Remote Working
In the current challenging times, the ABACUS development team are keen to explore how we can enable organisations to continue to perform vital work while keeping everyone safe. ABACUS users, particularly those performing Macrobenthic analysis are able to use several features to allow staff to work remotely or from home.
One such client has achieved this by allowing staff to set up basic lab equipment such as microscopes at home, and with access to a standard desktop PC or tablet they are able to continue working. In particular tasks such as macrobenthic identification can be performed remotely or at home. With some coordination, staff can work out schedules when they can enter the main offices/storage facilities to retrieve and drop off samples. Use of sample storage tracking and reporting features in ABACUS give management and oversight to the process.
Although other tasks such as particle size analysis may be more challenging with equipment that must reside in a dedicate lab, allowing more staff to work remotely reduces numbers of staff on premises at any one time making it easier to ensure safe social distancing can be implemented.
Know where your samples are all the time
Sample Storage Tracking & Reporting
ABACUS offers a versatile system for recording where your sample is stored and the vessel types it is contained in. Each organisation can add set up their own lists of storage vessels, storage locations and storage contents. Storage data can be updated during each stage of sample processing to allow up-to-date tracking on the location of samples.
By creating 'home lab' options to list of storage locations, organisations can allow staff to record that samples have been taken home for processing.
A full tracking report is also available so you can see the location of all the constituent parts (fractions) of a sample at the current time, or all samples at a particular location.
Monitor progress with real-time statistics and reporting
Insight and Analysis
ABACUS allows users and management to view real time sample processing statistics to monitor survey progress to optimize staff resourcing.
When sample processing tasks (such as logging in samples, performing taxonomic identification), they are prompted to record additional information such as when it was completed, the total time taken, and any changes to sample storage/location. This information is available in real time to either download as a single file per survey or is shown as statistics and graphical visualisations directly on ABACUS.