Established in 1947, NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia) is Australia’s foremost organisation responsible for the accreditation of laboratories, inspection bodies, calibration services, producers of reference materials and proficiency testing scheme providers throughout Australia.
NATA provides independent assurance of technical competence through a process of accreditation, which formally recognises that these facilities produce reliable technical results. NATA’s work increases community confidence and trust in a facility’s services, mitigates risk, improves tendering success and facilitates trade.
As a document centric organisation, NATA relies heavily on maintaining accurate and up to date documentation that can be easily disseminated to its 175 staff and some 3000 widely distributed volunteer experts. NATA has chosen MAGIQ Documents as the electronic documents system to help them manage this complex environment.
MAGIQ Documents is a web-based, fully integrated suite of electronic document and records management software. The overall simplicity and intuitive design of the software means it is very easy for staff to use and learn, leading to excellent take-up and adoption.
Using MAGIQ Documents, NATA has successfully transformed a manual, paper-based system to a single, centralised electronic documents repository.
CENTRALISED, ELECTRONIC REPOSITORY DELIVERS IMPROVED ACCESSIBILITY AND COLLABORATION
The implementation of MAGIQ Documents was driven by the need to replace a paper-based system consisting of an entire floor of files at the Sydney headquarters, with an electronic system to improve access to the documents, staff need to complete their daily tasks.
With a team of more than 120 Technical Accreditation staff working across all states of Australia, physically managing the efficient distribution of the relevant files had become a very labour-intensive and inefficient process.
“The old paper-based system created a number of logistical challenges. Firstly the physical search for the relevant files had to be completed. Then the files had to be sent to the relevant staff, all of which took a lot of time. And of course, ultimately the files had to be returned, re-filed etc.” said Robert Passam, NATA’s General Manager ICT.
“If files were misplaced or filed incorrectly a huge amount of time and effort could be wasted trying to track them down – which greatly impacted our ability to complete jobs on time and meet our various service delivery obligations.”
Transforming the paper-based system to an electronic system has delivered a significant range of benefits to all stakeholders. Service delivery timeframes have improved; as well as creating an environment that is much more conducive to collaboration. MAGIQ Documents also provides a complete audit trail of the document repository, further protecting the integrity of NATA’s corporate data.
“A significant improvement in the accessibility and availability of documents is a major benefit. Using the flexible and powerful MAGIQ Documents Global Search, staff can now almost instantly find the specific documents they need. The quality of our service delivery has also improved, with Version Control helping to ensure the accuracy and currency of the information our staff are working with,” said Robert.
“MAGIQ Documents has provided a single, centralised repository for all of our corporate information and we now have far greater confidence around the availability and accuracy of that information,” he said.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT DELIVERS GREATER EFFICIENCY
The organisation undertook a thorough change management process as part of its implementation of MAGIQ Documents.
NATA’s Governance and Compliance team analysed and constructed the necessary business rules and processes to complete the various accreditation processes. These were then implemented within MAGIQ Documents providing automated workflows to manage tasks such as the allocation of jobs, job completion, management review and finally the issuing of the Accreditation Certificate.
“We now have much better visibility around service levels and we can also be confident that those service levels are being adhered to – and if they aren’t we can act very quickly,” said Robert.
“Many of the Facilities we work with are providing critical services within the health and construction industries; it’s essential that we are diligent and responsive in meeting our client’s needs.”
Staff training in the MAGIQ Documents system was provided with a practical task based approach and using easy to recall business process ‘cheat sheets’. Robert’s team now provide system training to staff as part of the induction process and Product Champions at each office provide 1st level user support as required.
“For any other issues we deal directly with the MAGIQ Support team and they are always very helpful. From implementation onwards the MAGIQ Software team has delivered exactly what they promised – on time and within budget.