For users who are selecting LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) or any other information systems, online collaboration and data sharing are key goals for achieving informational transformation, and even the core thereof.
 
The benefits of information systems—such as improving communication efficiency, reducing delays in information transmission, and enhancing data transparency—are widely recognized. However, many LIMS users and even some LIMS vendors struggle to clearly articulate which specific measures can improve collaboration and sharing efficiency, and whether all LIMS software can deliver the same level of improvement.
Combining the product development and implementation experience of SW-LIMS independently developed by Sunwayland, this article briefly explores how SW-LIMS enhances users' online collaboration capabilities and data sharing levels in various aspects, as well as the specific advantages these improvements bring to laboratories.
 
User Permission Management
As the foundation for collaboration and sharing in information systems, SW-LIMS ensures data security and confidentiality through comprehensive user permission management functions. Furthermore, in line with group management requirements, it implements data isolation via a multi-tenant management model, ensuring that online collaboration and data sharing are only accessible to authorized users. Each user can access the data and functions they need through granular permission settings without encountering sensitive or irrelevant information.
 
Daily Management
In the daily management functions of LIMS, SW-LIMS automatically assigns daily tasks—such as inspection request, sampling, sample reception, sample pretreatment, test record filling, and report preparation—to departments or teams, fully adapting to the offline intra-team collaboration mode of most laboratories.
These workflows are also customized in laboratories across different fields according to industry practices, ensuring that the scope of online collaboration aligns with each company's management requirements and work habits. For tasks requiring individual traceability, the system allows users to assign tasks to their own accounts for operation. When an individual is on leave or overloaded with work, tasks can also be transferred to others through leadership assignment or personal acceptance.
During this process, SW-LIMS provides a workload dashboard to display users' pending workloads, further helping to balance work distribution. This relatively flexible intra-team collaboration design mainly considers that the minimum organizational structure of most laboratories is usually a closely cooperative and well-coordinated group. If tasks are forcibly bound to individuals and difficult to transfer, the collaboration efficiency brought by informatization will be greatly reduced. Meanwhile, to ensure traceability during collaboration, SW-LIMS retains traceability data of all operations through audit trails, avoiding unclear accountability afterward.
 
System Integration
To improve the collaborative response efficiency of various LIMS users, SW-LIMS is equipped with standardized interfaces for mainstream OA (Office Automation) systems and IM (Instant Messaging) systems such as WeChat Work, DingTalk, and Lark. It can send message notifications for information such as pending/overdue tasks, instrument validity periods, material validity periods, material inventory, abnormal test results, and abnormal quality judgments in daily management. It can also transfer various system processes—such as contract review, inspection request review, report approval, and requisition application review—to OA or IM software, allowing users to receive information and process workflows on mobile devices, further enhancing the system's collaborative capabilities.
 
R&D Laboratories
For R&D laboratories, Sunwayland R&D Project Management System (SW-RDMS) has established a collaboration mechanism more tailored to their needs.
Firstly, through project planning and management tools, SW-RDMS allows assigning responsible persons and team members to each key milestone and project task, and setting corresponding access permissions based on the confidentiality level of the tasks. The system also supports team members to edit project documents through online collaborative editing, with functions such as comments, replies, and real-time online communication during the editing process.
Secondly, the built-in ELN (Electronic Lab Notebook) in SW-RDMS facilitates multi-person collaborative data entry and enables granular permission management of data in electronic records according to the confidentiality requirements of experiments.
Thirdly, the built-in test and analysis processes in SW-RDMS function as a mini LIMS system. Sample information created by R&D personnel in ELN can seamlessly generate analysis tasks within the system and be transferred to the analysis center for processing. The analysis results are automatically updated to the electronic records, thereby improving the data collaboration efficiency between R&D departments and analysis departments.
 
Group-based Third-Party Laboratories
For group-based third-party laboratories, SW-LIMS supports group-level management through a multi-tenant model. On the basis of ensuring data isolation among subsidiaries or business lines, it can also implement unified data distribution for the management domains under centralized group control.
This strategy enables overall planning of laboratory resources such as instruments and equipment, reagents and materials across the entire group, and can balance workloads during peak and off-peak periods when some laboratories face abnormal workloads, thereby enhancing the work collaboration and resource sharing capabilities among various group institutions.
 
Production Quality Control Laboratories
For production enterprise quality control laboratories, Sunwayland has standardized interfaces for mainstream production systems such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), and WMS (Warehouse Management System). Through the integration of SW-LIMS with production systems, work collaboration between the production end and quality inspection departments is realized.
After the implementation of SW-LIMS, various types of production quality control and raw material/auxiliary material quality control can real-time obtain production batch, arrival batch, or inspection batch data from ERP, MES, and WMS, automatically generate inspection request forms, and initiate inspection tasks. SW-LIMS automatically associates inspection plans (including test items, test methods, quality standards, sampling plans, etc.) through the standard ID of products or raw materials.
After SW-LIMS completes the entire inspection process, it will push the final test data, test reports, and inspection conclusions (including release conclusions if release approval is conducted in SW-LIMS) back to systems such as ERP, MES, and WMS, realizing seamless data flow between the production end and quality control end. This fully reduces collaboration barriers between departments and systems, and improves the collaboration level among departments of production enterprises.
 
Data Sharing
In addition, SW-LIMS's data sharing function allows internal and external laboratory users to access data as needed. This sharing is not limited to text and numbers but also includes images, videos, and other multimedia content. This is particularly important for laboratories that require cross-departmental or cross-organizational cooperation, as it reduces the time and cost of data transmission and minimizes errors caused by inconsistent data formats.
Through the aforementioned online collaboration and data sharing functions, SW-LIMS brings significant advantages to laboratories: it not only improves work efficiency but also enhances data security and transparency, while increasing the laboratory's flexibility and responsiveness. With the help of the SW-LIMS system, laboratories can manage resources more efficiently, improve service quality, and ultimately achieve the goal of informational transformation.