Online ISO9000 compliant Document Management

November 18, 2012 12:50 PM

What does the hivemind recommend for online/could based Document Management Systems that are ISO9000 compliant?

So we're a small tech start up making the transition from free wheeling R&D to actually selling products to big customers. We've got to get serious about Quality Management and start to put in place the systems policies and procedures that our customers expect from credible suppliers. First of which is a Quality Management System - of which a key part is a Document Control System. We don't need to be ISO9000 certified yet, but will sometime next year - so I'd like to start with a system that will make the grade at that stage.

Here are my requirements:
1) Online/Cloud based - We don't maintain our own servers or IT infrastructure other than an internet connection.
2) Integrated with Google Apps would be nice - at least to share google user logins.
3) Ability to control document revisions with a check out/in capability and defined approval process for changes.
4) Ability to control user access
5) Nice if it could handle many document types (.doc, .ppt, .pdf etc.)
6) Reasonably priced < $10/user/month

I've seen the following on Google Apps Marketplace so feedback on these solutions is appreciated: Qquma, SonarDocs, AODocs, EnterpriseWizard

posted by Long Way To Go to Technology (1 answer total)

Just wanted to provide a word of caution, buy and read ISO9000 before getting too deep into setting up a quality system. I come from a background of medical device startups and in many cases going from the "free wheeling" days to the ISO days felt like someone threw a wet blanket on the whole culture. If you read the relavent doc control sections you may be able to set something up in house using Google Drive and clear, well written, procedures that would satisfy ISO9000.

Building a quality system around the way you do work now will make adoption and compliance much easier.

As an example, at my previous company we had instituted a revision system that was pretty easy to understand; numbers for pre-release (01, 02, 03,...) and letters for released (A, B, C,...). When we grew to need a quality manager he came in and implemented a third-party cloud based ISO13485 compliant doc control system that only allowed numeric revisions (0,1,2,...) and nothing else. Everyone hated it, at least until we got bought out and had to learn how bad it is at fortune 500 companies.
posted by highway40 at 4:53 PM on November 18, 2012