Item: MasterControl Quality Excellence
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with MasterControl Quality Excellence

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use MasterControl for document management and streamlining our processes. We were getting a lot of documents we were just saving on our server, which was taking up so much space; PDFs were getting corrupted, and we were losing valuable data. We need all of this data for when we have FDA audits, and we need to be able to pull it quickly and accurately. We will soon be able to expand our capabilities and keep CAPAs, Deviations, and complaints in MC versus our own system, which will also help track trends, rate our manufacturers, etc. Master Control has really helped us streamline and find things so much quicker. The history tracking on revisions is more apparent; you can see who did what and when, and it's very convenient.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Keeping the history of each revision in the system.
Archiving documents after revision so you know which one is the more current version.
Allowing people to be owners or certain documents or workflows so it can be a solo job or you have to go to that person to talk about that particular document for workflow.
You can link and use attachments in the InfoCards to tie more things together. It's an extra plus to be able to link weblinks as well.
Allowing you to collaborate with vendors outside of the site to get approval on items you are working on.
Validating your system so you know that you can trust leaving all your company's documents in this system and knowing its confidential.
Allowing your end users to have certain rights and roles allows you to control how much each person can see or manipulate the system.

Cons

There is no trigger if there is a duplicate document in the system. Since each InfoCard has its document number, unless used simultaneously with someone else, there is no trigger for duplicate documents.
When searching and looking at all the documents on the system, it would be nice to have a time column showing when it was released. All I am currently going off of is taking the document number and the highest, but that also takes time.
You can't get rid of a subtype if you have data associated with it. So if you enter documents a certain way and your team decides to change how, things will be more efficient, etc. You can't delete that subtype until you remove all data from the system, even if you don't need some. It's a big task if you have been using it for a long time.

Return on Investment

It is an expensive product, but our ROI has been great. We are able to remove more from our own server and keep it in the cloud with MC.
We want to bring in more modules to help our daily functions in our business. We are looking at logbooks.
Currently, we are at an annual renewal, but if we move to logbooks, we will have to move to a quarterly renewal. This can be more of a financial burden for some companies, but it will be worth it for what this software can do.
We currently pay $22,000 annually, but if we bring in another module, we could move this up to $30,000 or more.
The one amazing thing about this product is the huge amount of support from the company. Their tech support team is amazing, and their website with articles for troubleshooting, end-user training kits, validation, etc. The list goes on. They offer a great product with the support you will need and can always go back too. Amazing customer service.

Usability

In the beginning, I was very overwhelmed with how to use the system as it's almost like learning a different language. Once you go through the training and work with your peers in your company that will be using this product you start to see how it all works together. This type of software is best learned by using it. But don't be afraid, as I tell all my end users, it's about searching for your documents. You won't lose anything; it's about how you search for it. The amount of education and the tech team can get you through anything and even help you build a scenario you want to try. They have a test and dev site to be able to do these things before you move in to your production site.

Alternatives Considered

Our company was looking for a document control program, and we looked at several companies, but this one we called the Ferrari of document control systems. This company can do so much for than just document control, they can do just about anything you can dream of and more. They are always advancing and growing as well.

Key Insights

Do you think MasterControl Quality Excellence delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with MasterControl Quality Excellence's feature set?

Yes

Did MasterControl Quality Excellence live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of MasterControl Quality Excellence go as expected?

Would you buy MasterControl Quality Excellence again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

This system has made it very easy to keep our records straight and cleaned up. We have the choice to make them released or leave them in draft. If used appropriately, there is only one of each document that can be constantly revved up instead of having so many different versions of a PDF on our company's server that could even be corrupted. The history of each version is tracked, and you can see all the changes in one area. It is hard to see if there are copies in the system, and that can be hard. I have trained my end users to search before putting in another document, but that doesn't always happen. If they are not writing why they have something in the system or the changes from each revision, you will have to do more searching yourself or have to ask that person. So sometimes it's an end-user error.

CAPA
Complaints
Deviations/Non-Conformances

Innovative Uses

Being able to try previous deviations or non-conformance together.
tag things for reporting trends in insights

Future Planned Uses

training

Likelihood to Renew

its very intuitive and can do a lot for us while streamlining our processes.

Evaluating MasterControl Quality Excellence and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Ease of Use

How easy it can talk to what is already set up in your system.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

MasterControl Quality Excellence Support

Support Rating

haven't submitted a ticket yet

MasterControl Quality Excellence Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
None	None

Comments

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