The CERF Desktop App, or "Thick Client", can install on any Windows or Macintosh machine and can connect to your CERF server using your username and password.

You can download a copy from lab-ally.com/download

CERF™ (the Collaborative Electronic Research Framework) is an electronic laboratory notebook that saves time and increases accuracy in all of your day-to-day operations.  With CERF, it is easy to record your ideas and observations as well as capture, store, and retrieve your data. The CERF-Notebook is similar to a paper notebook because it can be organized by Page or Section, but it offers much more than a standard notebook. Using the CERF-Notebook, you will be able to:

• Work collaboratively yet securely within a workgroup setting that provides a full range of access control
• Customize your user experience by setting your own preferences 
• Annotate images
• Create and use templates to increase the accuracy and efficiency of your normal workflows
• Digitally sign any part of a Notebook; take advantage of customizable signature workflows
• Email content to CERF
• Create links to files on a mapped network
• Search using full-text, metadata, and controlled vocabularies
• Print Notebooks or any part of a Notebook as well as File Cabinets to PDF
• View Notebook Entries inline
• Mark Controlled Documents as "read and understood"
• Add bookmarks so that you can come back to what's most important or current
• Create placeholders specifying files to be added later
• Create a diverse range of Notebook Entries, including tables, audio files, mind-maps, free-hand drawings, chemical structures, and more.

CERF is a document management system that  provides controlled access to resources based upon authenticated user permissions. Resources are curated in a way that supports online access, secure storage, and long-term archives. The source document for each component of an audit trail is preserved.

The CERF system is extensible. Lab-Ally offers configurable workflows, such as the digital signature workflow. Digital signatures provide a way to guarantee resource security and authentication and to meet standards such as 21 CFR part 11. Lab-Ally Professional Services can create controlled vocabularies and source object types that meet the requirements of your organization. Please contact your system administrator or Lab-Ally for more information.

See the Lab-Ally website for more information about Lab-Ally and our products.

For instant help while you are working, click on the small iHelp icons located throughout the application: 

For definitions of terms, refer to the CERF Glossary.