Until implementing Quartzy, the company’s purchasing officer relied upon traditional methods—including Excel spreadsheets and memory—to track her activities. Lab members made various requests via different mechanisms, such as stopping by her office, shooting off emails, or even faxing their wishes. Of course, as the laboratory staff members are very busy, these requests often omitted information, which might result in delays or other errors.
In February, 2016, the company’s purchasing officer who worked for a biotech in the QB3 incubator recommended she try Quartzy. She had been researching ordering systems for some time, but most seemed expensive and complicated. The day she heard about Quartzy, she created an account and began to evaluate it. Shortly after, convinced it would be of tremendous help, she pitched Quartzy to her supervisors as their primary lab management tool. Quartzy is online, so the company’s purchasing officer and her supervisors could easily access it from different locations, and at any time. The layout was easy for the lab to use, and allowed researchers to follow the ordering process, which meant they could more efficiently plan and execute their experiments without worrying if a certain reagent was in stock, ordered, or back-ordered.
