Audit Management software recommendations

A

andrewg

#1
All,

I am looking to source some audit management software. Can anyone recommend any products? Which ones work best? What are the costs of such a system? Has anyone developed their own system? What were the pros and cons of making your own system?

I welcome any advice!!!

Thanks,

Andy:confused:
 
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Jen Kirley

Quality and Auditing Expert
Staff member
Admin
#3
I have reviewed audit program software and found it less than inspiring. I use a set of spreadsheets to manage schedules, enter and chart results, and manage nonconformances. It's cheap (really, really cheap! :D), can be altered as needs arise, and it's adaptable to systems besides ISO 900X. The drawback is a need to understand Excel pretty well if you need to tweak the spreadsheets very much.

Here is a thread where some audit results management tools can be found.
This thread has a nonconformance tracking log attached in it.

I hope this helps!
 
P

Phil Fields

#4
Our company uses Excel, Access, and Word to manage internal audits.
• Excel used to manage the schedule.
• An Access Database has been developed to manage nonconformances
• Microsoft Word is used for documenting audit plans and Audit reports.
 
C

CliffK

#5
Stay away from commercial QMS software. It will not fit your organization well and takes a mountain of money to configure or customize.

If you are using a paper-based or spreadsheet/word processor/simple database system, spend your time thinking about how to make it work most effectively and efficiently. In the long run you will be much better off.
 

Sunday

Trusted Information Resource
#6
I strongly disagree with the previous post and encourage you to investigate commercial software. I agree with the "classic problem": commercial software is often expensive, often forces companies to change their process to fit the software, and is usually difficult and expensive to customize. So that is exactly why we started our company (refer to the links in my profile).

Our challenge is to offer affordable, easily customized tools to make compliance simple and efficient. Yes, we offer audit management tools integrated with CAPA.

We continually strive to improve our products and avoid the classic commercial software problems.
 

Jim Ivey

Grand Avenue Software
#7
I'm curious about the perceived disconnect between users and software vendors in the last couple of posts. Do the user voices have specific issues that they'd like to see addressed by commercial software for audit management?

Maybe we can start with the comment from a previous poster:
- "It will not fit your organization well and takes a mountain of money to configure or customize"

I can believe that most commercial software takes an inordinate amount of time and effort (and thus money) to customize, whether the cost is seen up-front, or over time in validating the customizations against software updates. But I'd like to hear how the software packages you've tried didn't fit your organization (and therefore required customization)... was it a problem with their process? reporting? checklists? scheduling?

Maybe if some of those issues get visibility in a forum like this, software vendors can be encouraged to address them.
 
C

CliffK

#8
Any software implementation consultant worth $.02 US will tell you to clear up and clean up your manual process before automating it. With a process as simple as internal auditing, there's little need to automate it if it's running smoothly.

My main gripe against QMS software is that it encourages you to sit at your keyboard when you should be checking the water quality in the company's value stream. It can isolate you.

Spend your time building the skills of your internal auditors, keep your audit team focused on what's important, know what's going on in the organization and eliminate your own waste motion and you will be better off.

I'm curious about the perceived disconnect between users and software vendors in the last couple of posts. Do the user voices have specific issues that they'd like to see addressed by commercial software for audit management?
Not for audit program planning and management. The simplest and most efficient way to plan and manage an internal audit schedule is with a calendar matrix on a white board. Someone with a sixth-grade education can understand the calendar after a ten-minute explanation. The status of the whole program is immediately visible.

If you must compute, you can put the calendar matrix on a spread sheet. Of course, you will lose the ability to take in the whole thing at one glance unless you set the zoom level to mice-type.

It's a simple matter to set up templates for audit reports and NC's. Any modern spread sheet or word processor has the ability to hyperlink the documents together, if you think there's value in hyperlinking.

Maybe we can start with the comment from a previous poster:
- "It will not fit your organization well and takes a mountain of money to configure or customize"

I can believe that most commercial software takes an inordinate amount of time and effort (and thus money) to customize, whether the cost is seen up-front, or over time in validating the customizations against software updates. But I'd like to hear how the software packages you've tried didn't fit your organization (and therefore required customization)... was it a problem with their process? reporting? checklists? scheduling?
All of it. The particular software package I'm thinking of is terribly cluttered and over-featured.

Maybe if some of those issues get visibility in a forum like this, software vendors can be encouraged to address them.
Doubt it. My client approached the software vendor to get some of these problems cleared up and the vendor suggested they take out their checkbook.
 
#9
Andy:

Don't do it, mate! I've seen and used a number of software 'solutions' which are a bigger pain in the rear than anything. There are two principle issues about using canned software - it detracts from actually doing the audit, that is to say, the auditor spends more time at the computer than they do actually auditing and most software is written by a 'programmer' who's been to auditing class, rather than experienced in auditing (not meaning to be disrespectful, here). So, it looks like a solution, but it's not really workable.

Get a 'quick and dirty' paper driven system and use spreadsheets etc to report out etc.
 
R

ramblinpaul

#10
andrewg,

Obviously some strong views on both sides of the buy vs. build. I can only agree there are pros and cons on both sides of the buy vs. build argument.

My recommendation is to define exactly what you want in an "Audit Software". What is it you want? Scheduling of Audits, Assignment of Audits, Creating, assigning and managing Follow-ups and CAPAs, Rescheduling of Audits, etc. Once you have that complete take a look at what's in the marketplace, and if you have the internal skills and resources to build from scratch.

In the market there are a wide range of products which offer a wide range of functionality. Some will have more features than you'll ever want, or need, and others will be too basic. Your work to define what you need at the beginning will reward you in making the proper choice.

In the commercial market, ask for free online demos of products, ask for access to demonstration sites for hands-on introduction, ask about the upfront pricing and ongoing support pricing.

Finally take note, that all software solutions (commercial and in-house developed) will take a certain amount of time at the beginning to configure properly and get "up and running". But once that investment in time is complete whichever method you choose the solution must save you time, increase efficiency, and make your life easier.

If at the outset it doesn't seem like it will do that, then run don't walk away from that internal or commercial software package.

Good Luck!
 
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