Evolving with Qualtrax: One Crime Lab’s Story
By on February 21, 2018
We’re always striving for Qualtrax to be more than just a compliance software solution. The heart of our company is in our clients, and how our software intertwines with their growth as professionals and the growth of their quality systems.
Expectations to be the “best in the nation” are certainly a high mark to hit. For David Chun, Quality Manager for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Criminalistics Laboratory, these were the expectations shared by the Sheriff himself. In order to meet that challenge, David’s work, and the work of his colleagues in the crime lab, must be reliable and accurate. “At that high level,” David shared, “our Sheriff expects us to do the best we can and be proud of who we are. That’s where Qualtrax comes in handy.”
David has been using Qualtrax since he became the full time quality manager for the criminalistics lab. When he started, Qualtrax had been purchased but not yet introduced. For David, who had no experience within IT or software, this presented an opportunity for learning and growth. “I experimented with Qualtrax and realized its capabilities with document management and workflows,” David explained. “I uploaded all our technical procedures and developed templates to automate a lot of things required through our accreditation.” He has found using Qualtrax intuitive and user friendly each step of the way.
In addition to embracing Qualtrax in his new role, David also had to help transition the lab from Legacy to international accreditation under ISO 17025. Coincidentally, the first audit under ISO 17025 occurred just three months after making a major move into a new facility–not exactly an ideal set of circumstances. However, with the help of Qualtrax, this was possible. “Let’s just say we didn’t bring much paper over,” David laughed. “I scanned, saved, and uploaded documents directly into Qualtrax. I was able to move us to a paperless tracking system with our Quality records.”
Through Qualtrax, David’s department grew into automation, leaving paper behind and yielding better workplace efficiencies. Each day he uses Qualtrax to review submitted documents, create additional workflows, and maintain the lab’s Quality Management System. In addition to his daily activities involving Qualtrax, David recently led the charge in moving to Qualtrax hosted.
The desire to go hosted had a lot to do with ensuring he was always operating with the most up to date version of Qualtrax. Additionally, David knew it would alleviate burdens placed on his IT department and allow greater flexibility in access to information, as it no longer had to be accessed on-site. Since going hosted, David can access Qualtrax from home; in a field like criminalistics, where the unexpected can happen at any time, that feature is critical. One of the best measures of success for David is that his colleagues have been pleased with the move towards hosted. David shared he even got an email from an analyst, saying “Hey Dave, good job!” based on the move. He added, “I know it was a success. I have not heard any complaints from anyone.”
Quality Assurance is all about continuous improvement, regular iterations and steps towards making process, procedures, and systems more effective. David’s lab is no exception. As his lab continues to grow and evolve, Qualtrax has been able to evolve alongside them. David finds a lot of value in how we consistently ask for customer feedback on features and functionality they want to see in future releases. “I love that there is a Qualtrax user network and that they are listening all the time,” David said.
We know that we must strive for continuous improvement in order to help our customers meet the demands of compliance they face. Listening to amazing customers like David is something we take seriously, and doing so allows us to continue to develop and evolve. There’s few things more satisfying than seeing our software and our clients grow, striving to do better and be better–together.
Category: Forensic Labs
