Qualit-e

“With Qualit-e Cloud, producers save precious time spent in emailing documents to their customers”

This week, SpeakPharma interviews Nadine Blaettler, Founder and CEO of Switzerland-based Qualit-e Cloud GmbH, a secure web portal and a solution for lifescience raw material producers to upload quality documents related to their company and the raw materials used in their products. Through Qualit-e Cloud, customers receive all the sensitive data for the products they buy. Blaettler talks about how she conceived the idea of setting up Qualit-e Cloud and the difference it has made to its customers. Excerpts: Tell us what motivated you to set up Qualit-e Cloud? During the 10 years that I worked for a distributor in Switzerland, I saw a steady increase in the quality documents needed by our raw material customers. Besides these requests, there were also changes on producers’ side that led to more and more updates of quality statements. For example, many companies set a validity date of only one year to all their documents. This became a time consuming task as fresh documents needed to be sent to every customer every year. For some customers, the rule ‘5 kg raw material, 5 kg documents’ fits quite well. So no matter how much raw material we sold, the renewal of documents was necessary and took up a lot of our time. That’s when the idea of Qualit-e Cloud dawned on me. I thought of a system where a producer can save lots of hours by easily defining which documents a customer should have continuous access to. Such a system, I felt, would help numerous producers worldwide. Two years later, Qualit-e Cloud was born. We won the CPhI award for innovation in digitalization at the very beginning of our journey, and this helped us tremendously. Today, our users are spread worldwide, ranging from Brazil to South Korea. How does Qualit-e Cloud work? The supplier only needs to upload the documents once and define which documents the customer should have access to. We also offer this as a service, and define and upload the documents for our customers. The customer is automatically notified of any new files that get uploaded or changes that are made to the existing (uploaded) files. This also reduces the number of emails from and to the customer or the distributor. The web portal is like an interconnected system — the customer get access to different producers, through the use of the same password. For the producers, Qualit-e Cloud offers a safe and confidential environment, as their documents and other information can’t be viewed by anyone else. Documents can also be shared with distributors, who can then use the same system to share the documents with their customers. Any notification about a new or an updated file will be sent to all the subscribers of Qualit-e Cloud along the supply chain. What’s the biggest advantage of Qualit-e Cloud? The biggest advantage is definitely the time saved. Instead of sending hundreds of emails repeatedly to different customers, producers just need to upload their documents once. The same applies to change notifications — changes can be made with one click and the system automatically informs all the customers or distributors about the change. In addition, the users can access the system anytime. It doesn’t matter if the sales person is on a holiday or working in a different time zone. The portal is web-based and doesn’t need an installation. Therefore, the user doesn’t need to invest hours in meetings to build a solution. Qualit-e Cloud can be used straight away. Who are your target customers? Qualit-e Cloud brings the maximum benefits to suppliers who have a lot of customers for each raw material, and/or a lot of documentation attached to it (eg. specifications, MSDS, any kind of statements like GMO, BSE, certificates, but also marketing material etc.) Don’t you think companies stand to loose close contact with their customers if they increasingly rely on digital platforms? Not at all! A customer will still need to contact the supplier’s sales personnel in order to negotiate prices, place orders or receive general feedback. Most customers prefer to have an easy way to access the suppliers’ documents and receive timely notifications about changes. Particularly the younger generation — they prefer to log in and download the files instead of having to call someone. Usually the people sending out quality documents to customers are highly qualified. Once they start saving on time, they can focus more on the specific needs of customers or spend more time selling the goods. Does a producer need to list all raw materials in their portfolio? No. They can start by listing part of their products, such as their best selling products or the products that require most work. In time, they can add other products. How can a producer test the system? We have a free trial option available on our website. I would advise to pick one to two products which are sold to one to two customers, upload the documents about the products and directly share them with those customers. This way, it is possible to realize the ease of using the system. Simultaneously, they can also ask their customers for feedback. Can you offer connections to already existing IT systems? Yes, we can certainly do that. Especially for large companies, it makes sense that we build a REST application program interface (API) for their current ERP /CRM system. What are you working on now? We will release our next version this month which contains some new features, mainly built on existing user feedback. We take customer feedback very seriously and whenever an idea fits the general strategy of Qualit-e Cloud, we try to implement it as soon as possible. For those interested in connecting directly with Nadine, she can be contacted at nadine@qualitecloud.com

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