How software and hardware complement one another

Software and hardware: LIMS for OES with Fink & Partner and SPECTRO Analytical Instruments

How do software and hardware work together?

The right combination of software and hardware: two companies working together on OES analysis with LIMS

Suppose you are working in a laboratory environment. In that case, you should know about [DIA] Analysis Management, the partnership between Fink & Partner and SPECTRO Analytical Instruments and how these two companies make hardware and software work together in a very harmonic way.

Fink & Partner GmbH is a German company for software development that affirmed itself on the international market by selling [DIA] Analysis Management. [DIA] means “Database for Integrated Analysis Management” and concerns a software solution for the laboratory. Today, Fink & Partner is known through the new one, [FP]-LIMS, which belongs to the LIMS family (Laboratory Information Management System).

SPECTRO Analytical Instruments is a well-known manufacturer for laboratory devices, such as for OES and XRF analyses. Since the early 2000s, [DIA] has been supplied together with SPECTRO’s spectrometers, such as “SpectroLAB” or “SpectroMAXx”, and usually equipped with the Spark Analyzer software.

  • Fink & Partner GmbH Main building Goch

Everything started in 1992 with a business idea deeply rooted in SPECTRO’s structures. Peter Niemann, actual managing director at the headquarters in Goch, co-founded Fink & Partner GmbH with Hans-Jochen Fink.

In 1991, Peter Niemann used to work at SPECTRO’s as a software engineer, and his goal was to expand his knowledge in this area. He wanted to find the perfect combination of hardware and software. This process was the foundation-stone to put the basis of the company and the partnership we see today.

  • Fink & Partner - Quality Management - Customers - Partnerships

Business partnerships are essential to increase the involved companies’ business; they support competition and provide reward achievement.  Not to forget is the following factor: they are vital for progress. Ambitious business partnerships are founded on fellowship, which makes them even more competitive on the global market.

This supportive and at the same time competitive environment creates the desire in each member to keep proving themselves and their significance, not just concerning one’s company history but also in developing products further. In the laboratory and IT application field, this plays a key role.

“We replenish our work: SPECTRO Analytical Instruments creates the instrument hardware and operating software, whereas we create the software for data collection, preparation, merging, administration, and evaluation”, affirms Philip Mörke, chief executive officer at Fink & Partner’s, in an interview with Azo Network.

Fink & Partner and SPECTRO have been working together on solutions for customer’s satisfaction, incorporating a long experience in elemental analysis with future-oriented technological innovations. This plays a key-role nowadays since additive manufacturing is getting more and more important.

[FP]-LIMS is the software solution for the laboratory designed by Fink & Partner GmbH and was developed knowing exactly how the hardware works.

Before launching [FP]-LIMS on the international market, Fink & Partner developed [DIA] Analysis Management, also known for the other editions like DIA2000, DIA2000SE, and [DIA] Light. As we already mentioned, hardware and software have also been supplied together with SPECTRO’s OES lab devices since they replenish each other in a very harmonic way.

  • FP-LIMS Software LOGO

Since 2019, [DIA] has been further developed and supplied under the name [FP]-LIMS, which also shows the continuous “development” of the partnership between the two companies. To reach customer satisfaction, it is crucial to work together on a solution. This is also the only way to aim for high-quality standards.

[FP]-LIMS belongs to the category LIMS systems and is designed to support laboratory processes, manage samples and data, import them in real-time, archive them, record data (audit trail), generate reports and statistics. The strength of [FP]-LIMS consists of having a sophisticated modular structure and being connected with several measurement instruments (and also having the appropriate open interfaces!) for the most specific analyses, even if they are produced by different manufacturers.

To sum up, strong business partnerships enable companies to expand their experience to start new projects. Thanks to an extensive and continuously developed know-how of interfaces, Fink & Partner incorporates tradition with innovation and works together with SPECTRO to reach high-quality standards in the combination of software and hardware.