Qualsys EQMS delivers the Expectation

As an independent, Implementation and Validation Consultant, I have worked with Qualsys on several client projects, and can honestly say that they deliver over and above expectation. Not only are they highly responsive in the Pre-Sales process (like most), this level of responsiveness continues throughout your journey of engagement: Project Management, Implementation, Go-Live and then into BAU. They have really thought about the most important component - "The Customer". Also, when you have an issue or something that just needs sorting out, you can pick-up the phone where you get to speak to an actual human-being .. Yes, it really is true (actual people).. try it for yourself, it is refreshing in this day of the robot society.

Pros

The system can be implemented in a phased approach, focusing effort on core needs to enable a faster go-live timescale, to start benefiting from the systems capabilities. User Interface and the overall Experience; supports the ease-of-use, to get stakeholders engaged with the system and adopting new ways of working from the perspective of distributing the 'quality culture' throughout the organisation. The system has excellent 'touch points' for staff to take ownership of their documents and quality events; to ensure execution and closure in a timely manner. I particularly like the systems workflow engine, in how it directs the events and keeps your tasks on track. Furthermore, the integration of Business Intelligence to immediately review your KPIs and current Compliance Position, hits the sweet spot for effective (right now) decision making. I also liked the balance between out of the box, light touch setup to developing additional user-needs configuration, under the ITIL Change Management methodology, rather than having to do lots of heavy configuration on Day 1, then having to re-think it all at a later point. Overall, this system offers an intuitive platform based approach, that will appeal to multiple business teams, management and implementers/validators of such systems.

Cons

No particular dislikes noted. In one particular implementation, the custom fields in Document Manager would not merge the meta-data to the document file. It was only designed for the core meta data fields. However, I raised this as a change request to the vendor, and they were able to facilitate the capability in a quick time frame, which did not impede the requirements to have additional data automation into the document file.

Qualsys is life-changing!

Overall, it has made an improvement and met a lot of our needs. The most difficult part is getting end users engaged in the system.

Pros

I love the usability of the software. It is very intuitive, and has all of the features we wanted, or didn't know we wanted! The configurability of the system has also been a huge positive for us. With our old system we weren't able to fully configure, and the elements that we could configure required an IT administrator and/or a particular licence. I will bullet point the rest: Ability to link related documents Setting review dates for documents Dashboard Limiting permissions/viewing ability Ability for end users to leave feedback on documentation Automatically PDFing documents Embedding codes Training/help is within the system Overall the software is miles ahead of the others, with so many positive points!

Cons

The cons: There is not an option to select the information shown in an issue report The forms are "fully configurable", for example some information has to be there, and it has to be at the top of the form rather than in another section Kickstarting workflows is a little more clunky than the "pass to" function The "if" option could have a lot more power (but I understand this is a recent development) You can't do a blank search for all documents (filtering with topics for example)

Great EQMS for our business

Our business has rolled out 6 modules in 12 months, reached self-taught Levels on some modules and we are now relaying on eQMS for our everyday Quality Management.

Pros

It is quite simple to set up, and the configuration process quicken as we implemented more and more modules as they all use similar configuration files and processes. The audit and documentation systems are particularly well designed. Issue manager took more effort to implement and can be challenging.

Cons

Equipment manager lacks important features related to the standards particularly for more demanding standards such as IATF or AS. Risk Manager is great for business risks but cannot be configured for H&S individual assessments or FMEA which I think would improve the product greatly.

Review of EQMS

It has improved our training record documentation and makes it easier to access data during audits

Pros

It met our requirements relating to various ISO standards i.e 14001, 9001 and IATF 16949 with respect to training and document control

Cons

The lack of ability to transfer information from UAT site to live site meaning work has to be repeated

Great software

This is housing all our certificates, training and actions. So far so good!

Pros

A very easy business system to administer. I particularly like the Actions and Document Manager module.

Cons

We needed a lot of customization to ensure the Training Manager module worked for us.