Discover how elproMONITOR Cloud streamlines alarm workflows, audit trails, and IT effort for GxP-compliant environmental monitoring in pharma and life sciences.
A conversation with Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA and Global Solution Expert for Monitoring Rooms and Equipment at ELPRO
For quality managers and operations teams in pharmaceutical and life sciences environments, environmental monitoring is never just about collecting data. It is about being confident that the right people are notified instantly when something goes wrong, and that every action taken is traceable, documented, and audit-ready. With the release of elproMONITOR Cloud, ELPRO has redesigned both the alarming architecture and the data management experience to make that confidence easier to achieve.
We sat down with Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA and Global Solution Expert for Monitoring Rooms and Equipment, to walk through what has changed, what has stayed the same, and why the shift to the cloud matters beyond just the hosting model.
In elproMONITOR, alarming is built on a system of configurable profiles. Each sensor or zone is assigned a limit profile (for a pharmaceutical refrigerator, that might be a 2°C to 8°C range) and a corresponding recipient profile that defines who gets notified and how, when that range is breached.
“When you are out of your specification, the system generates an alarm. And the alarm triggers what we call the recipient profile. Here you have different possibilities for how to set that alarm.”
Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO
In the cloud version, email and SMS notifications are included out of the box, with no additional configuration or third-party SMS modems and no customer-owned email servers required. Alarm notifications are designed to be immediately actionable, containing the sensor name, current value, timestamp, incident number, and the configured alarm limits, so the person receiving the alert has the context they need without having to log into the system first.
Beyond email and SMS, the system supports digital output triggers: physical signals that can activate a warning light, an acoustic alarm or a connection to a building management system. Joachim points out why this matters in real-world facility operations.
“When you are working in a warehouse, you are typically not in front of your laptop. You don't see that an email has come in. But when you are working in the warehouse, you will see the flashlight or hear the acoustic alarm. And then you know — okay, now I’ll go to the system and check in detail what happened.”
Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO
Digital outputs send a closed or open contact signal, making them a general alert mechanism rather than a detailed data carrier. The details live in the system itself, but the signal gets people moving.
Repeat notifications ensure that an unacknowledged alarm keeps escalating until someone takes ownership. If an alarm is triggered but no one has acknowledged it within a defined window (say, one hour), the system resets the entire notification cycle: resending emails and re-triggering SMS. The acknowledgment step is meaningful in a GxP context.
“Acknowledgment always means in the system that someone takes responsibility for this deviation. For the system, it means a person has recognized this alarm.”
Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO
Only then does the system stop repeating notifications, and the incident is logged in the audit trail with a record of who acknowledged it, and when. The full cycle of alarm, notification, repeat if unacknowledged, acknowledgment and documentation is core to meeting the response and traceability expectations of GxP-regulated environments.
elproMONITOR Cloud supports both wired and wireless sensors, and from the software side, the alarm behavior is the same for both. The practical difference comes down to risk management at the installation level.
Wireless sensors offer obvious installation advantages, including no cable runs and faster deployment, but radio signals can be disrupted. In non-critical monitoring applications, like tracking ambient conditions in a general laboratory, temporary signal interruption is manageable. The system will flag the lost connection, and once signal is restored, all locally stored sensor data is automatically reloaded, with any out-of-specification conditions during that gap still generating a deviation record. For more critical applications, the risk calculus shifts.
“When you go down to -80 or even -200 degrees, that's typically samples stored for long term. And this is typically the most critical, especially in research and development, where you may have truly unique samples. In those cases, the reliability of a wired connection may outweigh the convenience of wireless.”
Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO
The guidance Joachim offers customers is straightforward: conduct a risk analysis, understand what you are monitoring and how critical it is, and let that drive the hardware decision.
For quality and operations teams who have been running elproMONITOR on-premises for years, the day-to-day monitoring experience in the cloud version will feel familiar. The underlying logic, including limit profiles, recipient profiles, alarm acknowledgment and deviation reports, carries over. But several things have changed in meaningful ways.
elproMONITOR Cloud brings the complete audit trail into the main application rather than storing it on a separate server, like it was in the on-premises version. Every action is now visible in a single table: who acknowledged a deviation, who changed a configuration, and whether notifications were sent successfully.
“I always say the audit trail is a little bit like ‘Big Brother is watching you.’ You see every step and every action which is taken in the system.”
Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO
New in the cloud version is a drag-and-drop floor plan feature. Customers can upload any image of their facility layout and place sensors directly onto it. The result is a live visual overview where each sensor's status is shown in context, with color changes or flashing indicators signaling an alarm or warning. Some customers have taken this further, displaying floor plans on large screens outside cleanrooms so staff can check environmental conditions before beginning entry procedures.
The updated dashboard gives users an at-a-glance summary of active alarms, acknowledged-but-still-active alarms, connectivity warnings, low battery indicators and other status flags. It is designed to answer one question quickly: is there anything that needs my attention right now?
The new interface gives users significantly more control over how data is displayed, with expanded options for filtering, sorting and adding or hiding columns in monitoring tables, making it easier for different roles to configure views that match how they work.
One of the less-discussed challenges with on-premises environmental monitoring is the dependency it creates on internal IT teams. Database maintenance, backup management, server patching, and disaster recovery planning all fall to the customer's IT department, which may have competing priorities and limited familiarity with the specific requirements of GxP validation and FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance.
“We were always much more dependent on the customer's IT. They need to have knowledge about database management and maintenance, because in some years you collect millions of data points that to be maintained so it still works properly.”
Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO
elproMONITOR Cloud shifts the responsibility of server management to ELPRO. Hosted in an ISO 27001-certified environment with daily backups in geo-redundant data centers, the platform is managed and maintained by the people who built it. Customer IT teams are still needed for network access, open communication ports and device connectivity, but server maintenance is no longer their problem. For smaller organizations without large IT departments, this shift is particularly significant.
“For smaller companies, all these tasks are simply too much. When they know it's a cloud solution that takes care of all this, they don't need to worry about that.”
Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO
elproMONITOR Cloud is not a wholesale replacement for on-premises. ELPRO continues to offer on-premises and private-instance options for organizations with specific infrastructure or compliance requirements. But for the growing number of pharmaceutical and life sciences companies looking to simplify IT overhead, accelerate deployments, and maintain rigorous GxP compliance without building internal infrastructure to support it, the cloud version removes barriers that have historically made environmental monitoring more complex than it needs to be.
The alarming architecture, the audit trail, the floor plan visualizations, the dashboard — these are not cosmetic updates. They reflect a platform rebuilt around how quality and operations teams actually work and what they need to stay ahead of deviations before they become problems.
To learn more about elproMONITOR Cloud, visit elpro.com/en/elpro-monitor or watch the on-demand webinar featuring ELPRO experts Sascha Schultes and Mike Quinn.
Does elproMONITOR Cloud support SMS and email alarms?
Yes. Both email and SMS alarm notifications are included in elproMONITOR Cloud without requiring additional configuration or third-party integrations. Alarm messages include the sensor name, current value, timestamp, incident number and configured alarm limits, giving recipients the context they need to act immediately.
What happens if an alarm is not acknowledged in elproMONITOR Cloud?
elproMONITOR Cloud supports configurable repeat notifications. If an alarm remains active and unacknowledged after a defined period, the system automatically resends all configured notifications, including email, SMS, and digital outputs such as warning lights. Notifications stop repeating only once a user formally acknowledges the alarm in the system, which creates a documented record of who took responsibility and when.
Is elproMONITOR Cloud FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and GxP compliant?
Yes. elproMONITOR Cloud is validated according to GAMP® 5 and compliant with FDA 21 CFR Part 11. It includes a complete audit trail accessible directly within the application, role-based access controls, and data integrity protections including daily backups in geo-redundant data centers hosted on ISO 27001-certified infrastructure.
Does elproMONITOR Cloud work with both wired and wireless sensors?
Yes. elproMONITOR Cloud supports both wired and wireless sensor configurations. The choice between wired and wireless depends on the criticality of the monitored application and the installation environment. ELPRO recommends conducting a risk analysis to determine the appropriate sensor type based on the products being monitored and the consequences of a temporary signal interruption.
What is the difference between elproMONITOR Cloud and the on-premises version?
Both versions share the same core monitoring logic, including limit profiles, recipient profiles, alarm acknowledgment workflows and deviation reporting. The cloud version adds several new capabilities, including a complete in-app audit trail, drag-and-drop floor plan visualization, an updated dashboard, and a more flexible user interface, while removing the need for customers to manage their own server infrastructure, database maintenance and disaster recovery planning.
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