ETQ Quality & Compliance Software - Opinions or Reviews wanted

GStough

Leader
Super Moderator
We don't use it, but I would be interested in your opinion after the demo. What did you like/dislike about it? :cool:
 
B

Bigfoot

We don't use it, but I would be interested in your opinion after the demo. What did you like/dislike about it? :cool:

Gidget,
The EtQ software demo was very impressive. It looks to have a lot of functionality, is easy to use, flexible, & configurable to the business needs of the organization. It has some cool features like generating an Internal Audit checklist that you can complete off line, then when you attach it to the Audit Report in the system it 'pushes' the text of the attachment into the database. :cool:

An interesting tidbit that I picked up is that the principles who started EtQ were both Lead Assessors for UL before starting the company.

Disclaimer: I do not work for nor have I ever worked for EtQ.

Overall I'd give the out of the box version 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. :2cents:
 
W

wenricks

It is always best to get what you need to enhance your craft. This best practice software will definitely help you get an ace in your game.
 
K

Kleppy

My company is recently evaluating between EtQ and Trackwise, and I'm wondering if you have already implemented EtQ (since this post was originally posted back in 2008), and that what you think of it so far? Thanks :)
 
J

jonpaulson

Kleppy, I too am involved in evaluating QMS software. The company I work for is a large multi national. We have evaluated Intelex, ETQ, Pilgrim, Quality On-Line and SAP. The main requirements we have are: a system which is user configurable, a stable company which can grow with us and within budget (cost of the suite, licenses and internal hosting costs). Initially we created a list of general business requirements for each of the following processes: training, nonconformity/customer complaint, audit, risk, change and documentation. We then requested demonstrations from each of the companies (2 - 2 hr demos from each) and test environments. Each vendor provided a test environment except for ETQ, who requested an ETQ support person assist in the test environment evaluation. Evaluations against our business requirements were completed using both the recorded demos and the test environments. We are currently collecting all evaluations and hoping to proceed to the Proof of Concept stage. If we are happy with the POC we'll proceed with the purchase.


Summary of ETQ evaluation

Pros
· Simplicity of modules
· Streamlined workflow and look
· New system without existing perceptions (vs. our current system)
· High degree of configurability available
· Future costs related to customizations
· Architecture requires a lower level of system resources (Java vs. .NET - based on internal hosting)
· Initial cost
· Ability to add additional areas of business in the future
· Breadth of suite
· Workflow direction provided to user
· Concurrent user structure
· Reduced configuration time (due to user configurablity)
· Interoperability of modules and data
· Greater potential to meet all existing or future requirements
Cons
· New system requiring longer rollout
· High degree of configurability available allowing a non-standardized way of working
· Complex system requiring additional resources
· Governance and support models may be more difficult to setup and maintain due to the configurability of the system


I'd like to hear your evaluation of these systems when you complete.

If anyone currently using ETQ is willing to discuss their experiences via phone I'd appreciate the opportunity for a Q&A.


Jonathan Paulson
 
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Q

Quality-Geek

Anyone here using ETQ software? We are having a demo this week.

We have the CAPA module. I like it for the most part, although having only 1 module makes things a little more difficult. We got it 2 years ago and have been using it heavily just about since day1. We were supposed to get hte rest of the modules a year ago and budgets were cut...same thing happened this year. So, keep in mind that my opinion is probably a little narrow since I haven't seen how all the modules can work together to make my life a little easier. :D

It's very easy to look at any CAPA to see who is assigned, check the progress, or help out (or nag :whip: ) when needed. The e-mail alerts are very helpful but are easy to ignore. (Of course, any e-mail is easy to ignore!) It's harder for me to look for trends based on part numbers or specific defects. I believe this is because we don't have all the modules. Some users have had a hard time getting used to the database but that appears to be a function of computer experience and skills. I really liked how easy it was to set it up for us. I also like that we could link all sister plants to this. (So far, Corporate and each North America sister plant has seen it and been impressed. Too bad we all have budgets that we have to live in!)

Cons have been largely in the training. As I said, some people have had a hard time with it. That would be true regardless of which system we would have chosen.

Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5. Hope that helps!
 
K

Kleppy

Jonathan,

Thank you for the very detailed reply, it is very helpful.

My company is also multi national although on the smaller end, and after the initial round of evaluation, we've narrowed it down to MasterControl, Trackwise, and EtQ, based on our needs (documentation, complaints and capa were the main focuses, and we wanted project and risk management if possible). MasterControl was first to go as they were way over the budget if we wanted all of the functionality from them.
We then have them perform 2~3 demos on the different functions and requested trial play-around sessions with the software. EtQ actually opened up accounts on their demo server for my company to log on and play around with the functions, and Trackwise come on-site for us to connect to their "portable server" and we were able to test it out as well.

Generally speaking, the summary of our EtQ evaluation is pretty similar to yours, however, we do have a concern regarding their regulatory compliance as during the demo, the demonstrator sounded vaguely unsure of EtQ's capabilities. This could just be caused by the demonstrator is not as knowledgable as he should be, or maybe the Asia-Pacific representative (SeerPharma) just isn't as familiar with EtQ?

Trackwise is very strong in regulatory compliance and has a large and positive presense in international pharmaceutical companies, also highly configurable, not modular based, but the initial cost is rather unfriendly and it does not support Macs.

Visually, EtQ is rather similar to Trackwise, EtQ's dashboard is a little more user friendly, although EtQ's processing time does seem longer.

In the end, I believe we will be choosing EtQ, as we're somewhat limited by the budget, and that the Trackwise brandname cannot justify the price difference we are seeing.
 
K

Kleppy

We have the CAPA module. I like it for the most part, although having only 1 module makes things a little more difficult. We got it 2 years ago and have been using it heavily just about since day1. We were supposed to get hte rest of the modules a year ago and budgets were cut...same thing happened this year. So, keep in mind that my opinion is probably a little narrow since I haven't seen how all the modules can work together to make my life a little easier. :D

It's very easy to look at any CAPA to see who is assigned, check the progress, or help out (or nag :whip: ) when needed. The e-mail alerts are very helpful but are easy to ignore. (Of course, any e-mail is easy to ignore!) It's harder for me to look for trends based on part numbers or specific defects. I believe this is because we don't have all the modules. Some users have had a hard time getting used to the database but that appears to be a function of computer experience and skills. I really liked how easy it was to set it up for us. I also like that we could link all sister plants to this. (So far, Corporate and each North America sister plant has seen it and been impressed. Too bad we all have budgets that we have to live in!)

Cons have been largely in the training. As I said, some people have had a hard time with it. That would be true regardless of which system we would have chosen.

Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5. Hope that helps!
Out of curiosity, how long was the implementation time for just the CAPA module, since you said it was very easy to set up? Thanks :)
 
Q

Quality-Geek

Out of curiosity, how long was the implementation time for just the CAPA module, since you said it was very easy to set up? Thanks :)

Once we started getting the setup going, it was only a couple weeks. We had to wait for the programmer to come up from Missourri. Once he was able to see exactly what we wanted it went pretty fast. We did some of the setup (people, lists, some of the work flows), and he did the programming side of it.

It took longer to train all the QA techs and Production supervisors and leads than anything else. As always, a new system takes a little bit of time to learn. Even the initial training only took a month or so. Not bad considering we had to fit training roughly 50 people into our already very busy schedules. It would have been nice to have a person or team able to dedicate all their time to training everyone. It would have taken about a week that way. Unfortunately we simply weren't able to do that.
 
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