Service: Preparing for ISO standards certification
Product: Q-Template™ for documenting small business
Client: Keech Australia— Way We Do Things and Keech Issue Man
Client: INTREPID Geophysics
Client: CPA Australia Ltd
Client: IBM Global Services business process documentation
Client: Lensworth CRM
Client: Objectify Site Studio
Client: Do It Yourself Conveyancing Kits
Service: Preparing for ISO standards certification
Since about 2005 we have been helping clients prepare for certification to ISO standards. We introduce low cost smart documentation and record keeping methods that reduce the time cost.
Just wanted to let you know that we achieved Quality 9001:2015, and had no non-conformances. Overall the audit went well and was productive with some good opportunities for improvement. Thank you for your assistance.—Sandra Gillespie, Business Improvement Manager, Natrional Protective Services, South Melbourne Vic.
… We also identified a need for issue management and created Keech Issue Manager (KIM) using open source Mantis Bug Tracker software. KIM is a centralised issue manager that also contains meeting minutes and audit reports. ISO 9001, AS 4801 and ISO 14001 are proving straightforward exercises with the help of TWWDT [procedure manual intranet] and KIM [issue tracking software] … we obtained our ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) certification on our first attempt. —Herbert Hermens, CEO, Keech Australia (Bendigo).
… I am pleased to write that we have had wonderful success acquiring a Certificate of Registration from TQCSI with the integrated system that QDT Management Consultants created for us. We received feedback that our management system was highly commendable. It helped us to achieve certification for Quality, Health, Safety and Environment. The system is easy to use and the support offered by QDT is excellent. I would certainly recommend this management system to other businesses who are looking to develop an integrated system combining the three standards Quality (ISO 9001), Health & Safety (AS 4801) and Environment (ISO 14001).
—Anne Grose, Quality, Safety & Environment Manager, Pressure Sewer Services Australia Pty Ltd.
QDT also act as our ISO 9001 internal auditors, providing advice and reminders to all team members about … system improvement requests. This service aids the proper functioning and improvement of our small business. This is also administered via a web-enabled system. —Des FitzGerald, Director, Intrepid Geophysics
Product: Q-Template™ for documenting small business
The Q-Template™ is our rich resource for documenting small business. After our experience at IBM and on other projects, we felt that small business could benefit from the systems that big businesses use. Using the popular ‘process view’ philosophy, we identified and charted 9 processes and 43 procedures typical of a small business. The Q-Template™ framework efficiently integrates the Quality (ISO 9001), Health & Safety (AS 4801) and Environment (ISO 14001) standards, enabling a business to achieve certification without duplicating any systems.
We work with our clients to structure their operations manuals, helping them to manage their documentation project, teaching them how to write good documentation and writing for them as required.
See Our product— The Q-Template™ for more information about this product.
QDT set up a structure for us using Confluence wiki and taught us how to write our systems manual. After the initial training and with their on-going support we completed the job ourselves. Now we have a great way to train new team members and make sure we are all on the right track. The structure they gave us feels natural and makes sense. Everything has a place and it is easy to expand. Confluence is very good to use and what we write can be on-line straight away for team members to use. QDT continue to keep in touch and look out for us and we really appreciate that. —Shane Howison, Curl Curl Plumbing.
Over a 3 year period I used procedure manual software as the centre-piece for a substantial reshaping of the organisation I led, as well as preparation for a government accreditation process conducted each 5 years. I found the software to be comprehensive, easy to use and adapt to our business requirements, invaluable to our team members as an information management system as well as providing a logical and systematised method to structure and operate the agency.
Central to this successful deployment was our engagement of David Stephensen as a consultant.
David facilitated a whole of agency dialogue in order to identify and clarify the key procedures within the organisation. This mapping exercise enabled the customising of David’s Q-Template system.
Q-Template provides a comprehensive set of procedures, policies and support documents covering all of the major organisational functions.
It is an excellent resource and coupled with David’s professional services provides a complete system which will drive organisational growth and development as well as create a quality management environment for the organisation.
David Stephensen has my highest recommendation as a consultant who is able to discern client requirements, deliver results and provide excellent follow up. His Q-Template product is a fantastic product which will save most organisations hundreds of development hours. —David Jack, former CEO, Adventist Development and Relief Agency.
At QDT they know all there is to know about documenting system manuals and their service is amazing. Absolutely— them a call if you are interested in systematising your business. —Annemarie and Christopher Dove, Great Ideas, Awards and Gifts, Bendigo. (Winner: Best business with 2–5 employees, Bendigo Business Excellence Awards.)
QDT provided … a personal and friendly service to work towards fully documenting our business. They were available to answer questions and followed up queries very quickly. It wasn’t necessary to have a vast computer knowledge. They paced their input and supplied many useful tips on general computer useage. TKO has provided us with an invaluable framework in our documentation process. —MV, Bendigo (plumbing services).
QDT Management Consultants are experts in relation to analysing a business and identifying its key critical systems and then documenting them so that the business has an up to date and powerful business operations manual. Top qualities: Expert, Good Value, High Integrity. —Tony Fanfulla, Director, Transform Business Systems
Client: Keech Australia— Way We Do Things and Keech Issue Manager
From early 2009 we led the project to create the intranet-based systems manual (The Way We Do Things—) at Keech Australia‘s foundry in Bendigo. The design is according to the Q-Template™ system. It has about 1500 topics, 2000 images and 500 attached files and links.
We also identified a need for issue management and created Keech Issue Manager (KIM) using open source Mantis Bug Tracker software. KIM is a centralised issue manager that also contains meeting minutes and audit reports. ISO 9001, AS 4801 and ISO 14001 are proving straightforward exercises with the help of TWWDT and KIM. We also created the Keech Wiki, using Confluence. This contains technical information for the sales team and customers, training resources and other collaborative projects. We were also active in cultural change and designing the training program.
… QDT Management Consultants has been coordinating our systems manual project, ‘The Way We Do Things’ (TWWDT). This currently has about 1500 topics. QDT’s information design work and leadership in this project have been outstanding. TWWDT won a documentation Excellence award for us in 2009.
An important part of a systems manual project is the cultural change required for its acceptance. The QDT team are passionate advocates of and educators in the importance of our business system and provide great support to our Quality Assurance team. They fit in well with our team and are versatile and inventive in solving problems as they arise.
We obtained our ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) certification on our first attempt.
We thought that we would need a separate consultant to develop company KPIs but they turned out to be an effortless part of QDT’s service and are now in use.
QDT also has created our powerful on-line Keech Issue Manager system using open source software. We currently use it to manage all action items, quality issues, maintenance requests, audit findings, audit reports and most meeting minutes. Having this centralised system ensures that nobody forgets important issues and prevents much duplication of effort—
This degree of integration breaks new ground in issue and action item management.
… preparations … are innovative, well thought out and professional. —Herbert Hermens, CEO, Keech Australia (Bendigo).
TWWDT received an Excellence Award in the Society for Technical Communication Australia Chapter On-line Communications Competition.
Keech Australia won the Business Review Weekly (BRW) award for most successful private business in regional Australia, 2012.
Client: INTREPID Geophysical Processing, Visualisation and Interpretation
Since 1992 we have provided documentation for INTREPID and, more recently, GeoModeller, published by Intrepid Geophysics, Melbourne.
INTREPID processes magnetic, gravity and radiometric data. It is a world first ‘one stop shop’ for this data. This package includes tools for all stages of processing, including correction and levelling of raw survey data, creating grids, interpretation and map composition.
INTREPID has over 3700 pages of reference manuals, tutorials and on-line help. We use FrameMaker® and Adobe® Acrobat® to publish this work. We also provide usability testing, user interface design advice and bug reports.
Our other roles for this client:
- We have been part of the Intrepid Geophysics website management team.
- We are part of the documentation team for 3D Geomodeller, the 3D geological modelling system.
- We assisted with the quality management system at Intrepid Geophysics, and we have conducted their internal quality audits.
QDT has provided continuous services to Intrepid Geophysics since 1992. … they have developed our full range of Reference manuals, Guided Tours, Cookbooks, web-enabled help resources and maintained appropriate … standards for them. … Russian, Spanish, French versions of some of this material have also been developed … QDT team members have a fine sense of process and a particular skill with attention to detail. [We use] Adobe FrameMaker to … maintain our documentation store …
—Des FitzGerald, Director, Intrepid Geophysics
QDT produces beautifully clear and eminently usable software user manuals. I’m a fan. I see a lot of lousy docs. Intrepid’s docs as are as good as … [non-geophysicists] can make them. —Alan Reid, Reid Geophysics Ltd
QDT provides excellent technical communications documentation for the software developed by Intrepid Geophysics. They have skills both in the written material presented, and in the implementation of efficient, automated integration of User Guides into the software installs shipped to the company’s clients. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity. —Phil McInerney, Consulting Geophysicist at Intrepid Geophysics
Client: Event Scheduling Application user manual
CPA Australia Ltd runs professional development events for over 100 000 members in many countries. It developed an event scheduling application. Working through Pro.Integrations, we wrote the manual using AuthorIT, publishing it as HTML Help, a website and some sections as PDF. The manual had over 600 topics.
As a provider to PRO.INTEGRATIONS, QDT were engaged on several projects relating to Technical Documentation for CPA Australia.
Their outside-the-square solutions always provided inventive and effective communication methods. Their skill in Technical Documentation, Business Analysis and thorough understanding of application implementation makes them an invaluable solution provider.
Their attention to detail, and inquisitive nature ensures that no part of their engagement remains ambiguous.
I have no hesitation in recommending QDT as specialists in technical documentation. Top Qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity —Paul MacNeill, pro-integrations.com.au
QDT Management Consultants have created an outstanding single-sourced content library for our client, saving them considerable time and money in documenting their software. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Creative. —Andrea Tappe, technicalwriter.com.au
This manual received a Merit Award in the Society for Technical Communication Australia Chapter On-line Communications Competition.
Client: Lensworth CRM manual
Lensworth Group Ltd (now part of Stockland Ltd) creates urban communities through land development and sales. They commissioned a powerful SQL-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help them provide a high standard of service. We wrote the user manual for Lensworth CRM.
‘I tried to call you. However, as your number was busy so I gave the help function a try, and guess what – I worked through the options in the manual and worked out how to fix my problem! This functionality is really good.’
‘Easy to use and extremely logical in break down of topics – great for problem solving’.
‘Training is so much easier now that team members have the tools to explore the system via the help manual and work through processes without having to contact me all the time after training.’
—Lensworth team members (supplied by Cecilia Stephens, National CRM Manager, Lensworth Group Ltd)
This manual received a Merit Award in the Society for Technical Communication Australia Chapter On-line Communications Competition.
Client: Do It Yourself Conveyancing Kits website
With Do It Yourself Conveyancing Kits you can save legal fees. Conveyancing when you buy or sell a property is not rocket science. You do not need to pay a solicitor for it unless your sale or purchase is complicated. We wrote the content and designed an order form for the DIY Conveyancing kits website.
‘… thank you and your team for the transformation … on our web page. Feedback from our clients confirms that it is user-friendly, informative and … beginning to pay for itself in Internet sales! In other words, a very satisfactory result.’ —John Notary, Australian Property Law Kits.
Client: Objectify Site Studio manual
Objectify was an Australian-developed leader in the new wave of content management systems. We wrote the first version of the manual for Objectify’s website builder, Site Studio.
‘QDT produced the first manual for Site Studio, the website editor for the Objectify system. Objectify is a very versatile product and we wanted experienced authors who would not get lost in it. QDT did such a good job covering all options but still making it simple and easy to understand! We now maintain the manual in-house and this great foundation makes it very easy to do that.’ —Craig Hunter, Director of Regional Development, Objectify Pty Ltd.
Client: Business process documentation at IBM
We were part of the team creating business process documentation for the IBM Services Telstra Account. This included:
- Designing and documenting a standard for on-line business process information.
- Designing business processes (where the process to be documented was unclear).
- Creating and publishing process documentation on the intranet using Lotus Notes with embedded HTML enhancements.
- Promoting the use of plain English in the organisation.
‘Unfortunately IBM business rules specifically prevent staff from giving testimonials or references. This is a shame, as I know your work to be of excellent quality and if I were permitted to give a testimonial, it would of course be extremely positive, reflecting the leading nature of the service that you deliver.’ —Stephen Donnelly, Project Manager.