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| CLINICAL CHEMISTRY ANALYSER The New Turbo Machine |
Equipment and Devices |
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| Project Profile |
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Project: XL Analyzer
Industry: Software / Industrial software
Business area: Medical instruments, Clinical chemistry |
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Year/Duration: 2000-2002-2010/10 years
Resources: Team of 5 programmers and project manager
Technology: Borland® Delphi programming language, XML |
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 Client
Vital Scientific is a leading manufacturer and distributor of clinical laboratory instrumentation for
in-vitro diagnostic applications. The company, based in The Netherlands, has over 45 years of expertise
in the development and production of automated and semi-automated analyzers marketed world-wide under
the well-known Vitalab® label. A number of reputable companies also offer Vital instruments on OEM basis.
Project overview
The goal of the project was to create a new clinical chemistry analyser with high throughput, twice as
higher than Vital’s standard analyser - Selectra E. Objective was: use components from existing Vital’s
analysers (software and hardware) as much as possible, increase components reusability, and lower development,
manufacturing and maintenance costs.
Another objective was to make analyser interfaces as much as possible similar to the current Vital’s
analysers, to increase acceptance from current Vital users. Besides implementation of already existing analyser
features, requirement was to implement new features like integrated barcode reader, improved sample handling,
and improved calibration capabilities.
Development of the new analyser with high throughput was not an easy task. Software had to process double
amount of data and control more than double number of components compared with existing analyser. At the same
time requirements were made to use existing analyser code as much as possible because this written code has
proven itself over the time.
Software had to be intensively tested, verified and validated to be able to meet all strict regulations for
medical instruments. For the same reason all project steps had to be well documented and all procedures defined
by ISO standard had to be followed.
Execom solution
EXECOM was selected by Vital Scientific as their long-term partner to collaborate in the design and
development of the Xl Clinical Chemistry Analyser. EXECOM's expertise in this domain combined with
well defined and recognised software development methodology was the right precondition for this
partnership to succeed, and the best way to overcome cost and time constraints.
During project initiation, a special workgroup consisting of Vital’s and EXECOM's specialists was created
in order to provide a better understanding of the specific tasks to be supported by the system. In a spirit
of close cooperation and trust between the two companies, the project began with an in-depth requirements
analysis of the process and data.
Development process was split into several stages and milestones were made for every stage. With this
approach Vital Scientifics management was able to check if development is going as planed, change some
stages or introduce new ones in the project plan. Regular visits to client’s sight decreased development
time, improved information exchange and data acquiring, increased EXECOM’s knowledge level about the whole
system and brought customers confidence to higher level.
During large-scale projects like this one, requirements are usually changed on the run and new ones
are made during development. EXECOM’s software team showed flexibility and managed to meet all customers’
requirements as agreed.
Benefits
EXECOM worked in closely with client's management and in-house technical resources and over the time
became strong partner on which Vital Scientific can relay on. Two companies have gained the following benefits:
- Improved software quality and reliability;
- Access to highly skilled and trained pool of employees;
- Fast sharing of the latest technology;
- Frequent project presentations;
- Successful knowledge transfer: enhanced ability to respond to opportunities, better customer service, and
lower transaction costs;
- Hiring and training onsite would have slowed the R&D time by 3-4 times.
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