In addition to all the record keeping process made by the employees in the laboratory, various other documents are also kept for reference purposes. These documents can be analysis certificates materials, documents such as MSDS, chromatographic analysis reports or calculation spreadsheets so called "validated Excel sheets". So where and how are all these documents stored? How can it be acccessed by lab workers when necessary?
Document management systems in general provide means for controlled quality documents such as analytical methods or deviation records, however the kind of documents we just mentioned are usually scattered around the laboratory environment. Most likely, these documents are tried to be kept as organized as possible on a common network storage, and on common PCs as uncontrolled copies. The only way for employees to access these files is to somehow encode into folder and file names, what the file contains, by whom, for what purpose, when it is placed in which folder. Doing this encoding is a real challenge even if it depends on a written procedure. Even more challenging is to access the desired file by following the correct folder and file path and deciphering this encoding. It is also not possible to filter files with encoded names stored in a folder tree.
Authorization of these documents is also a totally different issue and it is nearly impossible to know if the document is the current one.
File attachments for each record can be loaded into Manage, so the uploaded file is directly associated with the relevant record. At the same time, the contents of the uploaded files can be viewed in Manage without the need for any other document viewer. All functions such as filtering, grouping, keyword searching and audit trails are always at the disposal of the employees, as well.
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