Certificate Retrieval System [CRS] - Considering the purchase of a software package

[Lorrie]

We are considering the purchase of a software package being marketed by Rice Lake Weighing Systems for the storage and retreival of Calibration Certificates for scales and weighing equipment. In a fit of originality they called it "CRS", which stands for "Certificate Retrieval System". It allows certificates to be created electronically using a PDA during on-site calibrations; they are then reviewed for accuracy and uploaded to the web, where customers can retrieve them at will using a logon and password. They are marketing this as being 17025 compliant; I was wondering if anyone has seen and/or used this system? Do you have any comments on it? Any thoughts concerning a marketing strategy if we decide to go with it ... exactly how will this add value to our service and/or attract new customers?

 

[Jim Wynne]

exactly how will this add value to our service and/or attract new customers?

You didn't say what business you're in.

 

[Lorrie]

Sorry - we're in the industrial and laboratory scale/balance calibration business.

 

[Hershal]

I'm not familiar with that specific package.....I will look for it at NCSLI.....

Rice Lake is NVLAP accredited, and a leader in the industry.....there are several other packages that offer similar function and are certainly considered compliant, such as GAGETrak and Blue Mountain, so it is reasonable to suggest that Rice Lake's system may well be compliant.

Ask for the validation information.

Hershal

 

[Randy Stewart]

I don't see where it would add value to your organization. You still will have to go on-site and if you are generating a cert on a PDA, do it in Word and download it to the customers computer. Record keeping may be easier but I can't see where I would need to go online to check on my balance calibration. But that's MHO.
BTW all this time I thought that CRS stood for Can't Remember S!

 

[Caster]

If it's free

We are considering the purchase of a software package being marketed by Rice Lake Weighing Systems for the storage and retreival of Calibration Certificates for scales and weighing equipment. In a fit of originality they called it "CRS", which stands for "Certificate Retrieval System". It allows certificates to be created electronically using a PDA during on-site calibrations; they are then reviewed for accuracy and uploaded to the web, where customers can retrieve them at will using a logon and password. They are marketing this as being 17025 compliant; I was wondering if anyone has seen and/or used this system? Do you have any comments on it? Any thoughts concerning a marketing strategy if we decide to go with it ... exactly how will this add value to our service and/or attract new customers?

I don't deal with Rice Lake but I "feel friendly" towards them. Their web site helped me understand some calibration issues we had with a scale (not theirs). Lots of good friendly info. They will get asked to quote if ever we need equipment again.

In general any fast access to cal certs is a good thing for me. If a cert is readily available on the net, I would just point my system to it.

I would likely not want to pay for the service, since I can so easily scan and store a cert.

However if I had several thousand weighing devices, now perhaps I would be willing to pay for someone to take the cal system off my hands. Are there many companies with that many scales? What do they do? We only have 4! At least 4 that I know about.

Strangely enough I got a newslatter today from Rice Lake. It seems to be a much bigger industry than I would have thought!

 

[Lorrie]

Caster, we don't have any customers with "thousands" of scales, but we have many with "hundreds", particularly pharmaceutical plants and food processing plants. We also have customers with only one or two scales; their scales are probably more critical to them than the places that have hundreds, because if it doesn't work, they have no backup. Until I entered the scale industry about seven years ago, I never realized how many scales are out there. Bottom line, everything you've ever bought, anywhere, was weighed at some point. I read an article recently in a trade journal that followed the processing of a bag of Fritos corn chips; there were 37 separate weighing operations between the cornfield and the supermarket shelf!

 

[Lorrie]

By the way, we aren't planning to charge our customers any extra for this; we are hoping that it will help bring in some new customers if we offer this service free of charge.

 

[Caster]

It's a big world

...an article recently in a trade journal that followed the processing of a bag of Fritos corn chips; there were 37 separate weighing operations between the cornfield and the supermarket shelf!...

Lorrie

I always get a kick out of learning a little about an industry totally new to me.

Years ago I found that there were two publications dedicated to ski lifts! It seems hard to imagine.

Sometimes I forget there is a whole world out there and it's different than my work a day life.

Very interesting.