Gael News

Q-Pulse Version 5.7, coming soon!

2010-03-05T09:59:00Z

Version 5.7 will be the next release of Q-Pulse and will be made available to customers in April 2010. There will be a range of improvements and performance increases included with the release.

To give you a taste of what is included, I’ve listed the features that have already been completed, without going into detail. There are more features planned for inclusion, but as with all releases, not all make the final release. We’ll announce any further improvements included in the 5.7 release when they have been completed.

The release features a range of major improvements to the Occurrence and Incident modules (part of Q-Pulse IMS) and gives Secondary Licence users the ability to do more by increasing the number of permissions that administrators can assign them. In addition, we’ve taken note of and implemented some of the most requested features from the Community forums, including the ability to directly hyperlink documents and the ability to reassign actions and owners. Any features added after the original publication date of this article are marked with an *

Occurrences

Search Folders
My Folders
View Management (ability to save views)
Occurrence “reject” command is now customisable and securable
Quick Occurrence Accept/Close Process*
Occurrence matching (allows users to view details of matching incidents)*

Incidents

CA/PA style flattened Lists with stage and action registers
Incident Export will now handle confidential fields (Permissions respected)
Risk assessment summary on incident list view*
Ability to associate an incident with a document*

Workload

Ability to reassign actions and owners, for example, if an employee leaves your organisation. (Discussed in Community here and here)

Administration

Ability to print a user’s effective permissions
Active Directory integration for Q-Pulse Security groups*

Audits

Ability to navigate checklist interface using keyboard* (as mentioned in the Community here)
Default expansion view state for hierarchies*
Added a “NOT closed” status filter to quick search*
Added “multi-select” for Audit scope items* (as mentioned here)
Ability to surface the Audit “Observation” collection on the Audit Details Form Report Designer to allow more comprehensive Findings reporting*

CA/PA

Ability to surface Supplier and Customer contact and address details for CA/PA Letter Generation*

Documents

Improved security in document approval process (removing the ability for users to remove approvers from a document, so that a document can become active without going through the approval process)*

Licensing

Ability to allocate licences to individual databases in a multi-database Enterprise deployment
Secondary Licence has been extended to include:
- additional CA/PA Stage & Action commands (as mentioned here)
- Incident functionality is now available for IMS users (as mentioned here)
- ability to print documents*
- access to Workload module*

Web Interface

New controls for browsing and searching
Ability to view, read only, summary Incident information against an Occurrence
Token Based Authentication introduced

API/Web Services

Ability to hyperlink to documents directly (mentioned by Community users here, here and here)

Miscellaneous

Non-English spell checker capability*

Defects

A variety of customer reported defects are in the process of being corrected in time for the release date.

SQL 2000 no longer supported

As mentioned previously, we are no longer releasing updates that support SQL 2000. Microsoft retired support for SQL 2000 back in 2008 and it’s no longer viable for us to release software compatible with it. If you do want to upgrade to Q-Pulse 5.7 (and future releases), your database platform should be SQL 2005 or 2008. The last version of Q-Pulse compatible with SQL 2000 is Q-Pulse 5.61, which was released in 2009.

On a personal note, I’d like to share my excitement that your suggestions in the forums are being turned into reality. Thanks to everyone who participates in the Q-Pulse Suggestions Forum and keep sharing your feedback and ideas with us.

As mentioned, this is a brief preview of the features already confirmed for 5.7. More features will be confirmed nearer to the release date and we’ll report on the final list of improvements and tell you how you can request an upgrade when 5.7 is complete. In the meantime, if you have any questions about Q-Pulse 5.7, please use the comment form below.

Customer Service Director's introduction

2010-02-25T11:32:00Z

Starting a new job always fills you with a mixture of emotions - new challenges, new people, new ways of working - so it was a really strange experience to move into a role where I fully understood the challenges, knew most of the people and found myself in control of the ways of working to truly hit the ground sprinting!

So who am I? Many moons ago back in the mid-1990s, an ex-colleague and I decided to implement Q-Pulse as the basis for our food safety and quality management system. I then moved on to build a successful business around Q-Pulse with nothing more than a desire to help companies benefit from what Q-Pulse had to offer, having experienced the transformational value it helps companies realise first-hand, way back in the days of Version 4.

Several years later and after delivering hundreds of Q-Pulse projects all over the world in different countries, continents, cultures and sectors from the USA to Kazakhstan and many places in between, I find myself ideally placed to truly understand your needs.

I've already started drawing on this experience to feed it back into developing a robust account management strategy, improving the consistency of delivery of all our professional services worldwide along with global support to underpin customer related activities and we begin rolling this out during the course of 2010.

Over the coming weeks and months I'll be sharing new developments with you; however, I can already share that we've begun injecting new life into your Academy Live sessions by basing the sessions on real customer experiences, delivered by one of our experienced consultants, rather than just focusing on product features. This is a key change to your sessions, as it helps those of you who attend relate to how you are likely to use Q-Pulse, or how you can employ Q-Pulse in different and new ways.

In the meantime, I look forward to updating you through thepulse; until then my team and I will be delighted to help you realise your business objectives.

If you would like further information about how to access the Academy Live sessions, please contact Richard Cassidy at richardc@gaelquality.com, who will be able to assist you further.

COO's update, February 2010

2010-02-25T11:24:00Z

2010 sees us celebrating the first anniversary of our move to our new headquarters at Orion House, which is already filling up as we continue to grow and expand. If you haven't already updated your accounts with our new address details, you can find them at the bottom of this page.

As we near the end of this first quarter of the year, we're looking forwards to another very successful year, following 2009's double digit sales growth which continued the growth trend of previous years.

The success of the Integrated Management System (IMS) version of Q-Pulse within the Aviation sector was core to the overall sales growth, but we were also delighted by growth in both the healthcare and traditional standards domains in which we also operate.

In addition, sales of the Academy offering significantly increased as this solution to tackling the historic issue with effective Q-Pulse training roll-out and refresher training really met customers' needs.

Looking forward to 2010, we're continuing to plan for significant growth, with several exciting developments in progress. We're hopeful that we can take advantage of the opportunities that we have available to us, in order to further drive our efforts in promoting Gael as the dominant player in the compliance marketplace.

Gael has always considered itself to be a business that listens to its customers and tries to develop solutions that match their needs. Key to our plans for 2010 is the launch of Global Support based in East Kilbride, which I believe will have major benefits for our international customers. I'd therefore encourage all customers to take advantage of this service and justify our logic for putting these additional support hours in place.

2010 will also offer additional challenges for us as we continue to encourage the adoption of new technologies within our product offerings. This is vital in ensuring that we can take advantage of new technologies in developing our solutions. We have two releases for Q-Pulse planned in 2010, as well as the release of a complementary risk offering, so 2010 in terms of product offering is very exciting.

To support all our product delivery and support plans, we have a detailed implementation plan for an integrated, scalable IT solution to our office needs. With the hardware now purchased, we'll be enhancing our back office systems throughout 2010 to efficiently manage internal communication and to share knowledge, both across the business and with our key strategic business partners.

Our channel network had significant growth in 2009, and two of the initiatives for this year are the new Partner Program and the enhanced Certified Consultant training programme. Together with Global Support making a considerable competitive edge available to the channel, it's my belief that this area of the business will move to the next level in 2010.

Throughout 2009, we made significant process and procedural improvements as we approach the task of formally achieving ISO 27001. Gael have always had robust processes for managing customer data, but we can offer independent assurance to our customers that we have controls in place with ISO 27001 certification, which we will achieve in 2010.

Overall, 2010 looks as exciting and challenging as previous years, and it's my hope that you continue to give us feedback that will enable us to continue developing solutions to your needs.

Gael Announce Global Support

2010-02-25T11:21:00Z

At Gael, while we continue to provide support that's amongst the best on the market, we're aware that there's always room for improvement. As our customer base continues to grow and expand, it's absolutely vital that customers can get the Q-Pulse support they need, wherever they are in the world.

With this in mind, we're extending our hours for Q-Pulse support beyond our normal hours (08.30 to 17.30 Mon-Thurs and 08.30 - 17.00 on Fridays, UK time), in order to better serve customers outside of the UK. Beginning on the 12th of April, you'll be able to get support for Q-Pulse from 06:00 to 23:00, Monday to Thursday, and from 06:00 to 22:00 GMT on Fridays UK time.

Please note that during these extra hours, access to the Support Desk will only be through the Support Portal, as our main switchboard will not be staffed. To request support at these times:

1. Access the Support Portal from Gael Community. You'll be prompted to enter your organisation's G and Key Numbers into your user profile if you've not done so already.
2. Create a new Support Case from the Case Management area.
3. A Support Engineer will call you back.

You can read more about the Case Management area of Support portal here.

‘We're committed to supporting our customers around the world in their use of Q-Pulse,' explains Mark Gahagan, Gael's Support & Services Manager. ‘Extending our hours lets us make sure that customers outside the UK can get the support they need, when and where they need it.

‘This means that customers all over the world can now enjoy the same support, where time differences and distance have previously meant that this hasn't been possible. This includes our guaranteed 2-hour response time, the availability of remote access support and an unlimited number of support requests.'

Mark concludes: ‘With the launch of the Support Portal, we were able to give customers greater control in managing their own technical and usability issues. Increasing our hours to include international customers is the next logical step in improving communication between our customers and ourselves.'

Later this year we'll also be announcing changes to the Support Portal that will further improve how technical and usability issues can be managed. The changes will allow customers to update outstanding support cases, to close and re-open cases where required, and to see the cases they've raised at-a-glance.

The table below shows when and how you can contact our Support team:

Monday - Thursday
Time	06.00 – 08.30 UK time	8.30 – 17.30 UK time	17.30 – 23.00 UK time
Contact method	Support Portal only	Telephone, Email or Support Portal	Support Portal only

Friday
Times	06.00 -08.30 UK time	8.30 – 17.00 UK time	17.00 – 22.00 UK time
Contact method	Support Portal only	Telephone, Email or Support Portal	Support Portal only

The Community is two years old – help us make it even better!

2010-02-24T13:30:00Z

Yippee, it's Gael Community's 2 year birthday! Around two years ago, we launched this site, Gael Community, to provide a single location for all your compliance and Q-Pulse needs. After two years of steady membership growth, the Community is over 2,500 members strong and has several blogs containing articles on a diverse range of topics as well as active discussion forums and further resources for Q-Pulse users. Throughout 2009, there was an average of around 100 new Community members each month, around 125 new forum posts each month and we published an average of 10 blog articles per month.

I’m very happy with the way Gael Community has evolved during 2009, but as with everything (especially in the compliance world), we want engage with you, the Community members, to contribute towards continuous improvement.

Our aim is to make the Community the first place to go for your compliance and Q-Pulse needs, from asking questions about Q-Pulse to reading about and discussing industry issues with fellow professionals. To make it even better, we’d love to hear your feedback.

To get you started, some feedback we’ve received recently is listed below.

“Make it easier to find other people. for example, by location, industry or modules used”
“…the forum and support system work very well and offer a great service”
“Increase content in the Knowledgebase and show latest entries on the Support Portal or homepage”
“I would like to see an area that lists enhancements requested and what progress / decisions have been made about them”
“…I do enjoy the tip of the month”
“Introduce a better way to interact with other users who are online at the same time, like a live chat window“

Don’t keep your opinions to yourself - tell us what you think! To share your comments, please make a post in related forum discussion.

Q-Pulse Quick Tip Videos

2010-02-18T09:00:00Z

We’re delighted to announce the introduction of Q-Pulse Quick Tip videos, which are intended to provide short informative demonstrations of some lesser known features and tools to help you get the most out of Q-Pulse. The first of the Quick Tip videos, “Adding Wizards to LaunchPad” is now available in the Q-Pulse Tips blog. We’ll be publishing two Quick Tip videos each month in addition to our popular Tip of the month feature.

We hope that the use of video will make these tips more accessible and easy to understand for users of all levels of experience.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for future Quick Tip videos, please use the comment form below.

Check out the latest video now!

Avsec – Our First Aviation Security Customer

2010-02-10T14:23:00Z

You may have read recently that we are now working with New Zealand’s Aviation Security Service, Avsec.

From a Gael point of view this represents a fantastic deal on two levels:

Firstly, Avsec are the the first aviation security customer to use Q-Pulse to manage their safety and quality obligations.

Secondly, we secured this partnership following a rigorous and thorough selection process by Avsec during which they reviewed all our key competitors. We believe this validates our reputation as the leading provider of Safety and Quality solutions to the wider aviation industry.

Keep an eye out for a case study on Q-Pulse at Avsec which is coming soon.

Gael announce Partner opportunities in the US

2010-02-09T15:16:00Z

Today sees an exciting development in the expansion of Gael’s Partner Program.

To enhance our worldwide presence and as part of the Program’s continuing expansion, we’re currently looking for partners in the US with experience in Aviation and Healthcare Compliance Management.

Expanding our global Partner Program in the Aviation and Healthcare markets within the US gives Gael greater flexibility in meeting the needs of both marketplaces, and partners are able to grow their business by complementing their existing offerings with the Q-Pulse solution.

Gael’s Partner Program has successfully developed partnerships around the world in taking Gael’s Q-Pulse solution to markets that include Aviation, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Manufacturing and Services.

Have a look at our Partner pages for more information, or have a look at what our current partners think of the Program.

Get in touch with us now if you want more details, or are interested in becoming a partner.

Making our articles more social!

2010-01-26T15:01:00Z

We’re happy to announce the addition of the “social bar” to all of our blog posts. No, it’s nothing to do with nights out, pubs meet-ups – but it is (sort of) to do with socialising!

You’ve probably noticed or heard about the explosion of social media on the internet over the last year or two, social media has really taken off. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are mentioned in the press all the time and are used by millions of people all over the world. The use of these social media sites began with individuals searching for and connecting with others, but the tools have now been adopted by businesses for communication and collaboration purposes.

The “social bar” allows readers to share or bookmark the articles using a variety of services represented by icons. You can now easily share an article with someone by email, bookmark the page using social bookmarking sites like, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg or post it to your own social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter!

How can I use social bookmarking?

These sites allow you to store, tag and share links across the internet. You can share these links both with friends and people with similar interests. Social bookmarking is an alternative to saving web pages into the bookmarks/favourites on the browser you’re using, on the computer you’re using. Saving web pages on a social bookmarking site means you can access it from any computer, anywhere.

So, if you come across a Gael Community article that you find interesting and want to save for future reference or share it with other people, simply click on one of these links to add to your list.

All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register. Once you have registered you can begin bookmarking. Each of the sites works slightly differently so use the links below to find out which service best suits your needs.

You can find out more about social bookmarking on Wikipedia.

More details about each of these services:

Email
Click on the Email icon to share the current article by email. You’ll be prompted to enter the recipients email address and your own (if not logged in). You can also add some comments in the “Note” section if you wish.

Add to favourites
Click on the star icons to add the current article to your browser’s favourites. The current page will be stored to your current browser’s favourites on the computer you’re at.

LinkedIn
To register, go to: https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join

For more information: http://press.linkedin.com/about

Facebook
To register, go to: https://register.facebook.com/r.php

For more information: http://www.facebook.com/about.php

Google
To register, go to: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

For more information: http://www.google.com/bookmarks/

StumbleUpon
To register, go to: http://www.stumbleupon.com/sign_up.php

For more information: http://www.stumbleupon.com/aboutus.html

Digg
To register, go to: http://digg.com/register

For more information: http://digg.com/about

Del.icio.us
To register, go to: http://del.icio.us/register

For more information: http://del.icio.us/about

Technorati
To register, go to: http://technorati.com/account/signup/

For more information: http://technorati.com/about-technorati/

Twitter
Use this button to “tweet an article” or “re-tweet” it if it’s already been tweeted about. Total tweets are recorded and shown at the top and bottom of blog posts.

To register, go to: https://twitter.com/signup

For more information: https://twitter.com/about#about

Rating articles

The rating control on the right of the “social bar” can be used to rate the current article. Registered Community users can give each article a rating from 0 – 5 stars, including half-stars. You do this by hovering your mouse over the star rating you want to give and left-clicking. Blog posts can be sorted by amount of comments or rating as well as the default sorting of date posted.

COO's update, November 2009

2009-11-26T16:54:00Z

Gael are delighted to have been selected in the Technology Fast 500 EMEA Ranking and CEO Survey 2009 organised by Deloitte. Now in its ninth year, this awards programme recognises technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of annual revenue growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) during the past five years.

In these difficult trading times, it's reflective of our continuing strive for growth that Gael's performance is held in such high regard throughout the business world, having achieved demonstrated growth of 470% within the awards' timeframe. 2009 has also been a very successful year for Gael and our growth to date of 16% has continued the positive trend of recent years.

I'm also delighted to announce that the Gael management team has been significantly strengthened with the addition of Mark Fuller as Customer Service Director. Mark's relationship with us goes back more than eight years, having delivered Professional Services for Gael as well as building a successful reseller business around the Q-Pulse product.

In looking at how the customer-facing parts of Gael could be better managed, Mark's challenges include: developing a robust and proactive account management strategy; improving the consistency of delivery of Professional Services worldwide; and increasing customers' access to our Support Desk. Mark is well-placed to use his customer-facing experience to improve both Gael and our relationships with our customers, and I'm delighted that he has accepted the challenge.

One of the last quarter's highlights was the formal release of the new version of the Academy. Although the project team's objective was to replace the current site, they were also able to make key improvements, notably in course download speeds using web technologies such as cloud computing.

In further enhancing the Academy, we've also entered into a joint venture agreement with global airworthiness and safety consultancy, AVISA Aviation Safety Systems Ltd. This new partnership will enable aviation organisations to adopt a coordinated approach in developing and maintaining a safety culture.

The Support Portal is also now live and its use continues to grow month-by-month. Integrated with the Community, this service gives customers greater visibility of the status of any logged Support call. The Portal provides a summary and visibility of the current status of all calls, as well as allowing calls to be directly raised through the Portal, and I would encourage you all to log in and use this facility.

With the upcoming festive season, traditionally there is a slowdown amongst customers in formally agreeing scheduling dates for projects. However, demand for Services remains vibrant, and with February already filling up, if you want to start your Q-Pulse project in January or February 2010, please contact Karen Lundie or Amanda O'Neill before the break or you may be disappointed.

As ever, thanks to all our customers for your continuing support in 2009 and we look forwards to further challenges and growth, in 2010 and beyond.

Ashley Marron

Chief Operating Officer