11 min readCase Study

Environmental Laboratory Digital Transformation

How an environmental testing laboratory modernized operations, achieving 35% faster sample turnaround and 89% reduction in chain of custody errors.

Environmental
Lab Type
35-57%
TAT Improvement
89%
COC Error Reduction
-93%
Report Gen Time

The Challenge: Competing in a Changing Market

Clearwater Environmental Testing has been in business for 27 years, serving over 400 clients—municipalities, industrial facilities, environmental consultants, and remediation contractors. But the market was changing.

The Technology Debt

  • • 20-year-old LIMS running on a server in a closet
  • • Paper chain of custody forms for every sample
  • • 14-day average turnaround time (industry target: 5-7 days)
  • • 4.7% chain of custody error rate
  • • 12% EDD rejection rate

The Solution: Integrated, Automated, Connected

Phase 1
Foundation Replacement (Months 1-4)

Cloud-based environmental LIMS with electronic COC, configurable EDDs, and client portal.

Phase 2
Instrument Integration (Months 5-7)

Connected 23 instruments directly to LIMS—ICP-MS, GC-MS, IC, and automated analyzers.

Phase 3
Automation & Client Experience (Months 8-10)

Barcode scanning, automated QC checks, one-click report generation, automated result delivery.

The Results

MetricBeforeAfterChange
Drinking water TAT7 days3 days-57%
COC discrepancies4.7%0.5%-89%
EDD rejection rate12%1.8%-85%
Report generation time45 min3 min-93%
Sample login time6.5 min1.2 min-82%

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