The easiest way to organize people, places and things – how we’re ensuring it’s a solution that’s here to stay.

Our goal at LabArchives is to support Better Science with innovative and user friendly online tools – tools that can continuously evolve to support our users. LabArchives Scheduler is the easiest way to organize people, places and things. In fact, it’s already being used by over 80,000 researchers. It’s our job to ensure it’s a solution that’s here to stay.

Last week we announced changes to LabArchives Scheduler that will go into effect on October 29th, 2020. Here’s what you need to know about these changes:

• New accounts that add over five users or resources will be charged a per user rate.
• Existing accounts will automatically be transitioned to the new version but will NOT be charged unless they add users or resources above the threshold of five after that date.
• Existing premium accounts and their pricing will remain the same.
• A new Enterprise version is now available.

Will we be charged if we remove a user who has left and replace that user seat? No.  You can replace users and continue using Scheduler for free.  If you want to add user seats, you will need to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Can we add resources without being charged? No.  You can rename an existing resource, but if you want to add a resource, you will need to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Will we be charged for all our users or just the new ones we add? You will be charged for all users.

Can we add users and resources before Oct 29th without being charged? Yes.  Free edition users can add users and resources before Oct 29th without being charged.  

We have a Premium Subscription. What will happen to us? You will be able to continue using Scheduler and enjoy the all the new features at no additional charge.  If you need to add users during your subscription, it will be at your current subscription rate.  Likewise, you will be able to renew for one more year at your current subscription rate.

You can read more about why we’re making these changes and what they mean for you below. The decision had three key components:

• Scheduler must adapt to meet users’ changing needs with more functions and features. 
• Scheduler must be able to support Better Science not only now, but also over time.
• Subscription fees will directly support the ongoing development of the platform and user support.

When we first launched Scheduler back in 2016 it actually had a different name all together. If you remember the days of ‘LabAgenda’, thank you for sticking with us for so long. Our initial objective and the idea itself were simple: provide a scheduling tool but design it specifically for labs. When we released it we didn’t actually ‘talk’ about it that much. Even so, our user base grew steadily and topped 80,000 by the end of 2019.

Scheduler has changed quite a bit over the years and that’s thanks to you, our users. The feedback and feature requests you’ve sent in are what have allowed us to continually improve the platform. When we looked at our roadmap at the end of last year we realized that the user base and Scheduler’s potential to become even more helpful had both grown substantially. We had to make a long term plan for supporting both of these things.

Organizations around the world love Scheduler for the same reasons you do – it’s a no hassle way to cut down on common inefficiencies found in the lab. But a lot has changed since 2016. And even more has changed since the start of 2020. We’re making this change now so that we can continue to maintain the platform and provide you with the full suite of tools – including our newest features – for managing your resources. These will include:

• Additional reservation controls including buffer times, recurring reservations and quotas.
• Ability to create and add accessories to reservations.
• Ability to be added to multiple organizations and reservations across them.

2020 has presented unforeseen challenges which is why we’re also rapidly designing new features to support you right now. These include features like concurrent reservation limits. This feature, amongst others, will help you plan socially distanced lab work and navigate the unique demands of research during a global pandemic. While we hope that the difficulties of 2020 quickly subside, it’s been a good reminder that why we do research, where we do it and how are ever changing. Subscription fees will ensure we’re ready to support you throughout.

New features will help you:

• Easily organize resources and users according to the structure of your organization.
• Manage large, geographically distributed institutions.
• Stay on top of resource reservations across an institution at a glance.
• Keep users safe through social distancing settings in the reservation process.
• Streamline accessing Scheduler and all your LabArchives services.
• Save time generating reports for the entire organization.

After many requests we’ve also added an enterprise availability for LabArchives Scheduler. Benefits include enterprise level pricing and support as well as a host of enterprise specific features and functions. The first release will include discounted price, unlimited usage to threshold counts, priority support, Single Sign On, user onboarding and more. Enterprise licenses are available for groups of any size and can be organized to scale over time across local and decentralized organizations. Pricing starts around $2,700 and the per user rate scales down with more users until the cap is reached.  Please contact us if you are interested in learning more.

You may understandably have some questions about what this change means for you – we’re here to answer them. Send us a message at info@labarchives.com.

Thank you for using LabArchives Scheduler.