Sherry Laboratories 

Challenge: Sherry Laboratories has facilities in multiple locations, making communication between sites incredibly difficult. They lacked the ability to share laboratory data across their many locations and coordinate their work.Solution: Sherry Laboratories selected the Multi-Lab Enterprise feature for Omega LIMS that allows the company to integrate all eight of its environmental labs into a single database. This provided Sherry with efficient on-site reporting and data management capabilities, while maintaining productivity and quality assurance with one database.Benefit: Sherry Laboratories reduced its capital investment by 50% by purchasing Khemia’s Omega LIMS with the comprehensive Multi-Lab Enterprise feature.  Sherry’s productivity also rose at all eight environmental laboratories given the synchronized approach for improved data management and reporting.

The Challenge: Disconnected Labs and Inconsistent Data

Operating eight separate environmental laboratories without a centralized system posed several challenges for Sherry Laboratories:

• No real-time visibility across lab operations
• Inconsistent data formats and procedures across different facilities
• Communication barriers between staff in different locations
• Difficulty coordinating large projects involving multiple labs
• Redundant reporting and duplication of work

Each lab maintained its own workflow, reports, and databases, creating inefficiencies in decision-making and quality control. Leadership struggled to view lab-wide performance metrics or enforce standardized procedures. Additionally, clients working across multiple regions often received inconsistent data formats, which affected their trust in service consistency.

The Solution: Omega LIMS with Multi-Lab Enterprise Integration

After evaluating several solutions, Sherry Laboratories selected Khemia’s Omega LIMS with the Multi-Lab Enterprise feature. This decision was based on Omega’s ability to:

• Connect all labs within one centralized system
• Maintain unique workflows per lab while ensuring data standardization
• Enable seamless data sharing between facilities
• Improve compliance reporting with uniform templates
• Support real-time tracking and audit trails
• Reduce IT overhead with one unified platform

Khemia’s implementation team worked closely with Sherry to design a rollout plan that would minimize disruption to existing operations. They conducted lab audits, documented current workflows, and collaborated with local lab managers to standardize essential reporting structures.

Implementation and Custom Configuration

The deployment followed a phased approach. Khemia configured each lab instance within the centralized Omega database to retain lab-specific nuances while ensuring standardized core features. The implementation team installed automated instruments integrations, created customized templates for EPA and state-specific formats, and configured role-based permissions to protect data integrity.Key implementation highlights included:

• Real-time sample tracking across all lab sites
• Consistent login procedures and chain-of-custody processes
• Shared access to historical data and reports
• Unified reporting format across all labs
• Integration with ICP-MS, GC-MS, and other key lab equipment
• Web-based dashboards for cross-lab oversight and performance monitoring

Throughout the process, Khemia provided ongoing support and training, ensuring staff members at each site were confident in using the system. Adoption was swift, with all eight laboratories fully operational within the enterprise system on schedule.

Results: Enhanced Collaboration and Lower Costs

After the full implementation of Omega LIMS across all eight labs, Sherry Laboratories experienced measurable improvements across several operational areas:

1. Centralized Oversight

Management gained real-time access to lab-wide data, performance metrics, and sample statuses. This visibility allowed leadership to make quicker decisions and manage projects that spanned multiple locations with ease.

2. Reduced Capital Investment

By adopting a centralized solution, Sherry cut its capital investment by 50% compared to managing eight separate systems. Fewer servers, less IT maintenance, and unified licensing all contributed to cost reduction.

3. Improved Productivity

Each laboratory experienced an increase in productivity. Staff no longer repeated the same data entry tasks or recreated reports that another site had already generated. The integrated system streamlined communication and removed duplicated work.

4. Faster Turnaround Time

Sample processing and reporting times dropped significantly. Labs could now transfer workloads to less busy facilities, keeping client deadlines intact even during peak testing periods.

5. Stronger Quality Control

With a single LIMS platform, Sherry enforced uniform QA/QC checks, resulting in more reliable results and fewer reporting discrepancies. Clients benefited from consistent and defensible data regardless of the lab location.

Ongoing Support and Strategic Value

Khemia continues to provide support to Sherry (now Element) through:

• System updates based on evolving regulatory requirements
• Advanced report customization and lab-specific modifications
• Data backups and disaster recovery planning
• New instrument integrations as labs expand
• Support during third-party audits and inspections

This strategic relationship has given the lab group not just a tool, but a flexible foundation that continues to adapt with their needs.

Looking Ahead: Growth and Expansion

With Omega LIMS firmly in place, the labs now have the capacity to:

• Launch client portals for secure, real-time access to reports
• Expand services into additional testing areas without new infrastructure
• Provide uniform results to national clients
• Integrate CRM and billing tools for a complete business operations suite
• Monitor lab KPIs across all locations from one dashboard

The LIMS implementation empowered Sherry Laboratories to become a cohesive unit rather than a collection of disconnected facilities. Today, under Element Materials Technology, the system continues to support enterprise-level lab operations with consistency, transparency, and compliance.

Conclusion

Sherry Laboratories transformed its multi-location lab network into a unified, data-driven organization using Khemia’s Omega LIMS with Multi-Lab Enterprise. This move didn’t just improve lab operations—it elevated the entire business model. Teams now collaborate more effectively, clients receive faster and more reliable reports, and management gains the insights needed to drive efficiency and growth.With a 50% reduction in capital investment and measurable gains in productivity across all labs, this partnership shows the powerful role LIMS can play in enterprise lab management. Khemia provided not just a platform, but a long-term solution that continues to deliver value.