Quality Management Takes to the Cloud

Cloud application platforms provide a modern approach for developing and deploying software applications. This approach is gradually displacing the older client/server model, in which large, complex, monolithic applications were created and run. In industrial companies, the client/server model came to dominate both the IT and OT software spaces in recent decades. The pace of this changeover is accelerating, however, as more and more companies embrace the modern platform approach.

The expectations of consumers and retailers for faster, better service and higher, more consistent product quality at increasingly lower cost is intensifying in this era of the customer experience. Less-than-optimum customer service and product quality can have a dramatic effect on margins and even the long-term viability of a company. Incidents of contaminated or defective product must be resolved within 24 hours or risk loss of consumer confidence that may take years to regain, if not lost forever. In addition, governments continue to enact new regulations intended to protect public health and safety.

ComplianceQuest (CQ) recently briefed ARC on its modern, enterprise quality management systems (EQMS). CQ offers an ISO 9001 compliant unified suite of applications for quality management, manufacturing, supplier management, customer/field service, and health and safety in a single platform. According to the company it streamlines quality, compliance, content, and collaboration management workflows across the enterprise and local or global supply chains. The app can also be customized to meet user requirements as well as industry and country specific regulations. As a cloud-based application, CQ updates automatically, is available anytime, anywhere, and is flexible and scalable for use by small, medium, and large enterprises.

CQ is built on the Salesforce.com platform as a services (PaaS) making it an add-on application that integrates into the main Salesforce.com application. As a Salesforce Lightning Ready application, CQ is built with a modern user interface and optimized for speed, utilizes drag-and-drop technology for quick and easy customization, and has the look and feel of Salesforce.com. The Salesforce ecosystem makes it relatively easy to connect with other applications as well as provide a conduit for growth. To date, however, Salesforce has realized better traction in the non-industrial space than in the industrial space where the competition to become the dominant platform ecosystem with the broadest library of third party applications is fierce.