Aliquot

For UK private biotech labs

AI-powered procurement intelligence platform for labs

Start from a product your lab already buys. Aliquot reads its specification, checks every seller at once, and names the property that ruled each one out.

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  • Thermo Fisher
  • Fisher Scientific
  • NEB
  • Sigma-Aldrich
  • Bio-Rad
  • Amazon

  • WhatsApp

    Before I reorder, is there anything else that would do?

    K. Adeyemi · stores

  • Slack

    Is the own-brand one the same thing or not?

    D. Ferreira · bench 4

  • Email

    We have bought this every month for two years. Why?

    M. Halloran · finance

  • Never compared

    A standing line, reordered and never re-checked

  • Cannot compare

    Eight near-identical listings, no way to tell

  • Price moved

    Read once, and nobody has looked since

  1. A gloved hand lifting a single plastic laboratory bottle down from a shelf, cropped close, the background falling away.

    Every month

    You buy this one every month.

    It was chosen once, by somebody who has left, and reordered ever since.

    01 / 06

    Ardal Therapeutics · stores

    Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk Pack

    012-0250BP · thermofisher.com

    Reordered every month. The same line, off the same listing, because it is what was ordered last time.

    • Chosenonce
    • Compared against anything sincenever
    • The person who chose ithas left

    Nothing is wrong with it. Nothing has checked.

  2. Why nobody re-checks it

    Checking it means opening six sites.

    Each one names the same bottle its own way, and nothing lines up across them.

    02 / 06

    How the question actually arrives

    “Before I reorder, is there anything else that would do?”K. Adeyemi
    • Thermo Fisherits own catalogue
    • Fisher Scientificits own search
    • NEBits own enzyme numbering
    • Sigma-Aldrichits own part numbers
    • Bio-Radquote by email
    • Amazonno specification at all

    Answering it properly is an afternoon, so it does not get answered.

  3. The actual problem

    Which of these is the same thing?

    Near-identical names. Different materials, different volumes. Nothing says which.

    03 / 06

    8 that could stand in for it

    • Nalgene Boston Round Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Bulk PackNalgene Boston Round Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Bulk Packno answer · nothing compares these
    • Nalgene Narrow-Mouth LDPE Bottles with ClosureNalgene Narrow-Mouth LDPE Bottles with Closureno answer · nothing compares these
    • Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers with ClosureWide-Mouth HDPE Packers with Closureno answer · nothing compares these
    • Nalgene Certified Low Particulate Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Lab PackNalgene Certified Low Particulate Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Lab Packno answer · nothing compares these
    • HDPE Cylinder Round BottlesHDPE Cylinder Round Bottlesno answer · nothing compares these
    • Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk PackWide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk Packno answer · nothing compares these
    • Bulk Pack HDPE Cylinder Rounds without CapsBulk Pack HDPE Cylinder Rounds without Capsno answer · nothing compares these
    • Nalgene Sustain BPA/BPS-Free BottlesNalgene Sustain BPA/BPS-Free Bottlesno answer · nothing compares these

    Near-identical names, different materials, different volumes. Nothing on this screen says which.

  4. Where the specification comes from

    It is read off the listing you already buy.

    Each value is quoted from the seller’s own page, with the date it was read.

    04 / 06

    Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk Pack

    Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk Pack

    012-0250BP · thermofisher.com

    • Capacity250 mLmust match
    • ColourNaturalpreference
    • MaterialHDPEmust match
    • ShapeRoundpreference

    Every value here is the seller’s own, kept with the sentence it was read from.

  5. The same list

    Now every one of them is answered.

    Each refusal names the property that failed. A gap is never a pass.

    05 / 06

    The same 8, answered

    • Nalgene Boston Round Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Bulk PackNalgene Boston Round Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Bulk PackCapacity 175 mL, 250 mL required
    • Nalgene Narrow-Mouth LDPE Bottles with ClosureNalgene Narrow-Mouth LDPE Bottles with ClosureMaterial LDPE, HDPE required
    • Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers with ClosureWide-Mouth HDPE Packers with ClosureCapacity 120 mL, 250 mL required
    • Nalgene Certified Low Particulate Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Lab PackNalgene Certified Low Particulate Narrow-Mouth HDPE Bottles with Closure: Lab PackCapacity 500 mL, 250 mL required
    • HDPE Cylinder Round BottlesHDPE Cylinder Round BottlesCapacity 125 mL, 250 mL required
    • Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk PackWide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk PackCapacity 120 mL, 250 mL required
    • Bulk Pack HDPE Cylinder Rounds without CapsBulk Pack HDPE Cylinder Rounds without CapsEvery required property matched
    • Nalgene Sustain BPA/BPS-Free BottlesNalgene Sustain BPA/BPS-Free BottlesCapacity never published, nothing was checked

    Everything since the question took ninety-five seconds. Refusals are shown, not filtered away. Photographs and listings: thermofisher.com.

  6. Next month

    The specification keeps working.

    It is re-run on a schedule, and when a verdict moves you are told which one.

    06 / 06

    Ardal Therapeutics · saved specification

    Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk Pack

    2 of 4 properties must match

    Re-run on a schedule. When a verdict moves you are told which one. A candidate that satisfied last quarter may stop publishing what it was admitted on.

    • Purchase orderproduced
    • Approved, confirmed, sentthree separate acts
    • Any of the three skippednothing leaves

    Aliquot writes the order. A person approves it, confirms the exact document, and sends it.

The problem

Every one of these is somebody’s afternoon.

One line on a reorder. Eight things nobody in the building can answer about it, and a decision due either way. All of it lands on one lab manager.

  • 8

    Alternatives

    Near-identical listings for the same thing. Nothing on any of them says which is equivalent.

  • 6

    Six vocabularies

    Every seller describes the same bottle its own way. Capacity on one page, volume on the next, and nothing that lines up.

  • The price moved

    A published price is only true on the day you looked at it. By the time anyone approves it, two of the three have changed.

  • Your price is not the price

    A rep gives you a discount that appears on no page. The one figure that decides it is the one nothing can compare.

  • The protocol

    One method needs a dozen consumables. Naming them, one at a time, across three portals, is the afternoon.

  • 40

    Minutes per request

    And not one of them is bench work. Multiply by every consumable in the building.

  • Ordered is not arrived

    Part of the line ships, part of it goes on back order, and nobody finds out until the bench is already set up.

  • Accountability

    The wrong thing arrives at the bench, and it is your name on the order.

So it is skipped, and whatever arrives is whatever was ordered last time.

Start from a product
012-0250BP
Wide-Mouth HDPE Packers without Caps: Bulk Packthermofisher.comyou buy this

Its published properties become the specification

At any of the five

Ask in words, and the assistant is allowed to say it does not know. Every answer is checked against the rows it was built from before you see it, and one that invents a catalogue number, a price or a swap is refused rather than shown.

How it works

Five steps, and none of them is data entry.

From the sentence somebody sends you to the box that turns up. You start from something the lab already buys, and nothing in between asks you to retype it.

  1. Open a product you order every month. Its published properties become the specification, so nobody types requirements into a blank form.

  2. Each property arrives as required or preference and you change it. The counts move as you do, so you can see what your strictness costs.

  3. Every seller is checked at once, and each equivalent arrives with its price, read from the page that published it. Refusals are shown rather than filtered away, each naming the property that failed, and the whole thing is re-run on a schedule so you hear when a verdict moves.

  4. The lines become a basket, with anything it could not price named rather than dropped. Approving mints the purchase order. A person then confirms the exact document and sends it, and none of the three happens on its own.

  5. Every order keeps the date it was promised for, and the day that date passes it moves into what needs you. A part shipment counts as a part shipment.

And the eight, one at a time

  • AlternativesCompared property by property, with the failing one named.
  • Six vocabulariesOne specification, read once, applied to all six at the same time.
  • The price movedLooked up again when you ask, and every figure says when it was seen.
  • Your price is not the priceYour own account price, recorded in your browser, never pooled.
  • The protocolName the method once. Everything it needs is searched at once.
  • Minutes per requestUnder two minutes, and you read the reasoning.
  • Ordered is not arrivedWhat was promised, what arrived, and what is late. Partly.
  • AccountabilityEvery verdict keeps its evidence, so it can be defended later.

Aliquot will say this equivalent lists cheaper and never you are overpaying, which needs a contract price no lab has given us. On delivery it holds the date you were promised rather than predicting one.

The same request

Forty minutes. Under two minutes.

  1. 0sThe request, as a sentenceNo catalogue number. Nobody retypes anything.
  2. 2sThe specification derives itselfRead back off the listing this lab already buys.
  3. 6sMostly refused · 16 admittedEvery candidate checked on every published property. A gap never passes.
  4. 70sEach survivor priced at its sellerThe slow part, and it is their latency rather than ours.
  5. 95sA purchase order, ready to placeAliquot writes it. A person approves, confirms and sends.

The first eight seconds are ours: SQL and a comparison, not a model deciding, which is why it gives the same answer twice. The rest is six sellers answering their own pages.

Bring one product your lab buys every month.

We derive the specification from it live, run it against the catalogue, and show you what matches and what we refuse to vouch for.

  • Not a marketplaceAliquot is never the seller of record.
  • Not a price optimiserCheapest does not answer “will this work”.
  • Not adminNo setup before it is useful to you.

Book a walkthrough

  • Length30 minutes
  • WhereVideo call
  • BringOne product you order every month
  • You leave withIts specification, and what the catalogue says

There is no sign-up form. Access is by invitation after a conversation, which is a decision (ADR 0012) rather than a queue.