Labs-of-Time® running in full operation

Major Belgian laboratory ECCA creates its own virtual front-office

Breda (NL)/Ghent (B), 26 April 2006 – After having thoroughly tested and evaluated Labs-of-Time, Belgian Laboratorium ECCA N.V. has adopted this web-based solution in all its operations. Labs-of-Time is a sophisticated web-application developed by LabWing for on-line ordering of analyses and reporting of test results. In scarcely six months time, Labs-of-Time has reached the point of being up and running.

The dealings between ECCA and LabWing started with the installation of LabWing’s LabBox for establishing the connections between the application server and ECCA’s LIMS (Siemens Unilab 4.1). ECCA management has decided to opt for the hosting formula, meaning that the application is running on LabWing servers.

ECCA and LabWing recognized immediately that their co-operation would result in a precious win-win situation. LabWing was able to further program and test-drive new functionality in a real-life lab situation, whereas ECCA – not having an in-house IT department – would benefit from several sophisticated connectivity solutions provided by LabWing staff, headed by Drs. André van Cleeff.

The overall result is that since November 2005, a group of major ECCA clients have been working satisfactorily with this innovative e-laboratory formula, forwarding their orders and service requests on-line and receiving by the same channel results (both preliminary and final) in customized reports containing more information than the market to date is accustomed to, and LIMS systems can technically provide.

Labs-of-Time is now running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has thus reached the stage of being fully operational. Obviously ECCA did not hesitate to adopt the application immediately, processing a quarter of a million test results per year.

Labs-of-Time offers ECCA clients some valuable advantages that the laboratory here to could not provide. Most importantly, the possibility of forwarding preliminary results automatically to the clients every 15 or 30 minutes. The lab is now furthermore able to provide reports in various data formats (.xml and .xls) in order to produce highly client-specific reports. Another practical aspect of Labs- of-Time is that final test reports are provided in PDF-format, digitally signed by the laboratory manager.

LabWing’s CEO, Luc Scholtis commented: ‘We are immensely happy with the fast implementation we could realize thanks to the professional approach the ECCA team demonstrated. Barely seven visits in eighteen months time proved to be enough to have Labs-of-Time running successfully, after having enabled access to the application server via the ECCA website. I wish to emphasize that we are very grateful for the confidence ECCA placed in us. And I hope that ECCA will be able to consolidate and preferably broaden its market position, thanks to this time and effort saving solution. I feel that ECCA is showing the market clearly that it is resolved to remain a lab of its time!’

About ECCA
ECCA N.V. (Ghent, Belgium) is an independent contract laboratory for industrial analyses, accredited by several public authorities, including the Belgian ministries of Public Health and Agriculture. ECCA specializes in chemical, microbiological and biological testing both for the food industry and environmental entities. ECCA is accredited by Beltest (the Belgian National Council for Accreditation and Certification) with regard to about a hundred analyses according to NBN EN ISO 17025 criteria. Analyses are performed by means of validated methods. Each test result is followed up by an extensive system of quality controls.

For complementary information on LabWing in general and this press release in particular, please contact Drs. Luc H.A.Scholtis at +31 (0)76 564 50 70 or at luc.scholtis@labwing.com.