Under the deal, EKM is now a certified reseller of Surety's digital notarization software, which is sold as a model within EKM's LABTrackElectronic Lab Notebook (ELN).
Surety's service can notarize all types of digital data, including files, database records, e-commerce transactions, and images.
This is vitally important given the immense pressure now placed on the food business to keep track of every aspect of the food chain. For example, a final ruling that requires all manufacturers to register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was recently passed.
"Together, these regulations increase the safety and security of the US food supply and better protect Americans from a deliberate act of contamination of the food supply," said the agency.
But in addition to ensuring that mandatory safety requirements in the lab are kept, the new partnership also aims to provide software that protects business integrity.
LABTrack already includes Surety's secure date and time stamp.Through Surety, LABTrack offers LABSafe Digital Notarization and Electronic Signature functions, which provide the legal proof needed for defending patents, submitting evidence in court, and documentation to the FDA.
Built-in audit trails provide the complete history of documentation, page versions, and embedded objects. While insuring the integrity and security of critical research data of scientific companies, integrating Surety's software in LABTrack leverages EKM's role in the ELN market.
"This will be of great value to our customers, especially to smaller organizations that may want to use LABTrack as an ASP (Application Service Provider) solution," said Stewart Larson, CEO of EKM, who claims that LABTrack is the notebook of choice used by research, analytical, production, and academic laboratories.
"The ASP solution affords our customers the benefits of having a legally validated electronic lab notebook that they can more easily integrate into their operations."
The need for data protection and security technologies will rise as the market for ELNs grows, according to Tom Klaff, Surety's CEO.
"We're seeing a large growth in the electronic lab notebook space. EKM has been a great partner and a pioneer in the market," he said.
"We offer a piece of the solution for offering protected and secure data. Offering our solution to EKM will be of great value to both of our customers and will help differentiate LABTrack in the market."