We often get asked if QSEH Star is an all-in-one solution and if our product addresses specific needs of organisations. To give you an answer, this blog offers more insights into the technical and functional aspects of QSEH Star to help you understand how it can help your organisation.
QSEH Star: the technical side
First, let’s look at the technical side of QSEH Star, before we delve deeper into the functional side. From an IT architecture perspective, the decision depends on creating either a single all-in-one solution, or a modular solution. This depends on various factors, such as:
- Requirements for scalability
- Manageability
- Implementation
- Future growth plans
In general, it can be stated that a modular solution offers significant advantages for the creator (supplier) and for you as a (future) user.
Just because it is technically a modular and loosely coupled solution does not necessarily mean that the user perceives it that way. The experience can indeed be perceived as one cohesive whole.
QSEH Star functionalities
Functionally, there are two main variants: separate modules from one supplier and separate modules from two suppliers. For the user, the first option is preferable. In this case, the user experiences an all-in-one solution without the drawbacks.
The variant with separate modules from one supplier offers even more benefits. In terms of innovation, for instance, new features can be added more quickly with reduced risk for you as a user. It is also more cost-effective when particular modules are not needed.
A modular approach is convenient when you already have an existing system for certain modules. It is also useful if you have very specific requirements that apply only to a limited group of users.
Side functionalities
QSEH Star is a generic solution that you can easily and cost-efficiently adapt to your specific wishes due to OutSystems’ design and underlying Low-Code platform. This makes the QSEH Star a modular solution that, in addition to the core functionalities, also offers functions outside that core, without being noticeable in use. It was also decided to add these additional functionalities to QSEH Star according to a fixed pattern. These are defined in the following steps:
- The side functionality is limited to the least common multiple of what the average organisation needs. For example, QSEH Star can record that specific employees have a certain accreditation and it is not a Learn Management System (LMS).
- In co-creation, this functionality can be expanded per organisation – and possibly even per industry – into a full-fledged module that works seamlessly with the core functionalities and is technically independent. Here, the result will not be a generic LMS. At most, it will be a specific, limited, and tailor-made variant.
- The side functionality uses a solution previously made in co-creation. Here you go through the same solution as in step 2.
There is a possible fourth step as well, which puts the side functionality outside of its pattern. In this case, there is a collaboration with QSEH Star at the data level. This can be a commercially available LMS solution that integrates with QSEH Star. This is also the step in which users will notice that they are dealing with two different solutions.
The most obvious examples of this are a CRM and ERP system. Even if you have created a full-fledged ERP system on the OutSystems platform, it is too large of a solution to become a QSEH-ERP solution together. Sooner or later it will turn into a challenge. Since CRM and ERP are such common solutions, you will not easily add a ‘light version’ to your functional QSEH solution.
Take hazardous substances as an example. There are clear rules for these within an organisation. Some of this applies to every industry and some of it applies only to certain organisations. That in itself makes it difficult to offer a solution in QSEH Star that is suitable for everyone.
Controlling processes
In addition, some organisations consciously opt for a separation between executive and controlling processes, with a solution such as QSEH Star falling under the controlling processes. There is something to be said for this on several levels:
- Expressions such as “a fox guarding the henhouse” show that as consumers, we do not like when quality is self-procliamed. Many financial organisations have an internal control department or a compliance department that consciously stands alone.
- The GDPR legislation makes it easier to monitor privacy. In the operation, you may want to know which employee tampered with a hazardous substance and is now ill due to inhaling it. In the controlling process, it is not actually important who it was, but rather whether this person was properly trained and informed, whether this employee reacted correctly, and whether the processes unfolded as intended.
- The importance of improving processes and assuring quality are sometimes at odds with the interests of a production department where the next order must be shipped on time.
This brings us to whether or not QSEH Star is an all-in-one solution. At a certain level, it is. But regardless of your situation, we can assess additional needs as necessary for you. We aim for QSEH Star to be your fast, affordable, and qualitative solution.
