EMEA Office
Louizalaan 489
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Inovet is a veterinary pharmaceutical company with +70 years of experience that produces veterinary medicines and animal health products worldwide. The company produces over 220 products and employs +180 professionals across 4 global offices, with headquarters in Belgium.
Our Customer Success Manager Trine Michelsen caught up with Inovet QA Manager Tinne Bockx, who has been working at the company for 17 years. In the video chat, Tinne shared her personal opinion of the platform, her team’s experience, and the results of switching from a paper-based Quality Management System (QMS) to Scilife just over a year ago.
Back in 2020, the company's biggest Quality challenges originated from having a QMS system heavily reliant on paper documents. These challenges were amplified during the work-from-home pandemic months until they were no longer bearable:
‘We had a lot of files from different departments with all the procedures in place. If somebody wanted to check a procedure, they had to go to their file, take it out and read it physically, because it was not on a server. During Covid-19, everyone was working at home, so some of the procedures weren't available for everybody. That was quite a challenge!’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
Tinne decided enough was enough - it was time for Inovet to go digital!
Relying on a paper-based system also forced Inovet to deal with a very time-consuming change request procedure that resulted in lost documents, confusion over versions and hours upon hours of extra work:
‘We lost a lot of time because we had everything in paper form. We would give a paper copy to everybody that needed to do an action. Of course you can imagine - a lot of paper means paper got lost! People wouldn’t have the right version anymore and we would have to make a new copy. In the end, for just one change control, we would have an enormous pile of paper! Before Scilife, I had a QA officer here and all she had to do all day was live beside the photocopier. So that was very time consuming. And so we said, okay, the first thing that we really need to digitalize is the change requests!’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
It was clear as day, Inovet had to make the jump to an eQMS and go paperless ASAP! But, that alone wasn’t enough. In Tinne’s hunt for the perfect digital eQMS for Inovet, there were a couple of key deciding factors that made her opt for Scilife…
Tinne mentioned that other providers didn’t offer the same flexible modularity as Scilife:
‘The biggest problem that we had with all the other providers is that you can't choose module per module. And that's where Scilife is very good. You can choose more when you’re ready for more. with all the other providers you have to take all at once. So you pay a lot of money for things that you're not going to use straight away.’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
And Tinne was totally sold when she saw Scilife software uses a GAMP 5 validation approach, which eliminates most of the costs and resources needed for validation by the customer.
‘Validation is a huge work. So the fact that Scilife is validated, it's such a big benefit. If you have to choose a system and it is not validated, I wouldn't even start.’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
In their call, Trine asked Tinne about her experience with implementing Scilife and how well her team onboarded. Tinne was delighted with Scilife’s useability:
‘It was a really easy program to learn for me and the rest of my team. For some people it's always a little bit more difficult than for others, but because the system is so intuitive, you can understand it well. Most people I give the training to, which is a lot of personnel already, have no issue and pick it up really well’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
When Trine asked specifically how long Tinne’s team takes to get to grips with the Change Control and Document Control modules, Tinne mentioned it´s usually a couple of hours at most at the start, and an hour of follow-up a week later.
Apart from the flexibility of Scilife’s different subscription plans which allowed Inovet to start small and expand when the time was right, and the validation approach of the software, Trine enthused about a few more of her favorite features of Scilife:
Out of all of Scilife’s features, Tinne’s personal favorite is that Scilife as a platform is built on deep Quality expertise:
‘If I were to create an eQMS, it would be very similar to Scilife! It feels very comfortable. It’s very good. You can feel that it’s built by people who have knowledge of QA - you can see it everywhere in the system.’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
Tinne also appreciates the simple useability of the program, especially since that means everybody can get the hang of using it easily - not just quality professionals!
‘You understand the system, the system understands you. It's very easy to find everything. All the words that are used, all the different steps and different statuses, it's very clear what it means. It's not using terms that you have to think; what could this mean? It's very clear.’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
Scilife’s search function is another feature that stands out for Tinne:
‘The search function in Scilife is really very good! In the past, we had Excel files and we had to mention a lot of details in it to be able to find something. But now in Scilife, you search for something and it works very well.’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
With Scilife, employee follow-ups have become much, much easier for Tinne. She applauds Scilife’s central dashboard for being able to keep track of who she needs to follow up with at a glance.
Finally, Tinne added that her experience with Scilife’s customer service team has been wonderful:
‘I have only positive things to say! if I have an issue, I can contact you, you get back to me, it's followed up. Simple. When we have a ticket, which is rare, you get back to me, you call or you email, and it's resolved. So absolutely, the service is very good.’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
When asked about her advice to other companies currently on the lookout for an eQMS, or looking to switch from an existing eQMS provider to a new platform, Tinne again stressed the importance of choosing a platform with a validation approach.
She also explained that it’s good to ask peers and choose a trusted provider:
‘Scilife is used by many other people. I heard a lot of good things about it, so I knew it wasn't going to be a problem. You can feel reassurance that everything is going to work out. A lot of people are using it. It's validated. People who have worked in other companies with other eQMS’s and now work with Scilife, they all give the same feedback: that it's very good and intuitive. Yes, I would totally recommend Scilife to other companies.’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
Scilife has relieved Inovet of the heavy time burden that their old paper-based QMS created within the company. Tinne mentioned that especially in change control requests, the time gained back has been huge. And now, her QA officer no longer needs to stand endlessly beside the photocopier!
‘The biggest improvement Scilife has enabled within the company is saving time. Now we get a lot more work done. The time that we are saving with the change requests is really enormous. I think that's the biggest issue that needed to be resolved quickly. And we resolved it perfectly with Scilife!’
Tinne Bockx, QA Manager at Inovet
Imagine what Scilife can do for your company!
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