find that tablets and laptops provide the depth of functionality needed by husbandry staff.

To use Mosaic Vivarium, you’ll need a Windows 7 based tablet (not an Apple or Android based tablet). We’ve successfully used the Acer Iconia W500 Tablet. These are currently available through Amazon. Acer Iconia TAB W500P-BZ841 10.1 Inch AMD Dual-Core C-50/2GB/32GB SSD/No ODD/Win7 Pro Tablet PC. Note that we recommend the “BZ841” version with Windows 7 Professional.

Get a Bluetooth Motorola (Symbol) LS 4278 scanner to go with this tablet. Simply plug your DYMO Turbo 450 into the USB slot when you’ve queued up a bunch of cage cards to print.

One concern with any consumer device in the LAR environment is durability. Most of our customers have had good experience with consumer laptops, but we don’t yet have enough experience with the new tablets. (How often are they dropped?) In the meantime, we’ve tested a ruggedized tablet from MobileDemand. The T7000 model has an integrated barcode scanner that is fast (laser, not camera based), as well as an optional add-on keyboard. You can check out the videos at their web site. The screen resolution is comparable, but the physical size is a 7” display (T7000 model) or 8.4” (T8700 model) compared to the Iconia’s 10.1” display.

The MobileDemand tablets have a proven track record of durability and scanner-productivity in other industries. They also have straps/harnesses for walking around with the computer without fear of dropping. We found the MobileDemand computers quite usable.

Avoiding the Pesky Internet Explorer File Download Blocker

2011-11-15T16:52:00.001-08:00

If Internet Explore is blocking your cage card downloads, here are some settings you can check. These screenshots are from Internet Explorer 9.

Locate the Tools menu, or the “Gear” button in the upper left:
Select Internet options:
Go to the Advanced tab and
check “Notify when downloads complete” and
uncheck “Do not save encrypted pages to disk:
You may also need to go to the Security tab and
click Trusted Sites and
click the Sites button and
add Mosaic to the list:
Make sure your trusted sites enable file downloads. Hit the Custom Level button and enable “Automatic prompting for file downloads”
Finally, restart your browser. You should now be able to download without being blocked.

Preparing Your IIS Server for Future Mosaic Vivarium Updates

2011-06-29T17:58:00.001-07:00

Background

This topic is for customers with Mosaic Vivarium installed on local servers. Releases of Mosaic Vivarium after June 2011 will require the following features on your IIS server:

.NET 4
URL Rewrite Module 2.0

Please take a few minutes soon to make the preparations shown below.

Solution

The Microsoft .NET Framework 4 installer can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17851

The URL Rewrite Module 2.0 installer can be found here:

http://www.iis.net/download/URLRewrite

The installation takes a few minutes and does not require a server reboot. Once completed, you will have a new Feature in your IIS Management Console:

We also anticipate using an ASP.NET v4.0 application pool in Integrated pipeline mode. Instructions regarding this configuration change will accompany future updates.

How to Create the Mosaic Web Windows Event Log Source

2011-06-01T19:29:00.001-07:00

Background

This topic is for customers with Mosaic installed on local servers. Mosaic logs exceptions in the Windows Event Log using event source “Mosaic Web”. These events may be used to help diagnose certain configuration errors, such as an inability to send emails from the application. This article describes how to create the Mosaic Web event source.

Solution

Get a command prompt running as an Administrator on the Mosaic web server. (On Windows Server 2008, run a command prompt as administrator by right-clicking and choosing “Run as Administrator.”)

Change directories to the “bin” directory of the Mosaic web.

Run the following command:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil vci.dll

Mosaic events may now be viewed in the Windows Event Viewer under the “Mosaic Web” source.

Using Mosaic with a Proxy Server

2011-05-19T18:49:00.001-07:00

For customers with Mosaic installed on your servers, you may find that help topics or Mosaic alerts are not displayed. This can be due to a misconfiguration of your “External Help Url” or your “Notification URL” or you may have a proxy server in place at your organization.

Solution

Under Administration | Maintenance –> Mosaic Settings, locate the “Mosaic Application Configuration” section.

If the “External Help Url” or “Notification URL” settings do not appear, click “add/remove settings” and add them by clicking their checkboxes.

The correct setting for “External Help Url” is:

http://www.virtualchemistry.com/MosaicHelp/MosaicHelpHandler.aspx

The correct setting for “Notification URL” is:

http://www.virtualchemistry.com/MosaicHelp/SaasAlerts/alerts.aspx

If Help and Alerts still do not work, your Mosaic server may communicate through a proxy server. You’ll need to obtain the address and port of your proxy server. Place an entry similar to the following into the <configuration/> element of the web.config file for your Mosaic web.

<system.net>
<defaultProxy>
    <proxy
      proxyaddress=http://proxy.company.com:8080
      bypassonlocal="true"
    />
</defaultProxy>
</system.net>

Recovering your “mosaic” password

2011-05-13T14:39:00.001-07:00

The following topic applies to customers with Mosaic installed on your own servers

To recover access via “mosaic” you need to modify the vci.config.xml file (in the “config” folder) for the relevant Mosaic web.

Locate the "Vci.Mosaic.Authentication.Mode" key and make a note of the current value.

Then change the value to “Maintenance” as shown:

You can now login from a browser on the server itself as “mosaic” with no password. You must be on the web server to do this.

Once logged in, change the “mosaic” password via the options link (upper right). You can also go to Administration | Security -> Personnel and right-click on the row for the “mosaic” user to set the password.

When you are done, restore your vci.config.xml to its original state.

Updating Mosaic

2011-05-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

For customers with Mosaic installed on your own servers, there are three components of installing an update.

1. Update the database

2. Update the web

3. Update the application metadata

Step (1) is not always needed, but if it is, then you’ll receive an Update-2011-xxxx.zip file which includes the scripts and an Update.bat file which you run:

c:\temp> Update MOSAIC/MOSAICPW@ORCL

Step (2) is simply a matter of extracting the new web and “pointing” your Mosaic IIS application to this new directory. Notes:

If you have custom authentication DLLs, copy them from your old “bin” directory to your new one.

If you have custom locations for your configurations and sandbox directories, copy the following block from your old web.config to the corresponding section of your new web.config

Step (3) requires you to login as the “mosaic” user and press the “(Re)load Application MetaXml” button with “Incremental” unchecked, and “Import Data” checked.

* ? X

2011-05-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

What are those symbols on my breeding cage cards?

Have you printed any new breeding cards yet? These cards always show the parents associated with the original mating configuration. However, those parents may not always be in the cage. For example, you may have moved one female to her own cage, and euthanized the male. To make this more clear, you will see a small column with a symbol on the left of the card where the parents are listed:

* means this parent is currently in this cage.
? means this parent has been moved to some other cage.
X means this parent is not alive.

New Receiving Cage Cards

2011-05-04T18:15:00.001-07:00

We have three new cage card templates streamlined for receiving. Take a look at the examples below, and if any of them fit your needs, their names are "Receiving 1", "Receiving 2", and "Receiving 3" in Mosaic. Just choose them when creating your receiving cage cards.

These are optimized for the DYMO 30256 stock, landscape orientation.

We can also have investigator phone numbers on cage cards. If you want a customized cage card including phone numbers, different printer stock, different orientation, contact us through the Mosaic feedback link on your account.

Receiving 1

Receiving 2

Receiving 3

Browser Caches

2011-01-18T22:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, after a Mosaic web site update, a page may not work properly or may even indicate an error. This is most often due to cached Javascript. This can also affect the Cage Side Assistant.

Clearing your browser's cache will often fix this. Below are examples for IE 9 and Firefox 3.6.13.

IE:

Firefox:

Print Dialogs for Adobe Reader and DYMO Turbo 450

2011-01-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

Printing Mosaic Vivarium cage card labels on the DYMO Turbo 450 requires specific settings to prevent unwanted clipping of the edges. All Vivarium templates (whether "landscape" or "portrait") are setup to print with Adobe Reader 9.3 or 9.4 print dialog in the standard "Portrait" mode with the following settings.

In particular, note:

Page Scaling is set to Fit to Printable Area.

Auto-Rotate and Center is checked.

If you press the "Properties" button, you'll see the second image where "Orientation" is set to "Portrait."

For more details on this topic, in Mosaic Vivarium on the Cage Cards worksheet, click the "Correct DYMO Printer Settings" link:

Connecting the Symbol LS 4278 Bluetooth Scanner to a Laptop

2010-07-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

The LS 4278 is a great option for cord-free barcode scanning. The Kit we recommend has the part number LS4278-TRWU0100ZWR with power supply 50-14000-253R. This kit contains a cradle which connects via USB to the computer. The scanner then communicates via Bluetooth to the cradle which sits next to the computer and relays the data through USB.

You can also purchase a charging-only cradle (with power supply) which does not have the USB connection. In this scenario, you need to Bluetooth-pair the scanner directly with the computer. We have found that his works nicely, but there are some tricks to getting the scanner to reliably pair with the computer.

To pair the scanner directly with the computer, scan
"Set Defaults" on page 6 of the Symbol LS4278 Quick Reference.
Then scan "HID Profile Slave" on page 13.

Now set your computer to discover devices. The scanner, identified by its serial number, should appear. Wait for the serial number to appear. Attempt to pair with the device. If a PIN is requested, type 12345.

In most cases, this will work. However, if it does not, then right-click on the discovered scanner icon in the bluetooth devices, choose Properties, click on the services tab, and check the box that enables HID drivers. Your scanner should now pair.

Don't forget to program the scanner to append a carriage return after each scan.

Programming the Symbol LS2208 Barcode Scanner

2009-08-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Many of our customers use the Symbol LS2208 barcode scanner. Here's how to setup and use your new scanner for use with Mosaic Vivarium.

The scanner comes with a "Quick Start Guide". If you lost yours, you can get a new copy from here.

Plug the scanner into your laptop computer.
Find the section of the Quick Start Guide that looks like this:

Press the trigger to scan the barcode labeled "HID KEYBOARD EMULATION".

Next, find the section that looks like this:

Scan these three barcodes in order, 1,2,3.

That's it. The scanner is ready to use.

If you've never used a barcode scanner before, just think of it this way: the scanner is a means of entering a number (series of characters) into the computer without having to type it.

Try this:

Open Notepad on your computer and put the cursor in the blank space.
Scan a barcode from a Vivarium cage card.

You should see the cage number followed by the cursor moving to the next line in the Notepad.

When you are doing a Census with Vivarium, make sure the cursor is in the blue-bordered scan box before you start scanning cage cards.

Mobile Computer Setup

2009-05-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

(Updated June 2011)

If your facility has wireless network access, the following setup can be put on a lab cart for convenient cage-side record keeping with Mosaic Vivarium. Prices are approximate.

$700 Laptop Computer

For example shop Dell. We suggest upgrading memory to 3GB or more and display to 1680x1050.

Get WiFi Internet.

Get Bluetooth if you wish to connect a wireless barcode scanner.

If you need to update an older laptop with Bluetooth, we've successfully tested the following USB Bluetooth Dongle under Windows XP and Windows 7, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833242003

There are some newer Windows tablets out that look useful, but we have not tested them yet. If you are a Mosaic Vivarium user and you have used any of the newer tablets, leave a comment to let us know!

Check out the HP Slate 500 Tablet PC
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-3841267-3955550-4332585.html

$150 - $300 Plastic Supply Cart on Wheels

For example, http://www.instawares.com/black-utility-cart-lockable-cart-carts-janitorial-supplies-rubbermaid-service-utility-utility-cart.3457bk.0.7.htm

NOTE: Not all lab floors are level - consider a cart with wheel locks.
$140 DYMO LabelWriter 450 Turbo

Direct from DYMO, http://sites.dymo.com/Solutions/Pages/Product_Details.aspx?SegmentName=&cat=LabelWriterPrinters(DYMO)&prod=1752265(DYMO)&page=1

$22 Label stock 30256 fits on 3x5 index card stock, leaving room for a colored border.

Direct from DYMO, http://sites.dymo.com/Solutions/Pages/Labels.aspx?cid=1043(DYMO)&gid=1003(DYMO)
$135 Symbol LS 2208 USB Barcode Scanner
http://www.barcodesinc.com/symbol/ls2208.htm

$550 If you want to go wireless, the Symbol LS 4278 has Bluetooth
http://www.barcodesinc.com/symbol/ls4278.htm
The kit is part LS4278-TRWU0100ZWR and you need a power supply, part 50-14000-253R.
$70 UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply / Portable Power)

This is just to run the Dymo printer which cannot run from the USB power alone. Plug the UPS into the wall when the cart is not in use.

Customers have successfully used CyberPower units. E.g., shop Buy.com http://www.buy.com/prod/cyberpower-cp600lcd-ups-intelligent-lcd-diagnostic-panel-600va-340w-8/q/loc/101/204332852.html

For the CyberPower models, get versions with the LCD display in order to be able to shut off the audible notification when the unit is operating on battery power.

NOTE: Generally, UPS units are not designed for sustained power drain. A better option may be units designed for portable power. We have tested the Black & Decker CPI100B http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SZVMRW/ref=oss_product and the Duracell Powersource Mobile 100 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S0VFRE/ref=oss_product

Strangely, the Black & Decker unit we tested did not successfully run the DYMO. However, the Duracell unit performed fine, providing standby power for more than 12 hours. High volume printing may shorten the duration.

The Duracell unit seems to be an adequate solution for DYMO printing when direct AC power is inconvenient.

Cost Effective Cage Card Printing

2009-05-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

Updated Dec 2011

Mosaic Vivarium generates cage cards as PDF files which you print. A very cost effective printing solution is to purchase a $130 DYMO thermal (black and white) label printer:

DYMO LabelWriter 450 Turbo

You can attach this to the USB port of a laptop on a cart in your facility and print labels one-by-one as needed with no waste of label stock.

The majority of Mosaic Vivarium cage card templates are sized for part number 30256 labels. These are 2-5/16" x 4" (300 labels/roll) and will adhere to a 3x5" index card leaving a border. By using colored index card stock, you can color cue your cage cards by type.

Direct from DYMO is a little expensive ($22 / roll as of Dec 2011, 7.3 cents / label):

http://sites.dymo.com/solutions/pages/Labels.aspx?cid=1043(DYMO)&SegId=Office(DYMO_US1)&gid=1003(DYMO)&Stype=solution

Here are a couple of sources for lower prices on DYMO 30256 labels. We recommend trying a roll to make sure you are getting the print quality you expect. We have tested from this source ($2.59 / roll as of Dec 2011, 0.86 cents / label):

http://www.officesmartlabels.com/Shipping-Labels-Dymo-Compatible-30256-p/officesmartd256.htm

Customers have also used this source ($3.90 / roll at 100 roll bulk discount as of Dec 2011, 1.3 cents / label):

http://discountthermallabels.com/100-rolls-of-dymo-compatible-30256-white-shipping-label-721

Leave a comment for the community on your experiences with these sources.

Colony Management - Build versus Buy versus Both

2009-04-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

So you've been managing your mouse colony for a while now, and you've decided that pencil and paper or even Excel spreadsheets just aren't cutting it. You're having "issues" and you've decided that you need a "real solution" to the bookkeeping associated with tracking mice (and other animals).

If you haven't come to that conclusion yet, this post is not for you. (Don't worry, you'll be back.)

Many people have already come to the conclusion that there is a better way to manage these data. Perhaps you are:

an individual investigator at a university studying disease models, or
an animal study manager at a small biotech, or
a facility manager at a pharmaceutical company...

Your task is now to find a cost-effective solution that will make your life easier and save your organization money (or just give you more time to do science). You decide to dig out those old marketing emails you've been stashing for a rainy day and learn a bit about some of the commercial solutions. You find that features and prices vary widely, but a couple solutions rise above the rest. They seem to do 95% of what you want.

OK - let's talk price. Hold on a minute! These things cost some money. How much? Some prices seem crazy, but some seem... fair. But then a new thought crosses your mind.

Investigator:

Hum... maybe I could just have an undergrad put something together for me. Kids
are pretty smart with computers these days!

Study Manager:

Hey - we've got an IT guy - he says he can put together an Access database to do
what I want. Maybe we'll just do that.

Facility Manager:

I've been around the block, I know this solution does what I want... but I sure
don't want to deal with budget justification and battles with our IT group which
is telling me that everything needs to fit our corporate IT roadmap. I'll let
them create something.

So far so good. This decision implies that the cost of the commercial solution exceeds the total cost of creating new software from scratch. The rest of this post examines that analysis. But if you just want the bottom line, here's the simplest way to summarize this decision. To believe you should build versus buy, you must believe:

I can run a research group (or, department, or facility) and create, support and
maintain software in a timely and economical fashion for one customer: my group
(or my department, or my facility). Furthermore, I can do this for less money
and time than a vendor which has spread costs out over multiple customers (of
which I could be one if I pay the license fee).

If you fundamentally believe this economic statement, then you should build your own software. If you have even the smallest doubt, the rest of this post examines this position in more detail.

There are several kinds of costs associated with a technology decision:

direct costs (cost of people's salaries; cost of software licenses)
opportunity costs (cost of waiting; cost of choosing incorrectly)
efficiency costs (cost of using a poor system, like paper - the reason you're reading this)

The most objective costs are the direct costs. Opportunity costs and efficiency costs can be measured, but they are more difficult and sometimes more subjective - but still important.

Investigator:

Let's say we can get an undergrad for $12/hour (cheap!) who promises to build what you need in a solid month (160 hours) of work. So, if company quotes you more than $1920 for a commercial solution, then you've got a winner, right?

Sure, as long as you can honestly reconcile yourself to the implicit assumptions of this decision:

The commercial software you reviewed probably had person-years invested in its development. They are probably reasonably smart people, and they probably have diverse experience in managing these kind of data (since, presumably, they've worked with many customers). The student must be up to the challenge of reinventing the functionality that you need within your budget.
What is your tolerance for error? Presumably, you were quoted a fixed price for the commercial software. Can your budget tolerate an overage if the student requires more time than advertised? Even professional software projects have a tendency to run long...
Now the student is a busy person, and can't really be working 40 hours a week on this project. Ten hours per week seems more likely, so the month of billable work might be four months of elapsed time. If you've already decided you want a software solution, then there must be a cost to waiting for something that you could get right now from the software vendor for a fixed price. What is that cost? (And what if it is eight months instead of four?)
Well, you say, this stuff is not rocket science, and even if it takes 4-8 months, so be it. Presumably, you'll be using this solution for a while - what do you do when there are bugs and the student has left? Hire a new student. OK - but that's more cost, and less efficient spend since the new student has to figure out what the previous one did.
What about backups? (One of the commercial solutions that looked really good offered the software online via the web, and the vendor takes care of all backups...)
What about software maintenance? We just installed Windows Vista and the student's software no longer runs, and I can't see my mice! How to deal with that? And, it will happen. (That online software offering never required me to do any installation or updates...)

How about having a student that is already paid for on a grant do this? Hum.... OK. But even if the $1920 is hidden, you still need to be comfortable with issues 1-6.

Study Manager:

If you've read through the Investigator's analysis, you probably realize that just about everything is similar, except your IT people cost more. Let's say you have a genius working for you on a $60K salary (forget overhead). Your professional's time costs your company $30/hour. (Software engineers are laughing now - the required skill set doesn't exist at that rate, but roll with me.) So that software vendor better not charge more than $4800, or I'll just have my guys build it. Furthermore, we can task the engineer full-time, so I only have to wait a month!

True, as far as it goes. But let's be honest; if you are looking for colony management software for more than a single investigator's group, you probably want it to do more. Maybe you want robust security, task-based privileges, web access, etc. Perhaps you can agree this is really a two month job, and the vendor could really ask $9600, and it would be well worth your company's money.

(I should reiterate here that these time estimates are absurd and chosen only as lower-bound figures that are impossible to reasonably argue with. Don't go tell your boss or your IT group that you heard that robust colony management software can be built in two months.)

Considerations 1-6 above come into play, but being at a company you have a little more infrastructure support. For example, you have people to do software updates, and hardware to do backups. Nevertheless, these things are costing your company money, and you can put a dollar figure on them.

You also have a greater challenge: in dealing with more people, you need to make sure the software will be adopted by all relevant parties. This may seem obvious, but many internal IT projects fail because the engineers lack the domain experience needed to produce software that works well for the users. A single research group with fewer animals may be more tolerant of quirks or inefficiencies of user interface, but a larger set of users may simply reject or ignore the software they are being asked to use. The result is a failed project and wasted money.

You also need to consider software maintenance carefully: if you are successful, and your software is adopted internally, your users will generate a constant stream of requests for bug fixes and feature enhancements. How about when the original developer leaves? Your company will pay a price for bringing a new person up to speed.

Facility Manager:

You've got a good handle on your requirements, and you know the costs of running your facility. Consider your software license and maintenance costs in terms of a fraction of your facility per diem. The industry norm ranges from $1.00 to $2.00 per cage-day. If a commercial solution will improve the accuracy and efficiency of your facility for a penny or even a nickel of that per diem, it should be a no-brainer.

However, if you are requested to perform a build-vs.-buy analysis, you can assume several things:

You will be faced with everything discussed above and more.
The amount of feature and function you require will be enterprise level: development estimates less than a year are not credible.
Your company is not in the business of software development. Internal IT personnel can and should identify commercial solutions that can be integrated with other systems in order to create competitive advantage for your company. The not-invented-here syndrome is too costly given the economic pressures on the pharmaceutical industry as well as academic centers.

This build-versus-buy discussion summarizes key issues we've seen over and over again during a decade of creating data management solutions for life sciences, including Mosaic Vivarium. There is perhaps one more "trump card" that sometimes gets pulled out. We call it the "Pragmatic versus Perfect Problem," and when it appears, it is usually in medium to larger organizations, sometimes when an existing solution can no longer be maintained.

The Pragmatic versus Perfect Problem

The Pragmatic versus Perfect Problem occurs when a set of influential users are not happy until the software does precisely what they want. They may be used to an existing process, or part of legacy solution that behaves some specific way. The premise of this argument is that the process of these users is so special that the cannot modify their workflow at all in order to gain the broader benefit of a complete software solution.

To accept this, you must accept the argument that this particular facility or set of users is significantly different from all other facilities of comparable size (large or small) that are already using the software to great advantage. Generally, this is not true: the argument is an excuse not to change. In these cases, the users have not truly made the decision to modernize their processes.

Build versus Buy versus.... Both

There are real business cases that make changing to a commercial solution difficult. For example, perhaps there is a special requirement for a non-standard integration with another piece of software at the company. This brings us to the "Both" part of our "Build versus Buy versus Both" discussion: the economical solution should be to seek a vendor that has:

a platform which can be efficiently extended,
a development team that can work with internal IT to accomplish the integration or feature extension, and
the ability to provide on-going support

The concept of finding a vendor as an informatics partner is not new. See for example this article on the issues by Daniel C. Weaver of Array Biopharma.

The considerations we've presented in this post apply more generally to other kinds of software as well. For example, we work with customers seeking to manage the study data coming downstream of the colony management / husbandry. Interestingly, the smallest groups (i.e., investigators) tend to see this need first because they end up managing both the maintenance of their colony and the acquisition of scientific data. Larger sites tend to compartmentalize these software functions, largely because different sets of users perform the husbandry versus the experiments. Nevertheless, it makes sense to have an integrated system, and the same Build versus Buy versus Both arguments apply to the entire animal informatics domain.

Vivarium Data Management

2009-04-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Based on many years of experience with life-science data management, our team at Virtual Chemistry created a software platform called Mosaic. The platform contains much of the basic "plumbing" we need when we help our customers manage scientific data.

Mosaic Vivarium became our first complete solution built on Mosaic. We've been marketing Mosaic Vivarium for a couple of years now as a convenient, web-based solution for managing the husbandry of laboratory animals, predominantly mice.

During our numerous conversations with prospective Mosaic Vivarium users, we've discovered several recurring themes and questions. We've also developed a set of "lessons learned" from several deployments of Mosaic Vivarium in both large and small vivaria. In this blog we'll periodically discuss what we hear from users and what we've learned over time. We hope others will find the information helpful as they consider how best to manage their vivarium.