News

February 12, 2012 . Newark, DE. Today Blaze Systems announced the release of version 3.3 of its BlazeLink instrument interfacing middleware. Instrument interfacing has long been recognized as the low hanging fruit for a step change in laboratory effectiveness, often delivering 20-40% labor savings, eliminating a 1-3% transcription error rate, and reducing turn around time with attendant enterprise benefits. BlazeLink is ideally positioned to deliver these benefits to laboratories by integrating any instrument with any LIMS at the lowest cost per instrument in the industry. BlazeLink supports unidirectional or bi-directional operation, handling the entire integration task, including transport, translation, and data augmentation. BlazeLink usually operates in a fully automated and unattended mode, but may also provide an operator interface for data review and augmentation. BlazeLink is configurable for any data source or destination, employing tools such as a powerful new visual parsing program, XML style sheets, comprehensive calculation processor, plug-ins for special protocols and web services access, and more.

Contact Blaze Systems today and arrange for a comprehensive lab survey leading to a proposal that will revolutionize your instrument data capture processes.

December 3, 2012 . Newark, DE and Chicago, IL. – Today, Blaze Systems, creator of the BlazeLIMS and BlazeLink suite of laboratory informatics products and KineMatik, creator of the eNovator Suite of R&D software products and the leading provider of Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) announced a strategic alliance and reseller agreement.

Blaze Systems Corporation has been providing LIMS and instrument interfacing solutions to a broad range of functions and industries since it was established in 1992. Its BlazeLink informatics system middleware provides seamless integration between ELN, LIMS, SDMS, CDS, and test/analytical instruments.
Since 1999 KineMatik has helped R&D organizations collaborate, get products to market faster, and protect intellectual property by offering the eNovator suite of R&D software solutions.

“We are truly excited about our relationship with KineMatik,” says Larry DeHeer, Blaze Systems President.  “Today it is all about speed to market, and the eNovator – BlazeLink – BlazeLIMS marriage gives the researcher a real productively boost in producing more results faster, and cataloging them for effective leveraging off the past work of others. That is something of which we are very proud, because good things are going to happen as a result.”

 “Through our collaborative relationship, KineMatik has web-enabled tools from Blaze that provide simple and intelligent interfacing to a variety of external systems.  KineMatik customers will benefit from seamless access to test data in LIMS, SDMS and instrumentation, along with the ability to issue test requests directly from an experiment.  This collaboration will provide best-in-class capabilities for both ELN technology and analytical systems in a single ELN solution, available from a single source,” stated Michael C. Price, Vice President of Sales for KineMatik.  “KineMatik realizes that seamless integration is key to ELN usability and as a focal point for all corporate data related to R&D, Intellectual Property and product development.”

About Blaze Systems
Blaze Systems Corporation was founded in 1992, and offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services in the laboratory informatics space, including a full featured and broadly used laboratory information management system (BlazeLIMS) for both the small and large enterprise, system integration middleware (BlazeLink) for a wide variety of systems including instruments, inventory management (BlazeInventory) for the lab or enterprise, shelf life study software (BlazeStability), and services for installation, training, and configuration assistance.  We deliver enterprise qualified LIMS products with a small company persona that is highly personal.  Our successful solutions and world-class services are the result of 20 years of experience in laboratory informatics.  www.blazesystems.com.
About KineMatik
KineMatik was founded in 1999 as the leading global provider of an Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN), Quality Management System (QMS), Laboratory Resource Management System (LRMS) and Project & Program Management (PPM) solutions based on industry standard software platforms including Open Text Content Server and Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technologies. KineMatik, with our expert Ph.D. Scientific Advisors, helps people in industry, government and academic organizations operate collaboratively, manage their data efficiently and be productive in their daily tasks whether they are bench scientists, laboratory directors, project managers or quality and audit teams. KineMatik has been in business for over 13 years focused on helping make R&D organizations more efficient. For further information please visit us at http://www.kinematik.com

March 8, 2012 . Blaze Systems Corporation has issued a white paper reflecting on the state of information management in most 21st century labs, mired in the use of stone age information management tools. Some of the possible reasons for this debilitating state of affairs are addressed.

Newark, DE.  August 20, 2011.  Blaze Systems Corporation today announced that New Season Foods Inc, a subsidiary of Knorr Foods Company, Japan (part of Ajinomoto Group, a Japanese-based global company) has selected and implemented BlazeLIMS and BlazeLink as its laboratory automation solution in support of its primary manufacturing laboratory. New Season Foods produces dried and dehydrated vegetables.
Because of the seasonal nature of their process, the NSF laboratory must operate effectively in the face of wide swings in the demand for laboratory testing. Personnel and instrument resources must be managed to maintain a high reliability and dependability of testing in the face of these swings in demand and in personnel.  BlazeLIMS is providing important process improvements to facilitate this. 
First of all, barcode labels are printed for sample containers and for aliquots to insure positive sample/aliquot identification throughout the workflow, which involved the routing of samples to multiple labs and instruments.
In addition, BlazeLink, Blaze System’s instrument interfacing product, is providing tightly coupled bi-directional interfacing between BlazeLIMS and a variety of laboratory instruments requiring instrument specific protocols.  BlazeLink collects and coordinates the aliquot barcode id on aliquot containers with the instrument results for pH, weight, color, sugar, etc., automatically processing the results into the BlazeLIMS database as they become available, while also providing comprehensive calculations.  This automation is resulting in a substantial productivity and throughput benefit.
Another process improvement was provided by automated production and delivery of results reports and notifications using the flexibility and configurability of Excel as integrated with BlazeLIMS.
In addition, BlazeLIMS is performing automated scheduling and management of environmental monitoring sampling as required for the food and beverage industries, and is also managing, tracking, recording and enforcing instrument calibration and maintenance protocols.
Carolyn Mayer, Laboratory Manager at New Season Foods says “We are very pleased with the way BlazeLIMS has met or exceeded our expectations in streamlining our lab and improving our ability to scale up to very high seasonal throughputs.  We not only achieved our initial goals with BlazeLIMS but are also continually improving by employing additional features.  BlazeLIMS provided the features we needed without the higher costs and uncertainties of customization.  A key ingredient in our success has also been the superior hotline support provided by Blaze Systems.”
Larry DeHeer, President of Blaze Systems says “We take every LIMS installation personally, and we are very pleased with the ways in which New Season Foods has employed our products and services to improve their business performance.”
About Blaze Systems
Blaze Systems Corporation is headquartered in Newark, DE, offering a comprehensive portfolio of products and services for the laboratory, including a full featured and broadly used laboratory information management system (BlazeLIMS) for both the small and large enterprise, instrument interfacing (BlazeLink) for a wide variety of instruments, inventory management (BlazeInventory) for the lab or enterprise, shelf life study software (BlazeStability), and services for installation, training, and configuration assistance.  We deliver big featured LIMS products with a small company persona that is highly personal.  Our successful solutions and world-class services are the result of 17+ years of experience in laboratory informatics.  www.blazesystems.com.
About New Season Foods
New Season Foods Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Knorr Foods Company, Japan (part of Ajinomoto Group, a Tokyo-based global manufacturer) and is headquartered in Forest Grove, OR.  New Season Foods produces sweet corn powder and other vegetable ingredients primarily for instant soups. The company uses agricultural products from the Willamette Valley and the Columbia River Basin. http://www.newseasonfoods.com/.

August 1 , 2011 Blaze Systems announces the release of version 5.4.2 of its flagship BlazeLIMS Enterprise and Small Enterprise Systems. This release includes powerful templates for its CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action) functionality, along with new automated role based notification features to create and sustain the chain of command for dealing with quality issues on a timely basis. The BlazeLIMS equation processor was enhanced to provide configurable ELN (electronic laboratory notebook) method execution calculations where they are required to augment the standard built-in equations.  This feature allows for a large variety of calculations, checks, etc. on the method execution process, virtually eliminating paper systems for tracking and insuring proper prep and analytical method execution.  In addition a host of other improvements providing increased flexibility and function have been included, all of which demonstrate a tangible reality to Blaze Systems commitment to offer the best LIMS in the business via continuous improvement driven by customer requirements.

Newark, DE.  May 17, 2011.  Blaze Systems Corporation today announced that Scantibodies Laboratory, Inc., one of the world's largest manufacturers of medical diagnostic products including polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, false positive blockers, diagnostic kits and specialized plasma and serum products, has selected and implemented BlazeLIMS and BlazeLink as its laboratory automation solution in support of its primary manufacturing and R & D laboratory.
BlazeLIMS provided important process improvements in several areas.  The replacement of a manual sample form submission process with direct LIMS entry of testing requests by the users, with accompanying barcode label printing for positive sample identification delivered a step change in the accuracy and specificity of requests, reducing time lags and laboratory efforts required for call back and verification, problems that are inherent in any paper based manual system.  Real time sample tracking for testing and management of analytical tasks has also contributred to a more effective laboratory. Another process improvement was provided by automated production and delivery of results reports and notifications using the flexibility and configurability of Crystal Reports as integrated with BlazeLIMS.
BlazeLink delivered a major gain in Laboratory performance by providing bi-directional interfacing between BlazeLIMS and a variety of clinical laboratory instruments, automatically delivering test requirements to the instruments based on the barcode identifiers on aliquot vials, and automatically collecting and processing results into the BlazeLIMS database as they become available.  The reduction in tedious manual data transcriptions in both directions has streamlined this process for labor reductions and improved throughput and utilization of costly instruments.
Vanik Sarkissian, Laboratory Manager at Scantibodies says “I can tell you with confidence that we are very pleased with the outcome.  BlazeLIMS has streamlined many of our processes (sample ordering, sample tracking, testing and timely reporting, etc.), provided necessary timely communications with internal departments and has given us significant paper reduction.  These are just a few benefits that we are enjoying from BlazeLIMS.”
Larry DeHeer, President of Blaze Systems says “We take every LIMS installation personally, and we are very pleased with the ways in which Scantibodies has employed our products and services to improve their business performance.  At Scantibodies, it is all about the patient; we are highly privileged to play a successful role in supporting that vision.”
About Blaze Systems
Blaze Systems Corporation is headquartered in Newark, DE, offering a comprehensive portfolio of products and services for the laboratory, including a full featured and broadly used laboratory information management system (BlazeLIMS) for both the small and large enterprise, instrument interfacing (BlazeLink) for a wide variety of instruments, inventory management (BlazeInventory) for the lab or enterprise, shelf life study software (BlazeStability), and services for installation, training, and configuration assistance.  We deliver big featured LIMS products with a small company persona that is highly personal.  Our successful solutions and world-class services are the result of 17+ years of experience in laboratory informatics.  www.blazesystems.com.
About Scantibodies
Scantibodies Laboratory, Inc. is headquartered in Santee, CA, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers of medical diagnostic products including polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, false positive blockers, diagnostic kits and specialized plasma and serum products. www.scantibodies.com

March 28, 2011 Blaze Systems announces the release of version 5.4.1 of its flagship BlazeLIMS Enterprise and Small Enterprise Systems. This release includes a general purpose and feature rich Lot Release function, which provides lot release for various combinations of grades and customers, using results from one or more samples and applying a variety of rules including minimum sampling, customer pre approval of pre shipped samples, and skip lot testing. Also included are a powerful notification capability, COA production, configurable integration with ERP systems for product disposition, and much more. Most manufacturing labs can use this feature right out of the box and avoid expensive custom programming of their lot release rules. Version 5.4 also includes numerous enhancements to add functionality and improve cross-feature integration, ease of use, and flexibility, all of which provide a tangible reality to Blaze Systems commitment to offer the best LIMS in the business via continuous improvement driven by customer requirements.

Contact Blaze Systems for access to a video demonstrating the features of BlazeLIMS Lot Release.

January 14, 2011 . Today Blaze Systems and Cyberwolf Software announced a strategic partnership designed to mutually benefit both companies by providing cloud-based data retrieval technology to BlazeLIMS customers.  The agreement provides exclusive sales distribution of Cyberwolf Software’s product Hunter Web Client for BlazeLIMS to Blaze Systems.
The Hunter Web Client for BlazeLIMS is a web-based, drag and drop data query tool that allows end users with a simple interface to retrieve BlazeLIMS data.  Additional features have been added to allow customers to pivot Sample data (1 row per sample) and perform Charting.
To watch a video that privides great insight into the Hunter Client for BlazeLIMS, click here.
“Information is the end product of every lab.” said Larry DeHeer, president, Blaze Systems.  “And every LIMS database is a potential gold mine of decision support information for business improvement.  Too many labs are still islands of information with a static set of information deliverables and limited access by a few trained users.  Hunter is a proven solution that bridges the gap between that information and a large, widely distributed and untrained body of potential users with unpredictable and ever changing information needs.  Hunter can transform the lab into a valuable resource for business improvement, and we are delighted to make it available to our LIMS customers.”
 “We are excited for the opportunity to bring Hunter technology to the BlazeLIMS community,”  said Dennis DeBevec, president, Cyberwolf Software.  “Having worked with BlazeLIMS for many years we have found that Blaze Systems delivers a LIMS product that provides superior business rule implementation, functionality and flexibility.  Working together, we can provide a leading edge business intelligence tool to an impressive LIMS transactional system.”

Blaze Systems and Cyberwolf Software will begin to roll out the initiatives outlined in the agreement throughout the first quarter of 2011.  This will include an initial testing phase that will take place over the next month, with a plan to provide full implementation in 2011

January 5, 2011 . Blaze Systems is starting off the new year with a flourish by announcing the release of its new dataset migration utility BlazeDataMover. This breakthrough technology saves man days of effort in the precise and validated migration of datasets of information between BlazeLIMS databases. BlazeDataMover is of particular benefit for GLP validated systems, where configuration datasets must be faithfully migrated from test to validation to production databases. With a single command, issued via a graphical or command line interface, a large set of primary table records along with all their children and reference information may be exported to XML format and then imported in another database. This utility can save man days of tedious manual error prone effort with each use.

November 8, 2010 . Blaze Systems announces the release of a new and improved support package for GxP LIMS IQ OQ PQ Validation, representing a significant breakthrough in validation effectiveness. The IQ OQ PQ Validation package does not merely provide generic validation templates, but includes provisions for a complete validation environment, including consistent trace ability references to Functional and Design Specs as embodied in LIMS documentation, automatic database initialization for test cases, "cherry picking" for effective risk based validation combined with system level feature blinding, and much more. These resources can be incorporated into a customer's total Validation Plan, with extensive labor savings.

September 13, 2010 . Blaze Systems announces a new release of its flagship BlazeLIMS Enterprise system. New features include a comprehensive results Publish function, so that desired results sets (clinical trial collection, etc.) may be released and distributed to the user community in a controlled, documented, audited fashion under electronic signature control. Also included are many improvements to existing features, such as improved integration of BlazeInventory with other enterprise systems and much more.

July 23, 2010 . Blaze Systems announces a new release of its BlazeLIMS Enterprise system. New features include the consolidation of run-time user level screen configurability into a comprehensive screen/function pre-configuration utility to enable removal from visibility and use entire screens, tabs, regions, or fields, so that unwanted and unused features may be both invisible and unusable, thus simplifying training, validation and use. Also included are many improvements to existing features, such as expanded types of method execution steps to include standards dilutions and much more, and many improvements to standard reports.

October 1, 2009. Blaze Systems has issued an Instrument Interfacing White Paper examining the apparent paradox evidenced by the underutilization of this powerful and cost effective adjunct to LIMS functionality. The various myths which contribute to this reality are discussed, evaluated, and examined under the illuminating light of reality.

March 23, 2009.  Blaze Systems announces the development of a comprehensive LIMS legacy data migration wizard and toolkit which streamlines and reduces the cost of migrating historical laboratory data from a variety of legacy data sources (Excel, Access, etc.) into BlazeLIMS. 

It is almost universal that a LIMS installation is a second or third generation solution, a follow-on to a legacy LIMS, Access application(s), or Excel based system(s) for laboratory management, made necessary as laboratory needs expand and mature. So too, the need to migrate legacy data into a new LIMS installation is almost universal.  By their very nature, legacy systems often contain dirty data, that is, data that is inconsistent, having poor relational and content integrity, as well as lacking a sound underlying physical or logical data model.  The task of transforming such disarray into sound relational and content order can be daunting and expensive. 

Blaze Systems has developed a legacy data migration wizard and toolkit which automates and streamlines this process.  It provides a framework for specifying the legacy metadata, selecting and separating out entity data sets, cleaning up inconsistent values and loading the data via the standard BlazeLIMS Autologger and Results Uploader.  In this way all the required relational integrity and data content is assured.  Using this new capability, Blaze Systems can provide lower cost, fixed price and effective data migration when you purchase BlazeLIMS and have legacy data you wish to preserve and reference going forward.

March 16, 2009. Blaze Systems has issued a Systems Integration White Paper to at least "scratch the surface" of the opportunity to begin making application architecture for enterprise business effectiveness a significant element in IT strategy for any enterprise, small, medium or large.

March 5, 2009. Blaze Systems has issued a Barcode Labeling White Paper that brings to light many of the key issues to be addressed when determining if LIMS software can deliver the business improvements typically available from the use of machine readable (barcode, RFID) labeling.

January 30, 2008. Blaze Systems announces a new release of BlazeDataWarehouse, its Data Warehousing Module, with support for full bi-directional replication of LIMS configuration and run-time data. With BlazeDataWarehouse, you can run local application and database servers for optimal performance and availability of transaction processing, and also maintain as fine-grained a view of your enterprise wide quality data as you desire in a decision support server to provide comprehensive management of your quality processes across multiple sites and businesses. In addition, the associated configuration data can be maintained either locally or centrally and distributed appropriately, insuring enterprise wide data integrity. BlazeDataWarehouse opens new vistas for bringing enterprise wide quality management to a new level.

July 20, 2007. Blaze Systems announces a new release of BlazeInventory, its Inventory Management Module with support for new assay reagent/kit management and tracking features.  BlazeInventory features, along with fully integrated bar coding, insure absolute control of assay reagent/kit usage to guarantee conformity to SOP rules for reagent life cycles, lot mixing, etc. With BlazeInventory, recalls caused by inadvertent use of questionable assay reagents are a thing of the past. BlazeInventory also protects against receipt of stale materials and insures minimum waste.  BlazeInventory can be purchased and used in stand-alone mode or as a fully integrated add-on to BlazeLIMS.

July 20, 2007. Blaze Systems announces the release of Version 5.3 of BlazeLIMS Enterprise Plus and BlazeLIMS SE (small enterprise), its flagship LIMS products. Enhancements include CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action) tracking for customer focused and internal concerns and events, more flexible and configurable event messaging, more comprehensive features for integration with other systems (e.g. SAP, PI, IP21, etc.), more automation for uniformity and dilution studies, and enhanced plate management.