'We take the pressure while others just kick the tyres'

Labtech International announce special offers for microplate reader health checks and free thermocycler validation to promote their expanding service and support capabilities. Many laboratories only consider using service support for maintenance and breakdown repair. Condition monitoring and regulatory compliance, however, are just as important. The special offers are designed to confirm instrument status and identify potential future issues to minimise the risk to the analytical processes and to avoid more significant costs.

The time when you realise how good your local supplier is at providing support is when things go wrong, especially as there is never a convenient time for such events to occur. In a breakdown situation fast response is essential. Labtech International therefore generally provides onsite rather than back to base servicing, using highly trained accredited engineers who utilise certified test equipment and approved spare parts. In an emergency Labtech International can supply loan equipment or offer long term hire contracts to ensure that the laboratory continues to function. As prevention is better than cure however, Labtech International offers customised maintenance agreements to meet individual laboratory requirements, be it simple preventative maintenance or documented critical component monitoring. For regulated environments full validation is available incorporating NIST/NAMAS traceable equipment and standards. The latest flexible and adaptable support plans are designed to take into account workload, risk factors, pre-emptive repair and product life cycles while being sympathetic to budgetary constraints. For example our Service Upgrade Scheme allows customers to slowly replace their aging fleet of instruments within a fully comprehensive contract period. The new instruments will also have inclusive warranties, which will reduce the overall cost of service provision each quarter, leading to significant mid-term cost savings.

Jenna Barnard, UK Support Manager says 'with experience in both engineering and applications the Labtech International customer support team is able to respond to just about any kind of situation, from breakdown to method development issues. Regular maintenance of their laboratory instrumentation means that our customers benefit from lower running costs, longer instrument lifetimes, higher reliability plus improved performance. Our PhD qualified applications team is great for trouble shooting and helping our customers get the best out of their instrumentation as we appreciate the real costs of producing poor quality measurements'.

Labtech International now also supports the installed base of G-Storm and MJ Research thermal cyclers plus laboratory freezers, centrifuges and incubators in addition to their distributed products from NanoDrop, Tecan and Illumina.