Austin, TX – [September 25, 2025] – L7 Informatics is challenging the entrenched cycle of electronic lab notebook (ELN) replacement in pharma and biotech. The company argues that swapping one ELN for another wastes resources, perpetuates silos, and fails to deliver ROI. Only a digital unified platform approach provides sustainable impact.
Across the industry, dissatisfaction with ELNs is widespread. Scientists struggle with rigid interfaces, while IT leaders face rising costs and burdensome validation. The typical response is to issue an RFP, evaluate vendors, and select a replacement system. This cycle repeats 600–1,000 times per year in a $480 million ELN market, yet the outcome is predictable: after migration and revalidation, the same frustrations resurface.
“The pain isn’t the ELN itself. It’s the isolation,” said Vasu Rangadass, Ph.D., Founder and Strategy Officer at L7 Informatics. “Point solutions, whether ELN, LIMS, or MES, are optimized for narrow functions but rarely designed to work in harmony. Replacing one with another doesn’t change the architecture, and that’s why ROI remains elusive.”
The hidden costs of ELN swaps often exceed the benefits. Migration of historical data, reintegration with instruments, retraining of users, and revalidation of systems consume significant resources while leaving structural silos intact. Industry analysts have noted that like-for-like replacements rarely move the ROI needle, creating only the illusion of progress.
L7 Informatics advocates for a different path: embedding ELN functionality within a digital unified platform. In this model, ELN is treated as a capability rather than a standalone system. Experiment records are contextualized with data from LIMS, MES, and inventory. Workflows span research and manufacturing without manual reconciliation. Data is structured and standardized, ready for analytics, AI, and regulatory review.
While the discussion centers on ELNs, the lesson extends across the digital landscape. Replacing one LIMS, MES, or QMS with another leaves the same fragmentation intact. Sustainable ROI requires orchestration, the unification of workflows and data across business functions. McKinsey has shown that biopharma companies that consolidate software and migrate to modern cloud-based architectures can free up as much as 30% of their R&D IT spend. Those resources can then be redirected to innovation, automation, and AI.
“The real question is not which ELN to buy,” Rangadass added. “It’s what architecture to build. Organizations that break the cycle of point-solution swaps and embrace orchestration will be the ones positioned to lead.”
Read the full article, Today’s Best ELN May Not Be Another ELN, on the L7 Informatics website: https://l7informatics.com/blog/todays-best-eln-may-not-be-another-eln.
About L7 Informatics For more information, visit L7INFORMATICS.com.
Media Contact
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Austin, TX, L7
Informatics is redefining digital transformation in life sciences with L7|ESP,
the Enterprise Science Platform built to unify data, orchestrate and automate
workflows, and enable AI operations across R&D, CMC, manufacturing, QC,
diagnostics, and clinical environments. L7|ESP connects the dots between
disparate instruments, software, and teams by providing a single digital
scientific platform with flexible data modeling, extensive API integrations to
fit seamlessly into any ecosystem, and a full suite of built-in applications,
including LIMS, ELN, MES, Inventory, and Scheduling.
Jessica Tobey
L7 Informatics
jessica.tobey@l7informatics.com
