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Document
Control
Document Control got
you down? Had me down. Seems every time we updated a marketing document,
such as a price sheet for example, someone didn't get the message. Or
maybe they did, but forgot to get rid of their inventory of old price
sheets. So a month or so later when I'd grab my notepad to do a spot check
of procedures, I would find an out of date document lying around.
Of course, I'm not without
blame myself. Months (who am I kidding: days) later, I couldn't even remember
details of procedures I wrote myself. Then, as we grew, things not only
got more complicated, but new employees came on board, who needed to learn
all those things the rest of the staff took for granted. The things some
people call 'on the job experience.'
I'm not saying we weren't
organized. Not by any stretch of the imagination. We had areas of our
network set aside for storing these documents, and people generally knew
where to find them, although they sometimes needed helpful reminders.
But frankly, that was inefficient, especially if a client is on the line
waiting for a response.
Then Q-Pulse came along.
Using its Document Control features, our staff has all the current marketing
information at their fingertips. The Document Register can restrict the
view to a selected document type so they're easier to find. If you can't
remember what document type the document is, you can search by document
title (or portion of title), department, or even by an area of the ISO
9000 standard the document relates to. You can also view the historical
records of the document (to see what changes were made, when, and by whose
approval).
And the Document Register
really is easy to use. We've had part-time high school kids that do admin
work learn all the Q-Pulse skills they needed in less than an hour. Users
who are accessing the Document Register don't even use a Q-Pulse license!
We've got some customers using Q-Pulse company-wide with a single license!
The document revision
process is entirely managed by Q-Pulse. We set up our Distribution List
for the document (which you can copy from other documents), and everyone
gets notified when the new document is activated. It can also notify you
when someone creates a new draft revision, approves or rejects a document,
or if you schedule a periodic review of the document.
But some of your users
may not be on-line. Q-Pulse handles that well. In fact, we use that feature
for users who want (or need) hard copies of certain documents. We stamp
those documents as Controlled, then gather up the existing controlled
hard copies and replace with the new revision. This keeps everyone on
the same page.
And any document type
can be controlled: word processing documents, spreadsheets, CAD drawings,
flowcharts, etc. from any vendor. Of course, users may need an installed
copy of the particular application to open a given document. But you can
also take advantage of the fact that many desktop applications allow you
to store their files in other formats. For example, MS Word and Excel
documents can be stored in html format, so all you need is an Internet
browser to open the document. CAD drawings can be saved as bitmaps,
or even GIF files, opened in a browser. I hear Microsoft still provides
a browser with every copy of Windows, just for your convenience, no other
reason.
Life is indeed getting
simpler as a result of Q-Pulse. Now if I could just remember where I put
my notepad...
Paul
A. Keller, is not only a Q-Pulse user, he's also QA's Technical
Service Director
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