In 2014, 21 percent of companies reported that they had completed an enterprise quality management software (EQMS) deployment, and an additional 40 percent reported being in the planning stages of one. In order to justify the budget for such an investment, a watertight business case is a prerequisite. This will include typical tangible benefits, but it’s also important to keep in mind the intangibles.

Most executive sponsors of EQMS can effectively describe the process improvements that an EQMS will create as well as many of the intangibles, but mainly from a quality perspective. For instance, they know how it will improve the director of quality’s visibility into open corrective or preventive actions (CAPAs), the audit schedule, and ensuring that the right quality documents are being used. Where many quality executives fall down, however, is in translating intangible benefits the quality department will experience into benefits for engineering, manufacturing, the supply chain, or finance. There’s often a disconnect between the story of a quality culture transformation, which these other functional groups would support, and how EQMS can support this transformation.

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