Should You Run an EBR Trial, Proof of Concept, or Proof of Value?
Companies evaluating Electronic Batch Record (EBR) systems increasingly include trials, Proof of Concepts (POC), and Proof of Value (POV) as part of their selection process.
These exercises can provide clarity—but they also raise common questions. This guide helps you decide whether an EBR trial makes sense for your organization and how to get the most value from it.
What Is an EBR Trial, POC, or POV?
Why Run an EBR Trial or POC?
An EBR trial or POC/POV is a small-scale, short-term project designed to validate whether a specific system matches your business needs.
It allows you to:
- Test the software hands-on
- See your workflows in a digital environment
- Verify whether the system is intuitive for your operators and QA team
- Confirm that the features truly support your processes
- Gather data to build a stronger ROI and business case
Essentially, it’s a controlled way to answer:
“Will this EBR system really work for us?”
Organizations choose trials or POCs to gain clarity before committing to a full implementation.
Benefits include:
- Hands-on experience with real processes
- Better understanding of fit between system and workflows
- Validation of ease of use for operators, supervisors, and QA reviewers
- Quick technical insights to support your selection
- Data-driven justification for budgets, ROI, and stakeholder approval
Trials help teams understand not just what the system does, but how it behaves in their environment.
Do You Actually Need an EBR Trial
or POC?
When a trial may NOT be useful:
Not always. A trial should be strategic, not automatic.
If you already:
- Understand your requirements
- Have strong stakeholder alignment
- Feel confident in the system’s capabilities
Then jumping into a detailed trial may create unnecessary complexity.
- When it distracts from more important early decisions (scope, compliance, integration, infrastructure)
- When key change management considerations haven’t been addressed
- When it creates noise or confusion among users who are not yet prepared for the transition
- When trials lead to over-focusing on minor details instead of evaluating deal-breakers
Before agreeing to a trial, ask yourself:
“What do I truly need to know to make a decision?”
If the trial does not directly answer those decision-making questions,
it may not be the best use of time.
When a Trial Is the Right Move
Choose EBR Trials Wisely:
Focus on Clarity, Not Complexity
A trial or POC can be extremely effective when:
- Stakeholders need to see the system to understand its benefits
- You have a specific technical question to validate
- You need evidence to build a business case or secure investment
- You want to test usability for operators and QA
- You want to run a real workflow before final selection
In these cases, a small, well-scoped trial brings valuable clarity.
EBR trials and POCs can be powerful tools, but they must be executed for the right reasons.
Use them when you need targeted validation—not when you already have enough information to make a decision.
If you’re unsure whether an EBR trial or POC is appropriate for your organization,
our BatchLine team can help you evaluate your options and recommend the most effective approach for your digital roadmap.
Check out other chapters
Read for our next articles in this serie in which we will provide more advice about implementing an Electronic Batch Recording system.
The EBR Implementation Guide: Introduction
Part 1:
Tips on scoping the initial EBR deployment
Part 4:
Kick-off to Go-live with your 1st Product on EBR in 2 months
