About Bika
Bika LIMS was born in 2002, and Bika Lab Systems Pty Ltd incorporated in 2005. In Cape Town,
South Africa
Founders Lemoene Smit and Inus Scheepers envisaged an agile independent operation, using modern robust Open Source tools and the Internet to ensure quality, ease of use, and contain cost
Tell it as it is
‘Bika’, pronounced bi:ka, is an isiZulu word that means ‘to report’, to tell it as it is
Helped along by generous clients and the energy of subsequent shareholders Anneline Sweetnam and Campbell McKellar-Basset, Bika LIMS advanced to a feature rich and stable version 3 in 2017, with branches for health care, environmental management, cannabis and interlaboratory proficiency testing
Founders Lemoene Smit and Inus Scheepers envisaged an agile independent operation, using modern robust Open Source tools and the Internet to ensure quality, ease of use, and contain cost
Tell it as it is
‘Bika’, pronounced bi:ka, is an isiZulu word that means ‘to report’, to tell it as it is
Helped along by generous clients and the energy of subsequent shareholders Anneline Sweetnam and Campbell McKellar-Basset, Bika LIMS advanced to a feature rich and stable version 3 in 2017, with branches for health care, environmental management, cannabis and interlaboratory proficiency testing
The project pulled international participation, and other contributors were disadvantaged by
both the Bika project and company using the same name. Bika 4 designs, focusing on performance
and maintainability, hence came to be as Senaite LIMS early 2019, with most new code now
generated in the Northern Hemisphere
Bika Lab Systems continues to contribute to the Senaite core but maintains the Bika brand from Cape Town, as a skin of add-on customisations and configurations per lab discipline, to a global client base
Bika practises pure Open Source, encouraging holistic solutions to systems development and providing opportunities to collaborate with inspirational people in the spirit of liberty and Ubuntu
Bika Lab Systems continues to contribute to the Senaite core but maintains the Bika brand from Cape Town, as a skin of add-on customisations and configurations per lab discipline, to a global client base
Bika practises pure Open Source, encouraging holistic solutions to systems development and providing opportunities to collaborate with inspirational people in the spirit of liberty and Ubuntu
The LIMS was set up and configured to our exact needs and is highly customizable, ensuring a
good
fit. All of this was done with a limited budget that amounts to a fraction of what proprietary
software would cost
Our customisations were coded by an experienced and professional team. Bika LIMS will provide peace of mind to any laboratory that adopts and embraces their open source model
Our customisations were coded by an experienced and professional team. Bika LIMS will provide peace of mind to any laboratory that adopts and embraces their open source model
Francois le Roux, director, water lab
Bika LIMS assisted with our lab's ISO 17025 accreditation and was later expanded to include more
instrument interfaces. The Bika Team is internationally recognised, highly professional and
experts
in their field
Naomi Jeftha, manager, wine lab
Bika LIMS has a decades long ISO 17025 track record and large online knowledge base shared
between
supporting laboratories, and I believe sets the benchmark for true affordability, development
expertise and on-going technical support. Our peers who developed inhouse or purchased
proprietary
LIMS, far exceeded our own spending
Patrick Griffiths, owner, animal feeds lab
I acknowledge the great work they have done on this product. Working under the Open Source
philosophy is very comfortable because it is a way to share and show work. I thank each of you
for
your knowledge, care and commitment. I congratulate you as a human and professional group
Marcos Cruz, IAEA fellow