As a company that is ISO9001 certified, and also provides web based software specifically to assist in this area, it is great to get the chance to experience our own QMS software as a user – we have our own very genuine needs and its interesting  to put our own software through our own hoops – instead of everyone else’s.

We actually only have 10 policies – one of those – our core “Specifications, Development, Testing and Delivery” process does have 4 flowchart based procedures, the others are perfectly well represented as application files and version controlled inside Quality Manager itself. We don’t even need the complexity of storing those in the main document management system – another cost saving for an SME client meeting the stringent demands of any QMS framework like ISO9001.

Policy Manager and Policy Publisher

In our case we use InfoCapture to control our audits, as we don’t have multiple sites or multiple legislation – or teams of auditors and quality managers – so the efficiency gains of using Audit Manager as a dedicated and powerful QMS application are just not there for us as a user. It’s a truly great application for larger companies – but we just don’t have the requirements so why use it just because it is free for us!

We do however store the primary flowcharts of our core “Specifications, Development, Testing and Delivery” process in our ‘Process Diagram’ album in image gallery. This gives the designers the ability to work on them as we refine the process, and also makes them available in smaller resolutions for presentations to interested clients and partners.

Flowcharts and online policies

Importantly whereas 9 of our policies are maintained as version controlled application files, the flowchart based process is totally online within Policy Publisher. This is a single policy with automatic inclusion of the latest version of each of the flowcharts – keeping the main policy up to date is therefore completely automatic – if a lead developer changes the process, the policy is automatically kept up to date.

Summary

We ourselves are very typical of any SME company that has some flowchart based procedures, a set of policies, and a requirement to schedule and manage internal audits, with in our case one additional external ISO9001 audit every year.

Of the 5 applications we could use from the Claromentis framework to meet this need:

• Document Management
• Policy Manager
• Audit Manager
• InfoCapture
• Policy Publisher

We as our client actually only need to use 3. Policy manager ( there is a new policy manager tour available here ) provides its own version controlled document management specifically for policies, and InfoCapture is great for scheduling audits, managing non conformancies and moving each audit through the appropriate stages towards a successful conclusion.

For our core development processes we maintain those online in Policy Publisher, removing the need for any application files and allowing us to maintain and present the relevant flow charts and showing how all these processes relate.Since each process chart is maintained as its own procedure, the policy will auto update whenever any chart is changed, as we continue to evolve our own processes.

As a final conclusion we made fast access buttons on our intranet home page to both Audits and Policies just to make sure we are all aware of everything, and nothing is more than a couple of clicks away.

Fast acces links to our Quality Management

All in all I can honestly say we are a very satisfied user of our own QMS software, and I believe we are a typical example of an SME company that has a real need to get proactive value out of compliance – in our case with ISO9001.

This software is helping us break down the barriers between the intent of the legislation – improving quality – and actually achieving that goal with minimum administration and maximum returns.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Quality intranet software, ISO9001, quality management software

A short video explaining how SME companies can use Claromentis InfoCapture to manage non conformancies that arise from internal and external audits.

For smaller companies the complexities of the powerful quality management applications from Claromentis are sometimes simply not necessary – the video shows how InfoCapture and of course version controlled document management for the actual policies can supply an ideal solution in these circumstances.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Quality, Workflow Services e-forms, quality management software

Increasingly we are taking on clients whose search for a quality management system is not primarily from their own need, but rather dictated by their clients.

More and more companies are having to mandate that their suppliers adhere to a quality management system – because that helps them maintain their own certification.

I suppose that in many ways this is a good thing, but I worry about the cynical attitude it sometimes comes with.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Quality ISO9001, QMS

As Claromentis continues to grow in the scope and range of products and applications, the framework is being actively developed and enhanced by the use of components to provide flexible, configurable functionality for clients wishing to use them.

Just in the last week the following very useful components have been added :

Anniversary Intranet Component

The Anniversary component gives you the ability to summarily compare dates attached to users profiles within Claromentis through the use of metadata.

Once configured, not only can you change how far in the future you’d like to list events – up to one whole year from today, but also how many user anniversaries you’d like shown.

This anniversary component could be useful for anything from showing birthday information for employees, to listing anniversaries of employment with your company – there are lots of opportunities for configuration of this component.
 
File Review Intranet Component

The File Review component also through the use of custom metadata allows you to configure multiple options for ensuring that you always know what review dates are coming for your files.

This component allows you to change how files are listed and also what scope of listing to give. For example: you can also attach a reviewer to the component, and it’ll list also for the reviewer of the file; you can show review dates to everyone – ideal for a departmental vi.  The major advantage of this component is how configurable it is, you can show due dates to all, or just the reviewer, or just the owner, or even both the owner and the reviewer; on top of which you can change how far ahead it is looking for document review dates, and it will make it really clear to the viewers when something is overdue for review!

 
RSS Reader Intranet Component

The RSS Reader component makes reading news or events easy, be it from an external source such as the BBC or using your own internal RSS feed.

The component allows two modes of reading, one is a fixed feed experience – designed for when you want a feed readable by all without them being able to customize where it is reading from; the second makes use of custom metadata, allowing your end user to configure where the news is coming from, so that the component is always personal to them.

Interested clients should contact us – we have these components available on our development WIKI and we are currently considering if they should be included in the core distributive.

Custom Development, Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Intranet, Prod-Quality, Resources-Technical components, intranet software

As everything is about collaboration, and everything can be moderated – why don’t content editors give edit permissions to their own content more freely?

Everyone is keen to provide view rights, but protective of edit rights, even though this is precisely where new information would come from. Although in certain areas – like corporate policies and procedures for example – this would obviously not be appropriate – for many functions and processes increased contribution to knowledge should be welcome, even if it needs editing before approval.

Cultural openness is hard to achieve – even in collaboration platforms designed for exactly that purpose.

Prod-Quality intranet software, permissions

Interestingly we are now working to extend the Quality Manager application in the area of requests and approvals of new policies and procedures, and in enabling a consultation process where comments are received from authorized users, before the policy is approved and formally issued in the Bookshelf application.

Our challenge here is actually how to understand what needs are generic, and which ones are specific to an individual company works. This requirement has always been acknowledged and understood, it is great to finally see the work start. We will need to make the configuration very flexible, so that smaller companies without for example a formal consultation process for new policies are not forced by our software to adopt one. It may even be that for some companies only certain policies and procedures need such workflows and consultation, others can just be created by quality managers.

Prod-Quality quality management software

I am very pleased to say that Claromentis has received ISO9001 accreditation for Quality Management.

This includes the audit of our bespoke and core code processes, which are end to end from specifications to sign off.

It ensures that we :

• Have a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;
• Are monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;
• Keep adequate records;
• Are always  checking our code for defects, with appropriate and corrective action where necessary;
• Are regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness; and
• Are facilitating continual improvement.

Thanks to everyone for your help with the work we put in over the last 6 months to gain this important certification.

Prod-Quality ISO9001, Quality

Babcock simplifies policy management and improves employee communications with help from Claromentis.

Babcock Case Study

With a client list including the Ministry of Defence and local authorities as well as major private sector companies, Babcock Infrastructure Services (BIS) manages over 15,000 properties across the United Kingdom. Part of Babcock International Group PLC, the Company services nationwide contracts both directly and through subsidiary joint ventures Debut Services (South West) Ltd, Babcock DynCorp Ltd, and mouchelbabcock education.

Reed the full version of Babcock Case Study.

Prod-Quality Babcock, Case Study

With clients now upgrading to Claromentis 5.4, we will have the fist opportunity to gain feedback on a significant new application – Quality Manager.

This application has been sponsored by one of our largest companies and provides important functionality for the management of policies and procedures.

It moves Policies and Procedures onto a truly online world, and away from our previous solution of using Document manager to provide version controlled online files.

The new online Quality Manager means:

• Procedures and Manuals will be automatically updated when included procedures change, radically simplifying the business problem of maintaining a complex information layer
• Compliance will be simpler
• Online Policies and Procedures can be exported to many formats
• Printed copies can be marked automatically as outside the quality management system
• Different business units will automatically see the same content with their own brand – but there is only one Policy to maintain.

We are now working on the extension of this application to provide an enterprise level environment for the management of ISO or other legislative Audits – these two applications working together will provide the complete solution for Quality Managers.

Prod-Quality policies and procedures, quality management software, software