SimplerQMS

Pros: The SimplerQMS team have made the transition from a paper based system stress-free and have provided excellent support for my team.

Cons: Some of the existing work flows don't work with our particular processes and we have had to find work arounds.

Overall: Great experience. I was nervous at first as I hadn't had good experiences with other eQMS programs in the past, but the ongoing transition has been easy and everyone on the SimplerQMS team has been very supportive; in particular Paolo Navarro.

Pros: The technical staff were the best part of our experience. During onboarding they made a real effort to explain how the system works and to help whenever we had questions, and they were responsive and patient throughout. The platform is built on Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, so documents live in a familiar SharePoint/Office environment rather than in a completely proprietary system.

Cons: In our experience the system is extremely inconvenient, cumbersome and inflexible. Everyday document work requires far more clicks and steps than it should, the interface is heavy, and adapting the workflows to how our company actually operates proved impractical. After evaluating it we decided not to implement it at all.

The far bigger problem is the commercial side. Read the termination and renewal provisions extremely carefully before signing. Based on our experience you cannot simply stop using the service during the contract year and stop paying. Notice must be given at least 90 days before the renewal date; miss that deadline and you may be invoiced for another full contractual period even though you no longer use the system.

Termination must be submitted in writing and its receipt expressly confirmed. We told the company twice by telephone that we wanted to discontinue the service, and those conversations were not treated as formal notice. Do not rely on phone calls: send written notice, request written confirmation, and keep all correspondence.

Overall: We were looking for a QMS to centralise controlled documents, SOPs, revision control and approval workflows. SimplerQMS did not solve that problem for us: during evaluation it proved too cumbersome and inflexible for our processes, so we never rolled it out.

Our dispute over the unused subscription was eventually referred to a collection agency. We paid USD 6,669 after receiving written confirmation from SimplerQMS A/S that this amount constituted full and final settlement of all claims concerning the disputed invoices. Nevertheless, we subsequently received a demand for an additional DKK 9,950.07. In our opinion this contradicted the written settlement confirmation, and it is why we lost trust in the company.

Our advice: review every termination and renewal clause before signing, cancel well in advance and in writing, obtain explicit confirmation, and preserve copies of all communications. Based on our experience we would not recommend SimplerQMS.