Qualityworld
Software showcase
The opportunities that software can offer your business have increased dramatically over the past 10 years. But where do you start looking if you want to invest in a good quality software product that won't cost the earth? QW provides you with some tips and a quick reference guide to the kind of thing that's on offer.
Software products are allowing companies to take proactive, preventative steps, rather than analyse their failures, and more and more organisations are recognising that software can help them improve. With this in mind, QW has asked 20 software providers to tell us what their products do in simple terms, and with no sales-speak. We hope to make this a regular feature of QW, so if your favourite software product is not mentioned here, let us know and we'll endeavour to include it next time.
This is by no means a complete list of what is available, but is intended to give you an insight into the kind of products on offer and what they can actually do for your business. The key of features by each product is only a guideline, and does not indicate the complete range of features. QW or IQA is not endorsing any of these products or suggesting that any one of them is better than another. The final decision can only be made by you, probably after a lot of time researching on the internet and phone. Hopefully this guide of products and tips will make that job a little easier.
Key considerations when selecting a software product
by Peter Shields of Innovative Management Systems.
- document management:
- ease of maintenance
- versioning of documents to identify updates
- revision history
- archiving of previous versions of documents
- approval before publishing
- review before and after publishing
- graphics with hyperlinks
- links to supporting applications and databases
- audit scheduling, reporting and analysis recording
- non-conformance reporting, analysis and fault recording
- corrective and preventive action recording, reporting and analysis
- suggestion recording for potential improvements
- customer complaints - satisfaction index monitoring and reporting
- risk assessment
- action register - who needs to do what, when
- action tracking with personal risk task
- knowledge management - retention of information
- heath and safety modules - accident and incident, environmental impact, COSHH
- strategy - drive strategy from top management through all levels of the organisation
- performance measurement - analyse weekly data, monthly, quarterly, annually stored in all associated modules
- compliance - links documents within the system to individual clauses with your relevant standards
- training record maintenance
- calibration record maintenance
- general:
- security and editing rights
- robustness/stability
- multi-site connectivity
- on-line help facility
- multi-tier structure for documents eg policies, forms and work instructions
- consider the costs. If you think your paper-based QMS doesn't cost anything, think again. How much time does it take for the quality manager to write out new procedures, photocopy information and distribute it to colleagues. Lowest cost should not be the key consideration - not all software offers the same functionality
- all systems, quality or otherwise, need to be developed to support the core business processes that are necessary for the company to operate effectively as a whole, and should never be developed in isolation
- ensure that IT is onboard from day one
- as a quality professional, ensure you understand the facts and present a clear case for change to the decision-makers, whether these are IT managers or finance directors
- undertake a gap analysis to determine what needs the company has
- as a minimum a software product should:
- be simple to understand and maintain
- increase efficiency
- provide a return on investment within a satisfactory timeframe
- enable compliance to specified standards
- research the software management system market before you buy
- consider getting impartial advice from similar sized organisations in your sector which have recently implemented a software management system
- decide on a system which can happily integrate with existing software
- prepare a checklist of what you want and ensure each software solution fulfils all the criteria
- consider external support in the short term to get the selected system up and running as quickly as possible
- discuss current and future potential requirements
- conduct an internal review with potential users of the new software to determine all requirements
- keep the end-user in mind throughout the decision-making process
- once the choice has been narrowed down, bring the potential software providers in-house for a demo and to allow future users to have a go
IT queries
Typical IT queries include:
- what operating system is needed, Microsoft or Lotus Notes?
- do I need additional software to run the program?
- can we install, or is specialist and often expensive assistance required
- does the product have a support package?
- can the supplier provide overseas support on a 24-hour basis?
- LAN, WAN intranet? Will we want our clients to view our system (extranet)?
- licensing - per seat or concurrent?
- is there an escrow agreement should the software supplier cease to operate?
- importantly, will this product integrate with our current IT Strategy?
The decision to purchase quality improvement software is not one to be made lightly. Whatever you choose will have a dramatic impact on your business, but not necessarily a positive one.
