Without a fully integrated scientific data management solution (SDMS), you have a partial solution.

Why? Because Laboratory Information Management Systems are no longer just a set of tables where results are stored. Savvy LIMS buyers demand far more than sample tracking, test scheduling and workflow management.

They want graphical instrument reports, binary instrument files, and desktop output fused automatically with tests, batches, clients, projects, instruments, QC standards and other common objects defined in the LIMS.

It's easy to confuse SDMS with "integrated document management." But think about it: Who wants to retag all of the metadata stored within instrument reports and binary instrument files? And why would you want to use manual "check-in, check-out?" And how would you review more than one document at a time, i.e., all records based on a single query, side-by-side in a single view?

A loose collection of databases - LIMS and Document Management -- is not a "total informatics solution." If you're unclear on the distinction, try to find any laboratory record across all lab sections and all facilities, scanned image or instrument report associated with a given batch of samples in your LIMS, and then restore the underlying binary data back to the instrument that generated those reports!