The
Past and the Future of CAPA Management Systems. Where
Will You Fit In?
These are just
a few questions you have to ask yourself as quality management
practices and guidelines continually change and expand.
The following
information may serve you as a recipe book for your future
success...
Should I purchase
a program or develop one in-house?
In today's
market, there are many off-the-shelf software products
that will serve most of your needs. Another option is
that you may want to take the chance and develop your
own in-house program with an in-house team, which has
many times proven to be more costly and inefficient.
Just think about
it, a cycle time of 8-9 months to develop such an in-house
program and that’s just to get the program up and working
to standard. Then, you must compare the facts - as one of
our recent customers has done, in the short time frame of
just two months, they have taken our web-based solution
and deployed the CAPA system throughout the whole company
while incorporating more than 100 suppliers. All this was
done with QIT’s off-the-shelf program. This was all done
while adding their modification requirements to the program
as well.
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What kind of software
programs do I need?
Normally, there
are three types of programs that are on the market.
Web-based
Programs - Most of the programs available on
the market today are still using outdated ASP technology.
Very few companies have started using the more advanced
ASP.net technology, which QIT currently employs. ASP.net
is the latest technology provided by Microsoft. We will
further explain the benefits of this technology later
in this article.
QIT strongly
advocates adopting ASP.net technology for web-based
CAPA programs, and all of our web-based programs are
developed based on ASP.net C# - the latest coding language
from Microsoft.
Client
Server Solutions – The old-fashioned type of
technology that was incepted about 20 years ago. Normally,
software suppliers call it a desktop solution or workgroup
solution. These types of solutions are using front-end
forms that were developed by MS Access or Visual Basic,
and use MS Access database or SQL server as the backend
database.
QIT's desktop
solutions are using MS Access for front end while using
MS Access 2003 or SQL 2000 server as the backend
database based
on the customer's requirements.
Single
File Solutions - These types of solutions are
normally developed based on MS Access for single user
use only. However, some of the software providers will
advise user’s to store the program file on a network
drive to achieve a network solution. This kind of configuration
can easily cause file collapses, system crashing and
along with the many security concerns. QIT strongly
oppose deploying this type of solution to our clients.
The following
is a quick reference chart for the web-based solution
and the desktop solution
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Web-based Solution
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Desktop Solution
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Advantage
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Disadvantage
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Program needs to be installed on every computer
using the system.
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Hard to maintain. Administrators need to
manage all computers the program is on.
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Not scalable
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Outdated technology and the program could
be obsolete once the operating system is upgraded.
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Would I benefit more from a web-based solution?
QIT’s answer:
Yes, for 4 main reasons.
Web-based
solutions are the current trend. Many of our
clients have told us that they needed to implement a
web solution to keep pace with some of the larger companies...
corporations such as GM and Dolphin are currently doing
so. Do not wait for your competition, and especially
your clients, to force you to incorporate a web-based
system. Do it now and be ahead of the competition!
Web-solutions
are powerful tools that will help you build a unified
workflow and communications process. It will
consolidate data throughout your organization into one
database whether your have offices in a single
location, around the nation
or worldwide. We especially recommend a web solution for those companies who have multiple locations and need to deal with supplier SCAR’s.
More
cost-effective and less per-user-cost. While
most people are intimidated by the higher prices provided
by other software companies (Even though the software
provider will only provide you an outdated ASP solution.).
We here at QIT provide three different versions of web
solutions designed to fit a company’s size and the budget.
Our web-based programs start out as low as $5800 with
unlimited users licenses- a low price that any company
can afford.
Even
companies that have a single location/office/facility
would benefit from QIT's web solutions. Interestingly, in recent feedback from our clients,
we have noticed that even those users are using the
web solution only for single locations, with QIT’s guidance,
they are benefiting from the simplicity and analytical
capability of our web solutions.
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What kinds of fact do I need to know
about web-based
solutions currently on the market?
From
technologies point of view, as with our experience
in today’s marketing, most software providers are using
outdated ASP technology for their programs, and few
have started using ASP.net technology.
Compared
to the older ASP technology, ASP.net technology has
the following advantages:
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Strengthened Security – The major reason
that more and more banks, online traders and online
stores are switching to ASP.net technology.
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Higher Scalability - Server to server
communications have been greatly enhanced making
it possible to scale an application over several
servers.
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Compiled Code for greatly increased performance.
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Easy Deployment - No more server restarts
to deploy or replace compiled codes.
For a
corrective action system that can be used for many
years in a worldwide environment and to save on
cost, we here at QIT strongly recommend ASP.net
solutions for all of our clients.
From
a developmental point of view, while benchmarking
our systems, we have found that most of the so-called
web-based programs are not qualified as web-based programs
because they fail to take advantage of or harness the
power of the current web technologies. Here, we will
share a few of our testing results:
1) Some
programs are just simply converting their old desktop
designs to a web solution. These programs look, feel and work
like desktop solutions and are not designed to
handle
high traffic web site.
2) The
workflow and program functions (e.g. submit, save,
delete, copy and etc.) in these programs are still
arranged in the desktop formats that will easily
cause confusions by its users and trigger unexpected
actions that can result in serious system breakdowns
and data loss.
True web-based programs,
like QIT’s web solutions, are completely redesigned allowing workflow and dataflow to fully encompass the latest web technologies. As a result, while viewing
the web pages on our program, our clients are experiencing a simplified, user-friendly interface along with streamlined system flow.
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How do I get started?
Send your questions
and comments to
service@qitconsulting.com
or, it’s as easy as picking up the phone and calling
1877-208-7888 (Toll Free) and speaking to one of QIT’s experienced representatives.
You will experience a “No Pressure” environment while receiving
all the facts about the advantages of using QIT’s unmatched
services. Call or e-mail us today!!
You can also
register on-line and try our fully functional demo programs. Try it and feel the benefits for yourself.
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