We are an IT company of a bit less than 100 employees providing Software/Hardware solutions , IT training solutions and we perform a bit of software design and development and we have been certified on ISO 9001:2008 for about 9 years .
We use Excel reports etc ...Our problem is that we have a lot of papers for the records ....and the papers that get signed are not easily sharable , analyzable
we are mainly looking for a system that would allow us to digitalize our quality objectives, audit results , corrective action , etc ... in order to have everything in one place , and have a systen that can allow us to get statistics of data ( time corrective actions opened, number of corrective action not effective ...etc)
Over the years I have seen some good and some bad. There are a couple of keys.
Itemize exactly what you want the software to do. If you do not do a good job at laying out, itemizing, exactly what you want you will be disappointed. As an IT company you should know that.
If you want one package that will do everything you itemize, that is one thing. Many times that is not the case. Let's say you really need 3 different packages. Ask yourself if you need integration (you need them to "talk" to each other).
You say your company does a bit of software design and development. The above should be easy for you.
To some extent I agree with Randy. But - I have seen some software packages that are relatively inexpensive yet save time and are quite good at what they do. Note that with Randy's response, Microsoft Office does have a database "module" (for lack of a better word) - "Access". And, while extra cost, they have Vizio for flow charting. I do not doubt Randy has seen some large corporations use Microsoft Office to make a system that works for them. What Randy doesn't make clear is that large corporations typically have people dedicated to not only (for example) designing Access databases, but to make sure everything works. In smaller companies not only can this be a challenge, many times there will be one person who understands everything. I have seen this where that person left and no one knew how to keep everything running. It was a mess.
I can telly you some horror stories. Here is one to think about:
Company wants a "store bought" system. Seller comes in and demos. Looks great down to their promise that all current documents can be easily imported into the software. Company buys. First, the import function "somewhat" works, but company ends up hiring temp typists to enter all the old documentation into the new system which takes a few weeks. Now - "Import" is done and software is ready to be deployed. Company finds that less than 20% of their computers can actually interface and run the software for a variety of reasons (such as not enough RAM).
One more: Company buys expensive software solution and in the end finds there is no way to put prints into the system. Many $$$ are spent trying to finds ways to "make it work", but none are found and seller has no solution.
I know this has come up here now and again. You may want to look through the discussion threads in the (broken link removed) And there are a couple of current advertisers here that sell such software solutions whom you might want to contact and discuss your needs with.
Hopefully some folks will comment in this thread with some recommendations now that you have given some more precise info on your needs.
I wish I could say more, but over the years I have seen a lot of solutions and can't specifically recommend any. They all have their pros and cons, and each company's specific needs are often quite different.
