Welcome to thepulse, Gael Quality’s quarterly Q-Pulse e-mail newsletter. With thepulse, we bring you up-to-date news and features about Gael Quality products and services that may be of interest and benefit to our customers, enabling you to manage regulatory compliance and continuous improvement with Q-Pulse.

In this edition of thepulse, we bring you news of our recognition by Deloitte at their Fast 50 awards, the introduction of additional Q-Pulse trainers and the launch of our Pathology user groups, as well as our attendance at conferences and exhibitions over the last three months. On our web site you can also read regular news and features about Q-Pulse and Gael Quality, search our knowledgebase and discover how organisations around the world are managing compliance and improvement with Q-Pulse.

thepulse is your newsletter and we want you to tell us what you want – as well as what you don't want – to read in it. If you have any suggestions for future articles, let us know and we'll consider them for inclusion in an upcoming edition. If you have any comments about this edition, e-mail us at comments@gaelquality.com.

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Foodtech 2004

Now in its 14th year, this year’s Foodtech exhibition was held at the Wembley Exhibition and Conference Centre in London from the 3rd to the 4th of November. As the established market leader in the food hygiene, safety and quality control sectors of the food industry, Foodtech is the UK’s foremost exhibition for food technologists, quality assurance personnel and food hygiene specialists and attracts a high number of visitors from throughout the industry.

With more than 1000 visitors in attendance, Foodtech was a tremendous opportunity for us to meet with food safety professionals from across the industry, many of whom expressed a great deal of interest in Q-Pulse as a solution to the management of HACCP-based Food Safety Management Systems.

All the visitors to our stand were entered into our prize draw and following the end of the exhibition, we drew Alan Etches of Plastique Ltd as our lucky winner; a single-user version of Q-Pulse is now on its way to Alan with our compliments.

We attended Foodtech with one of our UK-based business partners, food industry specialists QMACH. Working closely with Gael Quality, QMACH use their extensive experience within the food industry to integrate Q-Pulse with Food Safety Management Systems.

Mark Fuller, QMACH Director:

‘Gael Quality’s experience in delivering Quality Management System (QMS) solutions and our expertise in integrating QMS solutions with food safety management systems has proven to be an extremely powerful partnership in providing regulatory compliance on demand.’

Our thanks to everyone who took the time to visit our stand and our congratulations again to Alan in being first out of the draw.

For further details of our attendance at exhibitions and conferences throughout the year, visit our web site at www.gaelquality.com. For more information on this event, visit the Foodtech web site at www.foodtech2004.com.

HACCP – no choice any more!

The Society of Food Hygiene and Technology (SOFHT), in association with Gael Quality will hold their April event ‘HACCP – no choice any more!’ on Thursday the 21st April at the James Watts Conference Centre in East Kilbride. With Food Safety professionals from across the UK in attendance, speakers from leading companies will share their knowledge and experience of HACCP in a series of papers covering legislation, auditing and allergens.

Food Safety management systems such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) ensure that food manufacturers can demonstrate compliance with such legislation, as well as satisfy customer demands for quality and safety. As the importance of legislative compliance increases, many food manufacturers now manage the maintenance and review of Food Safety using electronic Quality Management Systems (eQMS).

From the legislative requirements to the risk management of allergens, 'HACCP – no choice any more!’ addresses some of the key aspects of HACCP, with speakers from companies such as Greggs the Bakers, William Grant, and UB explaining how they have developed their systems to manage HACCP. Delegates can also find out how eQMS such as Q-Pulse can be used to gather and analyse Food Safety management system information.

Ian Stangoe, Business Development Executive, ‘HACCP is now the internationally recognised method for managing Food Safety, as well as a key component of standards such as EFSIS, BRC and AIB. With eQMS such as Q-Pulse, Food Safety professionals can maintain compliance with industry standards as well as satisfy customer demands for quality and safety.’

For more details of demonstrating regulatory compliance on demand with Q-Pulse, contact Ian Stangoe at stangoei@gaelquality.com or on 01355 593426. For further information on this event, visit the SOFHT web site at www.sofht.co.uk.

Scottish Quality Managers’ discussion group

The Scottish Quality Managers’ discussion group (SQMDG) held their inaugural session at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow on the 22nd of November. Over 70 Quality Managers and CPA assessors from all over Scotland, as well as delegates from England and Wales attended the discussion group, which was held under the auspices of the IBMS Scotland.

Eric Martindale, Chair, SQMDG explained how the group was formed:

‘As a national discussion group for QMs from all laboratory disciplines, the SQMDG is a first for Scotland and was organised to help those new to the Quality environment. At the group’s first meeting, our aim was to encourage the discussion of ideas, methods and best practices, as well as to share experiences of working in the laboratory.’

We sponsored lunch for the delegates and conducted an open house workshop session throughout the day, demonstrating how Q-Pulse complements the laboratory QM’s role by facilitating compliance with standards such as CPA. As the UK’s market-leading system for CPA accreditation, Q-Pulse is used in more than 250 pathology laboratories throughout the UK and Ireland, as well as in hundreds of laboratories worldwide.

William McGregor, Gael Quality Business Development Executive commented on our involvement:

‘With Q-Pulse in use in laboratories throughout the UK, the session was a resounding success for us as well as the SQMDG. We spoke with delegates during the session who benefited from networking with other QMs in their peer group and exchanging ideas about the use of Q-Pulse for laboratory accreditation.’

For further details of Q-Pulse Pathology user groups, contact William McGregor at mcgregorw@gaelquality.com or on 01355 593439. For more information on this event, visit the IBMS web site at www.ibms.org.

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Deloitte Fast 50 Awards 2004

Q-Pulse web seminars

Presented by Quality Management professionals, our live web seminars show you how Q-Pulse can help your organisation to demonstrate compliance with management standards, as well as how Q-Pulse can help to drive continuous improvement throughout your organisation.

Find out for yourself in under half-an-hour what more than 4000 companies worldwide have already discovered about enhancing efficiency and effectiveness with Q-Pulse.

For more information or to book a web seminar, click on the links below or visit our web site at www.gaelquality.com.

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6 Sigma at Gael Quality

With a network of trainers throughout Scotland, England and Ireland, we’re expanding our trainer network with the introduction of two specialist Six Sigma trainers. We’re further extending our network to diversify into different markets and industries, as well as to broaden the range of training available to existing customers.

Moore Allison and Gillian Rhodes are Continuous Improvement consultants and will be delivering Q-Pulse training in association with Gael Quality. As certified Motorola Six Sigma Black Belts, Moore and Gillian run Six Sigma Scotland Ltd, a Continuous Improvement consultancy providing advice, assistance and training to organisations in applying Continuous Improvement Tools and Problem Solving to achieve Six Sigma status.

Moore Allison, Consultant, commented on Six Sigma Scotland’s association with Gael Quality:

‘As a continuous improvement tool, Q-Pulse complements our mainstream activities, in gathering information to help organisations reach the next stage of the Six Sigma program. Our impressions of Q-Pulse and Gael Quality are very high and it’s important to us to be associated with consistently successful, high calibre organisations.’

For more details on Q-Pulse training courses, visit our web site at www.gaelquality.com. For further information on Six Sigma Scotland Ltd, visit their web site at www.sixsigmascotland.co.uk.

Lab Accreditation User Group 2004

We hosted the first of our Q-Pulse user groups designed specifically to support our Pathology user community, which was held in East Kilbride on the 27th of October. 28 Pathology Quality Managers from across Scotland, Ireland and the North East of England attended the meeting, which focused on the reality of using Q-Pulse within a Pathology environment.

With over 10 years' experience providing QMS solutions to hundreds of pathology laboratories worldwide, a direct benefit of such a large Pathology customer base has been the growth of a thriving user community around the pursuit of best practice, which continually strives to benchmark against the best.

Facilitated by Gael Quality’s Brian Dodson and Martin Bowman, discussion focused on the Q-Pulse modules that have been proven to facilitate CPA accreditation. Attendees confirmed that Document Control was the most commonly used module within the laboratory, for storing and retrieving controlled documents, as well as Q-Pulse's unique Analysis & Improvement module for identifying continuous improvement opportunities.

Paul Callaghan, Q-Pulse Product Manager:

‘By forging closer links with our Pathology user community, we’ve gained a greater understanding of their needs and wants and are better able to address them.’

John Ringrow, Pathology Quality Manager, County Durham & Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust:

‘The user group was an excellent opportunity to network with other quality managers and learn how they address CPA requirements using Q-Pulse.’

For further details of Q-Pulse Pathology user groups, contact William McGregor at mcgregorw@gaelquality.com or on 01355 593439. For more information on this event, visit the IBMS web site at www.ibms.org.

That's all for this edition of thepulse and we hope you've enjoyed reading. Email us at thepulse@gaelquality.com to tell us what you think or to receive more information on any of our featured articles. We'll be back in June with our next edition, but for regular news and information about the products and services offered by Gael Quality, visit us at www.gaelquality.com.

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