A safe formula for success

Digital process automation provides transparency and oversight for project management and IT support services

The daily business in a laboratory is characterized by regulated process flows, high levels of automation and enormous amounts of data. Every disturbance is like poison in the veins of the analytics operation. For this reason, the IT division of the laboratory diagnostics manufacturer EUROIMMUN relies on the antidote JobRouter® when implementing new devices in the laboratories of customers. The workflow management system aids the specialists in coordinating the implementation of projects quickly and audit-proof. A formula highly valued by the customers as well.

"If a test has a positive result, this is usually not a good thing for the patient", says Henrik Heller, head of the IT Customer Projects & Consulting and Software Quality Assurance departments at EUROIMMUN. In vitro diagnostics play a key role in the choice of the right therapy by attending physicians all over the world. This also applies to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism or infectious diseases, for which enzyme immunoassays are used for diagnosis.

Requirements

JobRouter meets all critical project goals - and then some

Three goals were significant during the switch to JobRouter® for project management:

An overview over the project status has to be able to be generated at any time and from any place.
Responsibilities have to be precisely defined.
Mandatory documentation according to German and international law, including the German TÜV and the U.S. FDA standard, is obligatory to be implemented.

Advantages and Features

Project management with JobRouter®. Helping EUROIMMUN be more productive.

users can design processes, forms and rules without programming knowledge
makes project management more efficient and faster, saves time and costs
manages responsibilities, coordination and approval processes automatically and transparently
allows clear prioritization, definition and processing of standard workflows
helps to plan and adjust resources and capacities optimally
displays the current project status at the push of a button - anytime, anywhere
easily generate excerpts, detailed views and reports
ensures compliance with QM standards and goals
automatically attaches audit logs to processes and archives them
simplifies back-tracing through version data
is easily added to any system environment, connects easily to third-party systems

Project details

Client: EUROIMMUN
Industry: Bio Technology
Employees: Worldwide more than 2000 over 14 locations
Instances: 1 instance / day

Database: Microsoft SQL
Ongoing processes: Support process, project management
Planned processes: ///////////// Characteristics: Interface to an internal ERP system, CRM system, collaboration software and indirectly to the ordering system. Project duration: 2 weeks, plus successive adjustment

Tireless spirit of research

One of the world's largest and most comprehensive arsenals of those tests is provided by EUROIMMUN, the company that invented the BIOCHIP. But the company never rests on its laurels. Quite the contrary. They regularly launch new test systems for medical diagnostics.

For example, EUROIMMUN was the first company worldwide to release specific tests for the serological diagnostics of Zika virus infections. These tests have been developed by scientists of EUROIMMUN and evaluated in cooperation with the WHO Collaboration Center for Arboviruses and Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses (WHOCC). They are used in related studies in Brazil and make a significant contribution to the reliable diagnosis of Zika virus infections.

Analysis of the IT receptors

In addition to providing reagents for analysis, EUROIMMUN also supports laboratory operators with the infrastructure (devices and software) to automate laboratory processes. Among them, systems for computer-aided microscoping and intelligent pipetting. But laboratories have to work economically and efficiently as well and the degree of automation in diagnostics laboratories increases continuously. "IT landscapes in laboratories can be quite challenging. There are many platforms that have to communicate with each other," emphasizes computer-scientist Heller about the requirements. The company’s middleware EUROLabOffice® works like an interpreter and connects on-site devices with the laboratory information system of the customer. The application helps to save paper, time and documentation effort and achieves a higher throughput at the same levels of security and quality.

Every new project starts with a detailed workflow documentation process in the customer laboratory. Since April 2014, the data from the log flows directly into the JobRouter® digital process automation platform which provides transparency and an overview for project management. It is not the first process implemented by the IT division. In the previous year, their support process was switched to JobRouter® and optimized with a ticket system.

The crucial difference between JobRouter® and other systems is that you can dig for quite a while into the features of this digital automation platform without ever reaching an end. And even if you do, you can still design a solution without programming. The basic components quickly provide you with ideas for your own approach, at least that is how it went for me. I found the JobSelect module to be quite nifty, it allows me to generating reports and excerpts from records without having to do additional research.

Henrik Heller
Head of department for information technologies, customer projects & consulting and software quality assurance
EUROIMMUN AG

Treatment standard with priorities

What the EUROIMMUN software provides in the customer's laboratory, the JobRouter® digital process automation platform provides in the internal IT division - order, transparency, and compliance with standards. The graphical user interface and far-reaching configuration possibilities let the users avoid programming tasks.

First, a project team of four employees defined a process step diagram:

Who has to do what and what do they need to complete the tasks?
Who has to enter which information?
Which rules are there between the steps, who has to be informed?
Which levels of escalation for deviations from the default are important?

After one week, the draft was finished. After the second week, the forms for every step were designed and rules for the workflow were defined. A few days later, the first customer project was entered. 230 customer projects later, the computer scientists work with the fifth version of the process. As an iterative process, the process steps simply continue to be adjusted, optimized and updated.

JobRouter® allows me to design all necessary configurations myself, without the need to program something and without the need to wait. That is quite pleasant.

Henrik Heller
Head of department for information technologies, customer projects & consulting and software quality assurance
EUROIMMUN AG

"It is quite valuable if our technicians always have the right information on hand when they are with customers." explains head of department Heller. "The customers notice if a project is handled in a highly regulated manner." Thanks to standardized processes and a strict prioritizing, it works like this: The first results of the first visit at the customer laboratory are logged in detail. In the following analysis, the work steps, the installation of new analysis devices, the software interfaces and possible customer specific individualizations are defined. The aim is to help the laboratory to reach a higher level of automation and more efficiency. The rules and forms in the JobRouter digital process automation platform ensure that nothing is lost. Depending on the scope of the project, escalation stages, for example for feasibility studies, approvals, project assignments and milestones, are defined.

Complete control from the diagnosis to the invoicing

Now, the device sales department has all data needed to prepare an offer that can be sent to the customer directly or through one of their international distributors. After the offer is accepted, a project manager is appointed who travels to the customer to install and configure on-site. Numerous logs accompany this process. They are attached to the respective process step in JobRouter® and later archived. Simultaneously recorded version data simplifies back-tracing. After the project is concluded, the device sales department receives the necessary information needed for billing. "Our expectations are basically met, not only concerning reports", states Heller. "That I am informed about the status of my projects at the push of a button has considerably simplified my daily work."

EUROIMMUN produces reagents for medical laboratory diagnostics to detect autoimmune diseases, infections, and allergies; for analyte analyses; and for molecular biological diagnostics. The company is one of the market leaders worldwide in this sector, based on its modern, partly worldwide patented production processes and micro analysis techniques. EUROIMMUN was founded as a private company in 1987 and was transformed into a publicly held company in 2002. EUROIMMUN headquarters are located in Lübeck, Germany. The laboratory diagnostics specialist employs more than 2000 employees in 14 countries. In the 2014, the company was ranked the third most innovative small and medium sized company in Germany by the business publication, EconomicWeek. In March 2015, EUROIMMUN was voted one of the top 10 most women-friendly companies in Germany.