Thomas Miller are an independent and international provider of insurance, professional, and investment services, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
Most of the businesses Thomas Miller own or manage are acknowledged leaders in their chosen market. Their extensive portfolio includes mutual organisations and, increasingly, specialist privately-owned businesses.
Their document management system has become a key tool for gaining consistency and structured policies and procedures across all business and clubs worldwide.
Sarah Oliver (Quality Manager) and Ines Cebrián (Quality Department Technician) talked to us about their journey with Qualsys's electronic quality management system EQMS, and how they're using Document Manager to deliver continuous quality improvement.
Why an electronic document management system?
Thomas Miller was using Lotus Notes to store all its documentation. But as the company grew, they wanted greater control over their documents, as well as being able to integrate quality management and drive stakeholder engagement. As a result, they opted for EQMS.
We chose EQMS because it gave us a lot of flexibility to configure the system exactly the way we wanted it, there was a lot of support, and the system did everything we needed it to.
- Sarah Oliver, Quality Manager, Thomas Miller
Implementing EQMS
Because Thomas Miller are a mature, global organisation, migrating their documentation to EQMS was a significant project. Around 6,000 documents needed to be extracted from Lotus Notes, then verified and approved before they could be transferred to EQMS.
Migrating all the documentation from Lotus Notes took me about a year! But it was well worth getting it right.
- Ines Cebrián, Quality Department Technician, Thomas Miller
This migration project gave Thomas Miller an opportunity to cleanse their documentation and set document control types and approval workflows. When it came to introducing EQMS to their employees, Thomas Miller decided on a phased roll-out to make sure each site had the right level of training.
Simon Wells, Qualsys's training manager, was always very well-prepared and gave us all the support we needed during the implementation process.
- Sarah Oliver, Quality Manager, Thomas Miller
How EQMS is being used
EQMS is very easy to use, especially for an administrator. And it gives us enormous amounts of flexibility: when we need some new functionality we can ask Qualsys and they'll make sure it happens.
- Sarah Oliver, Quality Manager, Thomas Miller
Thomas Miller staff working in different businesses and different parts of the world use EQMS to read policies, check procedures or download different standardised pieces of text. Everything is stored in a structured system that follows common criteria and is controlled centrally by the company's quality team.
Thomas Miller are currently working hand-in-hand with Qualsys to develop a new regulatory system through Supplier Manager.
Financial returns, tax return forms and other regulatory reminders will all be accessible and managed in EQMS.
Everyone knows where the forms are, from anywhere, at any time. And they can be sure that all the information they need is up-to-date and ready to use.
- Sarah Oliver, Quality Manager, Thomas Miller
Thomas Miller use Audit Manager to plan, schedule and manage their audits. The module has been configured to manage all internal, risk-based, quality, claims and process audits.
The company also give their external auditors access to EQMS so the auditors can prepare in advance. This has proved beneficial for both the auditors and the company, and the auditors have appreciated having a structured, organised and targeted view of the whole system.
We give external auditors access to EQMS so they can see all the information there beforehand. It really helps them to quickly and efficiently review our processes.
- Sarah Oliver, Quality Manager, Thomas Miller
The results
Qualsys recently analysed Thomas Miller's user activity as part of their annual health check. This report shows who logged in to EQMS and when, sets out what's been done on each module, and identifies opportunities for improvement.
It's very encouraging to know how actively the system's used, and the data analysis showed great engagement with EQMS. Through training and regular support we encourage all our staff to use EQMS as part of their daily working lives.
- Sarah Oliver, Quality Manager, Thomas Miller
The health check demonstrated that the system was being used significantly across multiple sites. However, it also showed that employees in some of Thomas Miller's newer businesses were not currently using the system, highlighting areas for improvement.
Next steps
If your quality management system needs improving, download the EQMS Buying Toolkit for hundreds of useful resources to help you put together a business case for a document management system.
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