How a Free Online Management Tool Works
Did somebody order more dNTPs? Where is the p53 antibody? Every day, simple questions like these disrupt workflow and distract researchers from their experiments
With Quartzy you know what you have, know what you need, and buy it all in one place.
Problem: Did somebody order more dNTPs? Where is the p53 antibody? Every day, simple questions like these disrupt workflow and distract researchers from their experiments. Labs spend billions of dollars on chemicals, biologics, and supplies only to end up managing their orders and inventory with hacked together solutions to their organizational problems. Inventories are tracked using Excel, Google Docs, or Filemaker, and ordering is done with a hodgepodge of email, white boards, and Post-Its. These solutions weren’t built to handle the specificities and regulations surrounding lab supplies, and this has left scientists and their lab managers to pick up the slack, wasting precious time and resources, and stalling scientific progress.
Solution: Recognizing the high cost of suboptimal operations, labs are looking for solutions to streamline their lab management. Quartzy is one such solution with a unique approach. Focused on comprehensively addressing lab supply management, it consolidates inventory tracking and supply ordering workflows into a single user-friendly experience. Now labs can know what they have, know what they need, and buy it all in one place.
Quartzy’s web-based software makes it easy for labs to track the quantity and location of supplies, communicate when something needs to be reordered, and eases the purchasing process for labs by enabling them to get everything they need from a catalog of over two million products from top suppliers like MilliporeSigma, Rainin, and New England Biolabs. Quartzy carefully incorporates every step of the inventory-to-purchase cycle for labs, ensuring a smooth end-to-end experience that makes adoption of Quartzy fast and easy for labs of every size.
But optimizing lab supply management with better workflows is only part of the solution. Supplier error, shipping problems, and backordered products add an additional layer of complexity, often outside the control of the lab. Quartzy takes a fresh approach to this challenge by providing labs access to a support team of scientists and supply experts who ensure labs receive the products they require when they need them. It even operates its own fulfillment center to address many of the "last mile" challenges labs contend with when it comes to supply delivery such as shipping costs and lead times.
Prices for lab supply management solutions can vary, with many charging monthly subscriptions or requiring individual licenses. Quartzy, however, makes access free to its over 13,000 labs and more than 160,000 scientists and lab managers across the United States. It’s able to keep the platform free through partnerships with leading suppliers and sales through its built-in catalog.
If you’re looking for help with lab management, there is an ever-expanding library of online solutions from which to choose—all designed to help decrease costs and increase the pace at which science is done. The labs that streamline their processes and move to systems like Quartzy will be the ones that stay a step ahead of the rest.
For more information, go to: www.Quartzy.com
Editor's Note: This article was updated on March 14, 2018