Version Info: 3.1.1.6
Purchased Date: October 01, 2008
Graduate Student, Salk Institute
July 29, 2009 by Kristen Espantman
Pros
We are a small lab and it is great for sharing & storing our data on many computers at one time. It's much easier than searching through many physical lab notebooks. We have also used a collaborative notebook to store and edit papers that a group is collectively working on at the same time. Version control is probably the most valuable feature of CERF. The template feature is also helpful to keep the lab notebooks organized in the same way. I love that I can drag & drop files onto a notebook page or a project folder. It's very easy to use in that way.
Cons
CERF could be much more user friendly. Many of the language used to change features is very confusing and not intuitive for a normal User. It would be great to drag the order of the notebook page instead of having to manually place everything in order by name. CERF also has some bugs that we have tried to help work out by giving our input. The print feature wastes a lot of paper space and could be more compacted to look more like a real notebook.
Overall
I would recommend CERF to anyone who is trying to get away from using physical notebooks and wants to share data more easily. We looked into many other notebooks and CERF was the most user friendly for what we needed in our lab environment. [top]
Version Info: 2.7.1
Purchased Date: October 01, 2005
Researcher, Biocant
July 22, 2009 by Pedro Castanheira
Pros
CERF is a broad range ELN, it is simple to use, it is reliable and the Rescentris support is prompt and efficient.
Cons
It still has not a true integration with MS Office, despite it has some integration. It must be installed in every computer - it is not accessed by a web browser as other ELN's.
Overall
I have become a user of CERF without any previous contact with ELN's, and in my institution there was none with previous experience using this kind of solution.
It was a somewhat difficult path to implement the ELN, but at the end, it improved the way people log their research results.
The CERF solution was the best Biology ELN at the time we purchased the ELN. Some more companies are now offering broad range solutions.
Since I don't know them in depth I just can say that CERF can do the job. I've been told that version 3.5 that will be installed in our institution soon has some major improvements and I am curious to see them.
During these last 4 years we could testify the big improvements that CERF has gone since version 2.4. Some of them were our suggestion, and this is one of the big Pros of Resentris - they are willing to develop and implement some of our suggestions in their product, which is great.
If someone is looking for a Biology ELN I would certainly recommend CERF. [top] |
