Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is mentioned a lot these days as THE system for ECM (Enterprise Content Management) and document management. Whether it is more marketing hype or real world results is up for debate but MOSS has features that are desirable as an ELN system: manage versions of documents, routing of documents for review/approval. While probably not the ideal system to use as an ELN, it has the advantage of being frequently deployed in corporations as global portals for document management systems.
Here‘s an interesting article about using a framework on top of MOSS that allows usage within laboratories. It has the benefit of using tools scientists are used to: Word and Excel. This framework should be made available as an open source to everyone soon. Great news!
We talk so much about putting in laboratory software in order to get rid of MS Excel but MS Excel is just too pervasive in the lab to truly get rid of it.
Excel is a very flexible tool that allows you to do a lot. It is its greatest strength but at the same time, it is what causes nightmares to IT teams. Try to find another software that does just as much!
As you said Gloria, Excel is too pervasive to get rid of it. If you can’t beat them, join them!