Laboratory Information Management System

The Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake & Sandy (Metro Water) is requesting proposals for procurement, implementation, and ongoing support of a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) with proposals due July 28, 2026, and vendor demonstrations scheduled for the week of August 3. The selected LIMS must achieve full compliance with the TNI Standard for Accreditation of Environmental Laboratories, 2016 Edition — the central capability filter required for Metro Water's NELAP accreditation under the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program.

The scope includes a fully configured and tested LIMS installation (cloud-hosted or SaaS preferred) supporting approximately 3,300 monthly samples across drinking water testing and microbiological analysis at the Cottonwood Heights, Utah laboratory. Required deliverables are system integration with Agilent, Shimadzu, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Metrohm analytical equipment; enterprise systems integration; user acceptance testing support; staff training across all roles; validation documentation for NELAP accreditation audits; and five years of ongoing technical support and maintenance. Vendors must demonstrate minimum five years of LIMS implementation experience in environmental laboratories with at least three current NELAP-accredited installations and U.S.-based technical support staff.

Evaluation is weighted 50% on functional and technical requirements, 20% on vendor qualifications and references, 20% on implementation/training/support, and 10% on pricing. The five-year total cost of ownership must encompass software licensing, implementation fees, validation documentation, training, hardware, integration development, and annual maintenance for years one through five, with price increases capped at 3–5% or CPI, whichever is lower. Metro Water retains data ownership; vendors must provide data export in open formats upon termination and comply with 24-hour data breach notification requirements. The contract includes minimum two-year warranty, 90-day termination for convenience, and immediate termination for material breach provisions. Anticipated award is August 14 with board approval August 17 and target go-live December 1, 2026.