Office, Pdf, Special Forms for Procedures? Economical Documentation

[QAMTY]

Hi everyone

I' beginning to plan the ISO implementation in my company
(about 80 )

I´working on the flowcharts,procedures, Wi´s, but need to know how to manage the forms.

I know it may be implemented a system with high end IT tools available (electronic forms,workflow process, Web ready,etc.)
now, I cant´afford it, doing it this way, so I´m looking for economical and practical ways.

Does anybody could share experiences in this regard?

No spending too much but having the minimal parts needed to comply with ISO.

I mean, it can be possible for this purpose to use Excel, Word, Visio, PDF forms?

Taking into consideration that one form need to be filled out by several departments, data into a form that is to be protected (not to be
modified by others), signatures, forms sent back and forth.

Maybe I can mix such files with handwritten forms?

Really I´m a novice, I may not mentioning other issues that can cause troubles in this Process.

I hope you can share similar cases.

Thanks

 

[mguilbert]

Re: Office, Pdf, special forms for Procedures?

Microsoft Sharepoint is good. We use it my company control all documents. It allows us to track changes, limit access for those who need read only access, keep docs well organized by department. You can any software you wish to create docs just make sure they are controlled and are usable. I recommend Infopath or Access if you will be using electronic forms

PS Here is the Microsoft support page. It useful when using these products.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/windows-media

HTH,

 

[QAMTY]

Re: Office, Pdf, special forms for Procedures?

Thanks Mguilbert I´ll take a look at it.

 

[tomvehoski]

Re: Office, Pdf, special forms for Procedures?

Sharepoint is NOT free. While the user interface works through a web browser, you still need to set up a Sharepoint server and buy the server software from Microsoft. It has been awhile since I researched price, but you are probably looking at between $5000-10,000 to get a Sharepoint server running. There are ongoing maintenance costs (backup, adding users, etc.) that go along with any server.

You can do plenty with the standard office products. Use whatever works best and you are most comfortable with. I prefer Word mainly, with the occasional Excel file for things that need to be sorted, tabulated, added, etc. Visio for flowcharts.

 

[mguilbert]

Re: Office, Pdf, special forms for Procedures?

Sharepoint is NOT free. While the user interface works through a web browser, you still need to set up a Sharepoint server and buy the server software from Microsoft. It has been awhile since I researched price, but you are probably looking at between $5000-10,000 to get a Sharepoint server running. There are ongoing maintenance costs (backup, adding users, etc.) that go along with any server.

You can do plenty with the standard office products. Use whatever works best and you are most comfortable with. I prefer Word mainly, with the occasional Excel file for things that need to be sorted, tabulated, added, etc. Visio for flowcharts.

You are correct my apologizes for the bad info. We are using 2003 and it came free with the server (no seperate liscensing fees). I guess that is why we called it "free". Again my apologizes for the misleading info about sharepoint.

 

[Pancho]

Re: Office, Pdf, special forms for Procedures?

Hi QAMTY,

Take a look at wikis. They are quite affordable and there are no per-user fees.

If you are ever in Monterrey (or Houston), we'll be happy to show you our wiki-based QMS.

Saludos!
Pancho

 

[QAMTY]

Re: Office, Pdf, special forms for Procedures?

Pancho

I´ll explore wiki, maybe can be useful for me

Thanks

 

[SteelMaiden]

Of course you can use regular office docs for your forms. You can password protect them so nobody can change the info (field names, so to speak) and they can only input (electronically if you choose or print it and fill it out by hand) information asked for. Just create a shared directory in your server system so that the proper people can share the folder this stuff is saved in.

Noboday said you have to make it difficult. Or even electronic. But, as most of us have found out after starting with paper systems, electronic (especially web based) systems will save you tons of time and headaches.

 

[mguilbert]

If the employees will be entering information in electronically another place to look is Excel userforms.

 

[smryan]

Our whole ISO documentation system is Word/Excel. One thing I like in our system is that the document names include revision level (WI550 Rev 02 Terminal Attach.doc). Then Document name is referenced in the footer of the document. Makes it easy to verify you are using the most recent revision.