In the office, CERF enhances the ability of R&D organizations to capitalize on their knowledge assets. CERF relieves the burdens of record-keeping by automatically registering content, metadata, and activities, as well as time/date stamping and creating audit trails.
- Streamline business processes including signing/witnessing of lab notebooks, analyst reviews and project supervision
- Automatically register content, metadata, and activities, as well as time/date stamping and creating audit trails – while the scientist is working – to relieve the burdens of record-keeping and save time for thinking
- Centralize management of data storage, system functions (i.e. security, business policies, user and system administration, workflow), projects, organization of experiments, content, annotations, and rich metadata
- Increase accuracy, efficiency, and user compliance using built-in templates and forms or by reusing existing lab protocols, SOPs, and reference information
- Simplify collaboration across scientists, labs, or geographic locations
- Reduce the change management headache by customizing workflows to match your current business practices
- Store signed records in printable and human-readable, long-term storage formats that capture the data and document the complete evidence trail
| Easy to Adopt | It is hard to change the habits of scientists, so the motto for CERF is “your data, applications, and workflows – just better™.” CERF simplifies change management by providing scientists a rich, intuitive ELN environment that they will want to use. Once your scientists have embraced CERF, you can leverage automated data collection and a complete document control system to streamline science and record keeping. |
| Automatic Audit Trails | Any document, dataset, or Notebook page in CERF can be digitally signed by the resource contributor and one or more cosigners (according to your designated workflows). This allows for authentication and verification of a document’s origin and contents, and it includes a time/date stamp and signer comments. CERF-Notebook™ generates unique encryption keypairs for each user and even allows you to attach a scanned image of your handwritten signature to the signed documents. Notebook pages allow a configurable signature workflow in which cosigners with specific signing roles must sign the resource in a defined order – all managed behind the scenes by CERF. |
| Metadata Enhanced Search | CERF automatically extracts basic metadata from each document when it is registered in the CERF database. Metadata are useful in constructing audit trails and include contributor, creation date, resource type, and last update. Users can use forms to add more metadata such as author, comments, or definitions, and they can select from the Dublin Core metadata set, custom scientific data models, and customizable controlled vocabularies for a more powerful means of annotating (and searching) for resources. CERF supports batch additions of content and metadata, as well as configurable automated data processing of diverse object types. |
| Manage Controlled Documents and SOPs | Simplify Controlled Document and SOP management by leveraging the same signature workflows available to scientists. Send SOPs around for initial authorization, complement the procedures with standardized templates, and pull up signatures anytime they are required for regulatory compliance. |
| Manage a Lab from Anywhere | Use the CERF client to connect to your lab across the Internet no matter where you are physically located. Now you can review notebooks from afar, check on progress, sign off on research, and even suggest new directions for research. |
| Quality and Consistency | Use Notebook templates to create experiment structure and contents, including all the forms and files to fill in during the course of the project. Capture the raw and processed data for reuse and re-analysis by the scientists, and create and manage human-readable notebook views and printable PDF renditions of data (in the context of the complete record and evidence trail) to support regulatory compliance. |
