Improving business metrics with an effective quality and document management system
Every business needs to adhere to quality standards and certifications related to its industry. This is a mandatory requirement. Quality system documentation is a set of policies, processes and procedures required for planning and executing the core business area of an organization. ISO 9001 is an example of a quality management system.
Implementing a document management system directly impacts an organization’s ability to address their customer’s requirements effectively, in turn leading to more customers, more sales, and more repeat business. Implementing quality management ensures high customer loyalty, improved business, satisfied employees and better document management discipline. Without effective document control, audits are chaotic and more likely to reveal errors.
Quality Management and Document Management Challenges
Online collaboration systems/ shared server drives are no guarantee for quality system documentation. Common problems are:
- Lack of control over who changes documents & when
- Tedious to maintain & track older versions of the documents
- Sharing of the document via email, making it harder to find them & leading to version mistakes
- The proliferation of versions that lack consistent titles and numbering systems
Lack of suitable document control procedures and quality management system leads to:
- Failed inspections or audits by official authorities
- Being subject to more comprehensive auditing and monitoring
- Receiving warnings & fines
- Losing industry standard certifications
- Ultimately, face closure – and even prosecution if people’s safety is jeopardized
Poor document control solution has several hidden costs such as:
- Time wasted looking for documents
- Loss of documents
- Document version errors
- Lack of traceability and ownership
- Delayed processes & shipments
Xencia Quality Management System (QMS)
QMS from Xencia is a cloud-based solution for document control & quality management solution. It is hosted on Azure, so you don’t need to worry about scalability and security issues. It’s a SaaS solution that you can subscribe to on a consumption-based (per user per month) pricing model. It has a very simple interface and is easy to set up and use to ensure a really good user experience.
Xencia QMS helps the organization adhere to strict ISO norms as mandated by the certifying authorities. It helps the organization maintain a strong and secure document management system.
Features of Xencia QMS Cloud Solution
- Bulk upload existing documents easily to the system making the transition to this solution very quick and simple
- Create document masters of all the important documents such as policy documents, process documents, standard operating procedures, templates, user manuals, certificates, records, meeting trackers etc.
- Manage document versions with automated archival of earlier versions when a new version is released
- Automated workflows for document creation, modification, approval and release
- Automated notifications to respective users when the document is modified and when a specific action is required
- Role-based access for users and can define user access rights too
- Management review meeting actions can be easily updated and tracked
- Can enable internal and external quality audits and make the process easier
- Non-conformance can be tracked to closure
- Can be accessed from anywhere & any computer/tab / mobile through the browser
- No need to install any applications on the devices
- Search for documents using keywords
- Documents are grouped under Section / Folders for logical storage & retrieval
- Easy & interactive web-based training for users
Xencia QMS consists of two primary components:
- Restricted Access
- Password protected for each user
- Role-based access to documents
- Intruder lockout for enhanced security
- The document being available to end-users will be the latest version to rule out any confusion that may arise
- Automatic routing – Revision workflow with automated notification/reminders to concerned users
- Document Management
- The document follows a lifecycle that begins with the draft, passes through Release & ends at archival
- Audit history of all document activity- All events pertaining to document is automatically logged
- Centralized, online document storage – Documents are stored in a secure manner to ensure unauthorized access/loss
- Automatic e-mail notifications – E-mail notifications will be triggered when users need to perform a task like Review, Approve, Release. Send Back comments
- are also being notified by email
- Once the document is released, it will be published to the users who have its access rights & old version will be archived