Innovation Centre client, Quality Systems Network, is taking its operations from a regional level to a global one with the help of a Federal Government COMET grant.
Quality Systems Network which provides software as a solution to the ISO9001 market received a grant of $70.400 in the latest round of Commercialising Emerging Technologies (COMET) grants announced by Senator Kim Car, Minister for Innovation, Science and Research. The grants total $774,400 in national funding to help bring 11 innovative Australian projects to market.
Quality Systems ToolboxTM, a web based ISO 9001 Toolbox for SMEs, was one of two winners based in Queensland. ISO 9001 is an international standard that defines requirements for quality management systems.
Quality Systems Network company director Ian Clark said a well functioning quality management system meant that a business can consistently deliver the product or service they promise. “That is important to potential customers and, for larger contracts, supplier certification to ISO 9001 is often mandatory,” he said.
“ISO9001 is often a requirement to service government or larger company contracts, hence there are over 9,000 Australian certified ISO9001 companies. We find that many small to medium enterprises (SMEs) struggle to meet the requirements of the standard with traditionally paper-based systems, often resulting in poor maintenance and difficult audits. Our Toolbox makes the process much easier to manage, saving companies time in management, the platform more accessible to employees and audits far easier to pass.”
“Quality Systems Toolbox has successfully passed audits for clients in a range of industries including mining, electronics, food processing, and manufacturing. One of our first international clients, a Singapore based company offers security risk management services and they used our software to become ISO 9001 compliant and certified in 4 months. The Toolbox is very flexible and suits all kinds of businesses.”
“We’ve been working with the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast in their business Incubator program to access expertise we don’t have in-house. The COMET grant will help us engage other specialist providers to assist in market research and marketing, while executing on the strategic business planning work done with the Innovation Centre to take Quality Systems Toolbox to a wider market.”
Innovation Centre Entrepreneur in Residence, Nigel Hall said “Quality Systems Network is a great example of a small coast based business that is punching above its weight. With 15 active local clients now using the system it is time for the company to focus on market penetration and look at national and international opportunities. Winning the COMET grant will enable them to do the market research and engage professional marketing support to access those markets. Winning the Singapore client and demonstrating how effective the Toolbox is in the market gives the company real proof of concept even in International markets. We look forward to great things from Quality Systems Network”.
About Quality Systems Network
After many years building paper-based quality management systems and seeing the difficulties they presented, business consultant Ian Clark thought that there had to be a better way. Bringing together his knowledge and his son’s expertise in web development, Quality Systems ToolboxTM was developed as a web-based application that addresses all of the requirements of ISO 9001 and makes it easier to manage.
