Ward Laboratories: From 20-Year Legacy System to AI-Powered LIMS Platform
How MadeLabs helped a premier agricultural laboratory evolve their long-standing desktop application into a modern cloud-based Lab Information Management System with AI-powered automation, partner integrations, and a customer self-service portal.
A Platform Ready for Its Next Chapter
Ward Laboratories, headquartered in Kearney, Nebraska, is one of the nation's premier agricultural testing facilities. For over 40 years, they've provided soil, water, plant tissue, and feed analysis services to farmers, agronomists, and agricultural partners across the country.
By 2024, Ward's long-serving desktop application, Ward2004, had reached the limits of what it could support. Originally built to handle the lab's core workflows, it relied on stored procedures, Excel-based processes, and middleware components that had served well but were difficult to extend and over capacity. Some systems had limited documentation, making enhancements and continued operational support challenging.
Growing demand for partner integrations, seasonal performance needs, and the desire to leverage modern technologies like AI and cloud infrastructure made it the right time to invest in a next-generation platform.
About Ward Laboratories
Ward Laboratories, Inc. has been a trusted name in agricultural testing for over 40 years. The lab provides comprehensive analysis services for soil, water, plant tissue, feed, and specialty samples to farmers, agronomists, consultants, and agricultural partners nationwide. Their commitment to accuracy and service has made them an industry leader.
Outcomes Snapshot
- 48% test package reduction (11,000 to 5,700 active packages)
- 70% performance improvement for calculated result retrieval
- 12+ partner integrations connected or in development
- AI-powered sample intake reducing manual data entry
- Customer self-service portal with 24/7 access
- Eliminated database lockups caused by Excel-based workflows
Phased Modernization Without Disruption
MadeLabs partnered with Ward Laboratories in September 2024 with a clear goal: build a modern, cloud-based LIMS platform while maintaining uninterrupted operations. Business continuity was paramount—the transition needed to happen seamlessly alongside Ward's busy testing seasons.
The team adopted a “hybrid bridge” architecture, building Ward2024 as a modern web application on AWS while maintaining bidirectional data sync with the legacy Ward2004 system. This allowed new features to go live incrementally while ensuring no data was lost between systems.
Phase 1: Stabilization & Foundation
The first priority was Dynamic Import—a web-based system to replace the Excel-based workflows that were causing database lockups. This immediately reduced load on the production database while providing better error handling and data validation. The team also established cloud infrastructure on AWS, created the new database schema, and built the core API architecture with integration capabilities designed in from the start.
Phase 2: Core Capabilities
With the foundation in place, development focused on modernizing systems one by one. PLFA analysis was migrated to a new architecture, retiring a previous system risk. Lab machine integrations were rebuilt for LECO, Qtegra, and additional lab equipment. Most critically, the team tackled the complex test package migration—a data model that had evolved over 20 years to handle a wide range of business scenarios but was now encumbering the business processes and making logging samples into the lab a significant bottleneck.
Phase 3: Production Cutover
The production cutover in July 2025 marked a watershed moment. Test packages were migrated to the new database, and Ward2024 became the primary system. The team executed 1 major release and 19 hotfix releases in the first month, responding rapidly to real-world usage patterns and edge cases.
The Solution
Ward2024: A Modern Lab Information Management System
The new Ward2024 platform is a cloud-native LIMS built on AWS, designed specifically around Ward Laboratories' business processes. Unlike off-the-shelf solutions that require labs to adapt their workflows, Ward2024 was built to match how Ward actually operates.
Lab technicians now work from a single interface to manage results across all equipment, with full audit trails and automatic validation at every step. Direct connections to LECO carbon analyzers, Qtegra ICP systems, organic matter robots, and PLFA analysis flow data straight into Ward2024—eliminating manual re-entry and reducing the opportunity for errors.
Ward2024 includes a robust integration layer supporting 12+ partner connections including Helena, FieldAlytics, AgWorld, SST Farmrite/ProAgrica, SoilView, and more. The system supports the MODUS industry standard for data exchange, opening new business channels that were previously difficult to support.
AI-Powered Sample Intake
The AI Vision system represents the cutting edge of lab automation. A mobile app captures photos of submittal sheets and sample bags, AI processing extracts customer information and test requests from images, and automatic data matching validates extracted data against Ward2024 records. Staff review AI-extracted data before final submission, reducing manual data entry and catching errors before samples enter the lab workflow.
Customer Portal & Administrative Tools
The Ward Customer Portal provides 24/7 self-service access for customers to view orders, download reports, track sample status, and manage their accounts. Pre-submission barcode scanning allows customers to prepare sample information before physical delivery, reducing lab intake time and errors.
Ward staff now have intuitive admin tools to manage test packages, customer accounts, pricing, user roles, batch management, and sample review workflows. Capabilities that previously required database expertise or developer intervention are now accessible to business users.
The Impact
The Ward Labs modernization demonstrates how thoughtful technology transformation can turn a liability into a competitive advantage. What began as an urgent need to stabilize a fragile legacy system has evolved into a platform for growth and innovation.
The collaboration between Ward Laboratories and MadeLabs exemplifies the value of domain-focused software development. Rather than forcing the business to adapt to generic software, MadeLabs built technology that reflects Ward's actual processes and relationships. The bi-weekly demo cadence ensured continuous alignment and rapid response to real-world feedback.
With the production cutover complete, Ward2024 positions Ward Laboratories for continued growth with an integration architecture that enables partnerships not previously possible, AI-powered automation that reduces operational costs while improving data quality, and a cloud-native platform that provides a foundation for future capabilities.
“I can't express how impressed we at Ward have been with the whole MadeLabs team! Thank you all for your support and efforts. All samples of all types have been running in the new system since July 2nd and we aren't looking back.” — Nick Ward, July 2025