5 reasons labs should switch to Elemental Machines for alerting & monitoring

A few short years ago, a monitoring system that extracted data from a decades-old scientific instrument would have been unrivaled. LabOps teams had just one decision to make: harness data by contracting with the only brand on the market, or don’t. Today, real time alerting and monitoring is increasingly available from multiple brands, and we’re all better for it. Sensors are growing smarter, connectivity is growing faster, and foiled research projects are growing rarer.

Although increasingly populated, the alerting and monitoring playing field is by no means a level one. Listening to lab manager's headaches and hopes has shaped Elemental Machines' solutions and established the company as a trusted partner to research, clinical, and R&D labs around the world. But don’t take our word for it. When our customers speak, we take notes. Here are just a few of their recurring remarks.

1. User-friendly platform

It’s one thing to monitor a piece of equipment or environment. It’s quite another to ensure that the data extracted by such monitoring makes it to the right people, in the right formats, and at the right time. The intuitiveness of the Elemental Machines platform is among one of the most frequent pieces of feedback we hear. As one lab manager explained:

“The A/C has been down in our entire building since 12:30am this morning. We have eight ambient monitors in alert status right now. We scaled back our operations to a skeleton crew and sent employees home until the A/C returns, which is projected to be around noon. We are actively monitoring the temperatures remotely using Elemental Machines' dashboard. Without such a user-friendly, continuous monitoring system, we would not be able to provide up to the minute reports on the situation. The ease of logging on via the internet and watching the temperatures rise has been invaluable in assisting us to manage this very difficult situation.”

2. Turnkey sensor technology 

A major pharmaceutical customer came to Elemental Machines after installing a competitor’s sensors in their lab. Or perhaps more accurately, they purchased them. Months later, they still hadn’t produced a single data point. Why not? Their installation required complex networking by the IT department, and the IT department never got around to it. 

Elemental Machines’ sensors connect nearly any equipment, from any manufacturer, from any era, measuring nearly any metric. Equipped with WiFi and supplemented by battery and cellular backup, our sensors begin transmitting data in as few as 60 seconds from unboxing. No IT trouble ticket required.

One current customer made the switch to Elemental Machines at the last minute, based on ease of installation alone. He explains:

“I was about to purchase a setup with [a competitor] I’ve used in the past. When I saw how easy it would be to install the monitoring devices, and heard that they can be integrated into Benchling, I put the brakes on!”

3. Data you can trust

If there’s one thing worse than an alert interrupting a long-awaited weekend, it’s a false one. Our customers consistently praise the accuracy of Elemental Machines data and alerts. As two different LabOps leaders described, improved accuracy can have dramatic impact on team morale: 

“We had lots of scientists excited to have a system that won’t send them tons of false alerts or need to be completely reset all the time. When showing reports to the operations team, they looked at each other and smirked when they realized how much time they’d be saving going forward. Thanks all!”

"OMG, we have been dealing with false alarms, lack of clarity of past systems’ data validity, and most importantly no easy way to respond to requests. It was almost like a treasure hunt.”

4. No more data silos

If a data point falls in the forest, but no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? The number of customers who switch to Elemental Machines after trying a competing monitoring platform that conceals data behind access controls or within siloes never ceases to amaze us. For data to be useful, it has to be accessible.

Elemental Machines makes data access simple, empowering users with easy access controls and a universal dashboard. Data is accessible from anywhere at any time, both in real time and over time. One lab director put it this way:

“[Our lab managers] are extremely excited about reducing the number of steps it takes to make a device visible to their tenants and more easily manage their multitude of devices.”

5. Comprehensive platform & ecosystem

LabOps teams aren’t looking for another gizmo. They have more than enough to manage. For many teams, the biggest hurdle to IoT connectivity is the hassle. Often, each asset manufacturer requires its own dashboard, its own protocols, and produces its own reports. Not so with Elemental Machines. The Elemental Machines platform replaces redundant and incompatible sensors, processes, and dashboards with a single universal system that connects a lab’s every asset and environment. One and done. Another LabOps leader put it bluntly:

“Other laboratory monitoring companies reach out often, and I always respond to them with, ‘We have Elemental Machines; is there anything you do that they don't do?’ That question typically shuts down their response very quickly.”

Ready to make the switch?

To see for yourself how Elemental Machines can improve your lab’s operations, request a free trial here.