Factor #6: Scalability

In our next post in the ‘Factor 8’ series on how should one pick the right EQMS, we touch upon the topic of Scalability. Enterprises are run with the intention to grow and scale up. In some cases, this growth happens exponentially; in other cases, it may be linear. But, if we break it down, scaling of an enterprise drives a change in ‘process needs’ downstream.

To pick out a few examples, scaling translates into one or more of the following:

• Growing customer base
• Increase in product offerings
• Increase in the volume of production / manufacturing / distribution
• Expanding supplier network
• Growing inventory
• Geographical expansion
• Growth in Team Size
• Distribution scale up
• And, of course, increases ability to deliver customer service and customer success

Therefore, the word “scalability” means many different things for an EQMS like ComplianceQuest.

• It could mean the ability to deploy more and more solutions. A customer may have used only Audit and Document Management in the early days; Today, the same enterprise may want all 12 modules.
• It could mean rapid growth in no. of users.
• It could also mean the need for new reports and dashboards or even a multi-lingual platform to serve users in newer geographies.

And, we could go on and on…

As scale happens, workflows evolve. What should one look for in an EQMS to meet new operational needs?

As the organisation expands, the need for authentication and authorisation also changes, and the QMS needs to be able to handle these varied requirements smoothly. While different locations need to be able to design workflows specific to that site, the management needs an overall view. This makes scalability complex.

The greatest challenge is that an organisation cannot predict the rate of growth and thereby its scalability needs. It may be growing at 2x, but suddenly experience 5x growth that takes it into a different league altogether. An EQMS that cannot cope with such a leap will work against the business, proving to be a hurdle to such growth.

In short, for a world-class EQMS, Scalability and Flexibility go hand-in-hand.

What are some of the important scalability features a QMS should have, at a fundamental level?

The three critical needs for a QMS to be scalable are:

• Delegate administration at different levels
• Provide location-based configurations and data filtering
• Ensure process standardization and data compilation from multiple sites

How can one assess the capability of a QMS to scale with business?

A good QMS that is truly scalable enables database integration, application integration and ensures consistency across the enterprise.

ComplianceQuest’s EQMS is built on SalesForce.com, a proven secure and scalable platform that handles 1.5B transactions a day with average access times of 300ms or faster. It supports over 220,000 applications and majority of the Fortune 500 companies has been using the Salesforce.com platform for several customer-facing processes.

The Salesforce Platform’s proven scalability, security, and extensibility provides manufacturers, who rely on complex supply chains and supplier networks, with greater agility and speed in responding to changing competitive and market conditions.

ComplianceQuest has experience working with fast growing enterprises in several sectors including life sciences, medical devices, healthcare, manufacturing, CPG, Cannabis, Aerospace, and Automotive.

In short, at ComplianceQuest, we’ve built our product on the #RealCloud with next-generation platform that is both flexible and scalable.

Please write to us at [email protected] to request for a demo.

Other blogs in the series

• ‘Factor 8’: A blog series to help you pick the right EQMS
• The CX Factor
• Factor #3: Web-Based vs. Web-enabled
• Factor #4: Next-Generation Dashboards
• Factor #5: Modules & Solutions: Where Breadth & Depth co-exist
• Factor #7: The ROI of deploying an EQMS
• Factor #8: A Team that Intuitively understands Quality