LIMS, of course, is an acronym for Laboratory Information Management System.  So thinking in very straightforward terms, a LIMS can be any piece of software that manages the information that is produced or digested in a laboratory setting.  Unfortunately, this definition is not very good.  Using this type of simple definition means that Microsoft Excel would be considered a LIMS!  We certainly know that many labs are using it for tracking information in the lab, but I doubt any of them would call it a LIMS.

So we need to improve our definition a bit to exclude things like MS Excel from qualifying as a LIMS.  Perhaps we can say something like: A LIMS is any piece of software that manages the information that is produced or digested in a laboratory setting, and includes support for many laboratory-specific needs."....  Full article is here: http://sapiosciences.blogspot.com/