Excellent Calibration Software and Customer Service

ProCalV5 is the best software I have researched and implemented, and there have been quite a few by now. There are many pros that come to mind, the following are the most important for our organization: * Extreme flexibility to customize the software to your needs, like changing field names or adding many user defined fields. * Never ending list of features. You can use it as a basic calibration recall system with the minimum information you need or go all the way to Gages R&R. * Very user friendly and you can customize different level of access for group of employees or individual employees. * Excellent customer support, from the staff that works with you to import your existing data into the system, to the trainers to the tech support folks, when you have an issue or need help. The response time is just amazing. * If your organization needs a particular feature or change in the software they will work with you to make it happen. * ProCalV5 is not just a tool calibration software, it is also a equipment maintenance software. It is so flexible that we are actually using it to manage our inspectors mandatory eye exams. * Great audit trial, reminders, calibration/maintenance history, etc. They are great tools for your ISO/AS certification, employee accountability and not forgetting anything. * Multi-site option, allowing you to manage tools/equipment segregated by site and the level of access of employees or different sites. Regarding cons, I can not really think of any. Whenever there has been something that we have liked the software to do differently (I can think of once or twice in several years) the ProCalV5 folks have made it happen.

We've been pleased with the functionality of the system.

The software provides the required tracking and documentation to ensure our facility remains regulatory compliant.

Pros

The system provides a reliable schedule for executing equipment calibrations. The software allows for the tracking and execution of PMs and work orders.

Cons

The approval terminology is a little confusing determining between finalized and approved documents. This requires understand for those in the process.

Review of ProCalV5

The program is easy to use. It meets the needs I have for the calibration of customer instruments. Technical help has been very good.

Pros

Well organized. Easy to move from one field to another, and understand interaction between them.
Relatively easy to use.

CONS that do not fit below:
Rather than providing the initial calibration program without defaults, I think it would help to discuss defaults with the purchaser and set some basic ones for the customer before sending providing the software.

Cons

I do not like the fact that the NOTES can not be modified once they are saved, report not finalized.
It would be helpful if you could modify an INSTRUMENT record and have that change show in calibrations that have not been finalized. Occasionly, we find an error in the way we entered an INSTRUMENT record when we enter the calibration; have to take an instrument out of a WORK ORDER, change the INSTRUMENT record and then put the instrument back into the WORK ORDER again.
The order that is presented in WORK ORDER and CALIBRATION records (numerical, asending) should be changed to decending. Most often you are looking for a new record, not the first one you did.
Difficult to add or modify REPORTS for our needs.
NOTES, It would be nice to have a note entered in the INSTRUMENT record that could be selected to always show in the calibration notes for that instrument.

Procal Review

My experience with ProCalV5 have been outstanding. I would greatly recommend this CCMS to anyone

Pros

I love the fact that ProCalV5 forces compliance. I also love that it is a completely paperless CCMS

Cons

The only issues I have ever experienced is that it can be a bit slow sometimes. That is the only real problem I have ever ran into

Migration from Honeywell Loveland to Procal V5

The migration consisted of 32,000 tags, 10,000 instrument loops, 1000 motors, 1000 relief valves, 19 years of calibration history and a customized test equipment data base. We were quite concerned about the 19 years of history and insuring that it remained intact. We perform calibrations, motor and relief valve pm's daily, the ProCalV5 engineers provided methodology and tools to make database validation possible, a dauntingly task with 19 years of history and helped developed a plan to minimize database down time when switching to the new ProCalV5 database. The Procal team worked tirelessly to find ways to mimic the functionality the we had built into the customized Loveland database. We were on a strict time table and the Procal deployment initiative met the milestones which allowed us to stay on schedule. Prime Technologies provided two levels of training, administrator and technician training. The project was a total success. We have had two major outside audits since implementation, the Procal database and reporting tool greatly contributed to the successful audit. Prime Technologies was extremely supportive before we purchased, during the implementation and now two years after go live they are very responsive to our requests.

Comments and Suggestions

Very good program. Needs a little help in the reporting area.

Pros

Easy to use and a familiar platform that is windows based. Very good implementation plan and purchased validation documentation was ver good. Excellent product support

Cons

The reporting structure needs some work. Management and metrics are difficult to access as most of the reports are item based. A calibration report summary does not exist and the report has a single page for each item and can not be exported to a spreadsheet in a format that is usable. There needs to be a selection of single page high level summary reports. Not enough definitive separation (or explanation) of items like Loops vs Systems. There is a lot of overlap in these types of data screens. Better documentation of usage of these items with examples would be good to add. Email reminder system needs to not send an email to equipment owners when ther is nothing due.

Best in the Business

Having worked with and validated numerous systems for various pharmaceutical and biotech companies over the years, including other calibration and maintenance management systems, I found ProCalV5 to be the easiest to work with, validate, and implement. The system is intuitive, flexible, and mature, thus reducing the time and effort from initial purchase to Production roll-out to the end users. The customer service and support staff at PTI are extremely knowledgeable and responsive. Response time to questions or any concerns was almost immediate in many cases. There is no question that my organization is 100% satisfied with our decision to move forward with ProCalV5 as our calibration and maintenance management solution.

Once Upon A Time In A Galaxy.

For some company's cal data, the ability to delete anything anywhere would be helpful. Being forced to live with, keep, etc., data mistakes is not desireable. A person should be able to alter/delete anything that is entered if the Company policy allows it.

Pros

ProCalV5 does everything I need it to do fairly well with out too many "Dang-it, it won't do that"s.

Cons

Need to be able to delete one (1) cal record without losing the entire record for that one instrument. I.e.- Reassigned an instrument and gave it a new Instrument Id. The old obsolete Instrument Id. keeps popping up unless you give it a "next cal due date" that's way in the future. OR... maybe, I just don't know what the H*#% I'm doing.

ProCal Review from an IT-Perspective

From an I.T.-perspective, the software implementation and configuration tasks were painless. I especially like the training and configuration workshop concept that Prime Technologies follows. As opposed to other I.T. projects, where we implement and then train, I thought this process made more sense. It allowed our users to see and learn all aspects of the system, configure the system, and then try it to make sure it functions as intended. After the workshop, validation documentation, production implementations, data migrations, and official cutover activities are conducted. As for the actual software, I would not be able to comment on its effectiveness.

Excellent software and customer service

It is a bit overwhelming at the beginning, because of all the features. Break it down in little pieces and once you are comfortable with an area move to the next one. The technical support is always there to help with any questions during any phase of the implementation.

Pros

* Customer Service is always exceptional
* The software has endless features, so it not only supports our current needs but it has a lot of room to grow
* Extremely flexible to customize it to your company needs
* Customized data migration process from our old calibration software

Cons

Have not found one yet

Global Implementation Process: Prime Technologies ProCal V5

Praxair selected Prime Technologies to implement the ProCal instrument calibration software in all global production facilities. The Prime technologies team has exceeded expectations supporting Praxair in design, configuration, training and validation of the solution. Great response by all Prime team members, excellent demonstrated customer service with response, professionalism which has resulted in a project which is on schedule/on budget and most importantly meets our expected results. This project will run through 2015 and we have no concerns with completion that meets our global customer requirements.

ProcalV5

Pros: The product works great and has lots of functionality. Great for multiple users. Easy to print out reports and Cal Certs. Cons: Administrator Features could be a little more robust. Would be nice to see who has been idle. Overall: This is great product and well worth the money. Every time we call them they come up with a solution in a timely manner. Sometimes even same day. We have over 400,000 calibrations in the system and still runs smooth. They were very supportive when we rolled out the system.

Worthwhile

Once you get the program up and running its a great way to track information. The earlier on you start using it the better.

Pros

Excellent program for keeping track of Equipment calibrations/PMs/repairs. A lot of information can be stored for each institutions equipment profile.

Cons

A lot of lists to set up, and a lot of fields to fill out, very repetitive unless you have Admin utitlity to make lists avaialble for all institutions.

Great Software

An excellent software package, after reviewing many other CMS packages, ProCal was by far the best when considering functionality and cost

Pros

Ease of use for non-computer literate technicians
excellent reporting and complete overview of all calibration activity.
Greta improvement to business workflow using ProCal work orders.
Wide array of options to suit our needs and how we perform calibrations

Cons

Have had no problems

Still New

Refresh button. Spell check. Have a basic vocabulary built into the drop down lists, we can always add or modify. Same thing with basic test groups, they should be some basic ones built in, we can build from there.

Pros

Just starting out in the biz. I havent been able to figure it all out but with there support I'm doing ok.

Cons

It comes blank. Being I am new and don't know what goes in the blanks that made it harder to figure out.