Blog

Bika blogs, rants, and hard-earned lessons. Real talk from the trenches of open-source LIMS implementations. Configuration pains, small wins, workflow tricks, integration gotchas, and the occasional proper rant. If you run a lab, customise Bika, or just want to avoid the same mistakes we made, you’re in the right place.

The Pains and Pleasures of Setting up Bika LIMS

Configuring any complex computer system is not a double-edged sword - it has only one cutting edge and it is not setting the LIMS up manually. The pleasure that automation brings by uploading setup spreadsheets is not outweighed by the frustration copped by trying to express a relational database in a set of 50 lists

Bika Open Source LIMS Tutorials – Now Live

We are excited to announce the launch of the official Bika Open Source LIMS Tutorials! Step-by-step guides covering essential topics but also handy tips ant tricks

A Realistic Timeline and Cost Breakdown for Implementing Bika LIMS

There are no licence fees. All costs are service based and directly proportional to the time and effort required to complete the implementation. From initial Gap Analysis through to Go Live, users are fully confident in using the LIMS and appreciating its time saving capabilities

How Bika implements an Open-Source LIMS: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide

Implementing a LIMS is a major decision for any lab. Many assume that choosing open-source means doing everything yourself. In this post, we share our proven, battle-tested implementation process for Ingwe Bika LIMS 4

Why it should be Professional Open Source

So as a question about the Interwebs' perception on the topic, I asked AI to compare Open Source LIMS vs Proprietary LIMS. It struck me that most of the areas where proprietary LIMS are seen as “better” are actually things that good professional support services should cover - whether the system is open source or proprietary.

Success

The Meaning Behind Ingwe Bika LIMS: Inkosi, Gaob & the Leopard

At Bika Lab Systems, we’ve always believed that software should reflect more than just functionality - it should carry a bit of identity and spirit too

Rooi Jakkals

Blog history. Same same but different

Back then, every other article was a passionate defence or celebration of Open Source in laboratory informatics. We wrote about freedom from vendor lock-in, the power of community-driven development, transparency, and the real cost advantages. We were true believers, and we weren’t shy about it