We have been using Lab logger here since the start of the new term. Here are a few things to consider:
-If you would like to use it properly, it takes a lot of setting up. Ours is not set up properly and as a result you still get multiple bookings for the same equipment. Teachers are meant to view the weekly calendar to see what their co-workers have ordered but they don’t and therefore you still have to run around fixing the overbooking problem.
-Lab logger will be an annual cost after the first year, can your school or department afford this. Our budgets are super tight now and we could happily spend the money on kit instead.
-Do you have a large number of labs and teachers to support with multiple technicians. Lab logger may not be a help to you, if you are a lone tech with a small dept, is there a need for Lab logger, I’m not so sure you could justify the expense.
-Many features on Lab logger can be done for free and better using free to your school software such as Excel or Teams.
-Lab logger cannot be locked at a set time or date; this is a well requested feature by technicians that is not implemented. See the Lab logger forum on Preproom.org for more information. I have one or two teachers that continually submit late orders and avoid speaking with me to ask if it’s okay to do so. I ran an old paper system before, and the teacher had to come to speak with me for changes etc. Nine times out of ten I would accommodate their late requests using the old paper system.
-Our network is problematic. If you have a poor network at your school, you will not be able to use Lab logger.
-Make sure you are the only admin for Lab logger. Teachers with admin rights can fiddle the notice period i.e., make the notice period one hour, submit their ‘late’ order, the late order goes in on time and then change they change the notice period back to say 48 hours.
-Make sure you turn on all your alerts and if you spend a large portion of your day on your feet, get a digital device like an iPad. There is a Lab logger app you can download.
-The user interface is bloated and cannot be changed. You can print out slips but the amount of blank space on the printing page is excessive.
-There is little you can do to customised Lab logger.
-If you are pulled in by the subscription, and the money dries up, you’ll not have Lab logger. Free to schools M$ products or Google sheets will be around for a while.
Personally, Lab logger has potential, but I do not think it’s worth the money to be honest. May be in a big school with multiple technicians to assign jobs to, it might make more sense. With AI, you can make and tweak your own ordering system using Co-pilot or Gemini. It’s early days but I’m going to try and get an AI chatbot to do some of my admin work for me.
