Part of my role as Chief of Staff at Labster is owning our IT budget, which means I'm the person colleagues come to when they want to purchase a new SaaS tool. If you've ever sat in that seat, you know the feeling: a well-meaning team member walks in with a pitch, genuine enthusiasm, and a price tag that needs sign-off.

Over time, I've developed a shortlist of four questions I ask before any purchase moves forward. Not because I want to slow things down, but because the answers almost always reveal whether a tool will actually deliver or collect dust in someone's browser bookmarks.

Let me give you an example of why this works. Recently, we evaluated a tool to help our team complete security questionnaires. At first glance, it felt like a nice-to-have. But when I ran it through the four questions, the case became clear: it would free our teams from manually re-answering the same questions, build a reusable knowledge base, and eliminate duplication of effort. It was SOC 2 compliant, which cleared our security bar. And within a few months, the time saved and the faster, more thorough responses we could give to customers more than justified the cost. It's now a core part of how we run sales.

That's what a good tool purchase looks like. As education leaders, these same questions will likely help you when evaluating new technology or courseware.  Here's what I look at.

The Four Questions

1. Will it genuinely make our team more effective?

Not "could it potentially be useful," but will it actually change how our faculty and staff work, and for the better? The best tools reduce friction on tasks people are already doing and free up time for higher-value work.

2. Does something in our existing stack already do this?

Before adding a new line item to the budget, it's worth asking whether you're solving a problem you already have a quality solution for. Sometimes the answer is yes, and the right move is to optimize what you have. Other times, the gap is real. One note of caution here is in the word “quality”. A low quality solution can end up costing you even more, so be sure your existing stack can truly do the job.

3. What is the application's security posture?

Especially for tools that touch student data or institutional records, this question is non-negotiable. SOC 2 compliance, data minimization practices, and transparent documentation aren't just IT checkboxes; they're signals that the vendor takes its responsibilities seriously.

4. Does the total cost make sense relative to the value delivered?

This includes the license, implementation, onboarding, and ongoing administration. A tool that's inexpensive but takes months to stand up, or that requires constant maintenance, isn't actually cheap. This gets to my caution about a “quality” solution.

Applying These Questions to Labster

Now that you have the 4 questions, you can use them in lots of cases. If you're a Dean, Department Chair, IT Director, or Administrator who's been approached about supporting a Labster purchase by a faculty member, a curriculum committee, or your own provost, I'd invite you to run it through the same four questions. Here's how I'd answer them.

1. Will it make your faculty more effective?

Short answer: Yes.

Labster's virtual science simulations are designed to reinforce and extend what instructors are already teaching. Once a faculty member identifies the simulations that align with their course, they can assign them semester after semester without setting up physical equipment, ordering consumables, or coordinating lab schedules. The preparation work happens once. The benefit compounds every time the course runs.

Faculty also gain visibility into how students are progressing before they ever set foot in an in-person lab session. That means less time spent reteaching fundamentals during precious in-person lab time and more time focused on the kind of higher-order learning that physical labs are actually built for.

2. Does something in your existing toolkit already do this?

The closest alternative most institutions have is a physical lab kit of materials shipped to students for at-home use, or equipment set up in an on-campus lab. Those approaches work, but they carry a set of costs that are easy to underestimate: procurement and fulfillment, setup and cleanup time, consumable replenishment each semester, and, particularly for hybrid and online students, the logistical complexity of shipping, returns, delays, and the occasional package that never arrives.

Every delayed or lost shipment is a student who can't complete their lab work on time. Every setup cycle is time a lab assistant or instructor spends on logistics instead of instruction.

Labster doesn't replace the value of in-person lab experiences. But it dramatically reduces the operational burden around it and extends access to students who would otherwise face barriers to participation.

3. What is Labster's security posture?

Labster takes data privacy seriously. We collect the minimum amount of personally identifiable information necessary to deliver our services, and we maintain SOC 2 compliance across our platform. All security documentation is available through our Trust Center, so your IT team doesn't have to take our word for it; they can review it directly.

If your institution uses a security questionnaire as part of its vendor evaluation process, we can support that too.

4. Does the total cost make sense?

Beyond the license subscription, getting started with Labster involves integrating it with your Learning Management System and identifying which simulations best support your faculty's courses. Labster's team supports both, and our course mapping tool helps faculty find relevant simulations aligned to their existing syllabi.

When you weigh that implementation investment against the ongoing costs of physical lab kit procurement, fulfillment, and maintenance, plus the faculty time those processes consume, the math tends to shift quickly. And that's before accounting for the downstream benefits: improved student outcomes, higher course completion rates, and a more scalable lab program that doesn't require you to keep pace with enrollment growth by buying more equipment.

The Bottom Line

I've seen what happens when an institution invests in a tool that passes all four questions versus one that only passes one or two. The difference isn't just operational. It shows up in team morale, student experience, and ultimately in outcomes you can report to leadership.

For programs serving a mix of in-person, hybrid, and online students, especially those where physical lab access is a bottleneck or an equity concern, Labster tends to answer the four questions well.

If you'd like to explore whether it's the right fit for yours, book a conversation with our team. We're happy to walk through your specific program needs and help you make the case internally.