The MasterControl Quality Excellence suite bundles a number of products supporting work quality and compliance including training and exams, incidents and corrective actions (CA), documents and change, and other modules.
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Sauce Labs
Score 6.3 out of 10
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Sauce Labs is a cloud-based platform
for automated testing of desktop and mobile applications. It is designed to be instantly scalable, since it is optimized for continuous
integration workflows. (The vendor says that when tests are automated and run in parallel on
multiple virtual machines across many different browser, platform and device
combinations, testing time is reduced and developer time is freed up from
managing infrastructure.) The Sauce Labs testing cloud is intended to be paired…
The MasterControl Quality Excellence suite is well suited for the life sciences and biotechnology as well as manufacturing companies that could benefit from the regulatory compliance that this suite of products offer. This product is highly recommended for industries that want to reduce paper overhead and digitally transform their QMS into a singular location
Access to specific devices is good, as well as access to a specific browser/platform. We are not able to connect our dev environments to Sauce Labs because the devices are put in our VPC. Some versions are not available like iPhone with iOS 12.1. With iOS, there is limited/no support for push notifications without real devices due to Apple's provisioning profiles.
There is no trigger if there is a duplicate document in the system. Since each InfoCard has its document number, unless used simultaneously with someone else, there is no trigger for duplicate documents.
When searching and looking at all the documents on the system, it would be nice to have a time column showing when it was released. All I am currently going off of is taking the document number and the highest, but that also takes time.
You can't get rid of a subtype if you have data associated with it. So if you enter documents a certain way and your team decides to change how, things will be more efficient, etc. You can't delete that subtype until you remove all data from the system, even if you don't need some. It's a big task if you have been using it for a long time.
Cost: it's a little bit pricey, but I don't pay the bill so I'm not complaining too much there. Overall, I'd say the price isn't ridiculous but it's not inexpensive.
Logs: I don't find their logs very useful for front-end web tests, I usually refer to my own logs if I have a bug/issue/error that needs investigation.
would rate MasterControl Quality Excellence a 7 out of 10 because, while it offers strong compliance tools, centralized document control, and effective audit readiness features, there are still areas that could be improved to enhance the overall user experience. The platform can sometimes feel complex and unintuitive, especially for new users, and customizing workflows to fit specific organizational needs can be challenging. Additionally, integration with other enterprise systems isn't always seamless, which can slow down processes. Despite these drawbacks, the system remains a reliable and valuable tool for maintaining quality and regulatory compliance.
I love how it's super easy to use. Not only that but it ensures security and it always has great updates to ensure that it continues to be awesome. Also, I love how nice the people there are too. Their support tea is amazing. Anytime, I have a question, they are super speedy to answer.
Some tasks require the users and SysAdmin to access multiple modules at a time. For example: to create a training course and an exam for a document in the system, the user needs to finish creating the document in the doc module, then go to the training module to create a course and an exam separately. Ideally, from the document page we should be able to access the training course, which could have some fields auto-populated. And from there, also create and link an exam, all without leaving the document page.
I think Sauce Labs is great and I've been using them since late 2014. With that said, I'm very used to how their interface works and how to get what I need. I think if a brand new user would come in and use it, it would still be easy, but maybe not as easy as it is for me. That's why I rate this area a 9 instead of a 10. Still great though!
Yes, Sauce labs is always there, and it is easy to troubleshoot when you are having any connectivity issue, they always keep you informed when they plan to perform any type of maintenance window on their side in advance, so you can plan and will not affect your current work. I do not recall any outage.
The time where they acquired TestObject and were trying to integrate their services would probably be the most annoying time. Annoying as features were in two separate places (websites) for example. But since the introduction of their unified platform, we haven't run into any issues as of yet and we've used them for at least 5-6 years now.
The Technical Support team has grown exponentially over the last couple years. Some front line support staff are new to the system and so know less than the clients do. Back line staff are more seasoned and provide immediate assistance to the front line staff. They have an extensive knowledge bank to assist them as well as client access to most KB articles. Annual user group conference gives us chance to meet the support staff an also to resolve any outstanding issues. Any critical vendor notices are emailed immediately when found and a patch offered at the same time. These are rare, but quickly resolved.
The support is good for Sauce Labs. It is hard to get an initial response but the support has cleared our issues with Sauce Labs. Sometimes we have to follow up and it's hard to get a hold of the team initially. Once we get a hold of the team, the issues are always resolved.
I rated the MasterControl in-person training a 10 because it was clear, practical, and well-paced. The trainer explained concepts thoroughly and answered questions effectively. I appreciated the hands-on walkthroughs, which made it easier to understand how to apply the system in real scenarios. Overall, it was a valuable learning experience that boosted my confidence in using MasterControl.
transparent and immediate when the documents are updated. Easy to check on training and customizable to the company's expectations. Allows easy exam creation with GXP assist and the correlation between job codes and courses has proven reliable. What i would advocate is that you see who has trained on the course in the Course Infocard, to the document infocard
The implementation of MasterControl Quality Excellence was largely successful, earning an 8 out of 10. The project was well-structured, and the implementation team provided solid guidance throughout the process. Key milestones were met on time, and the system was configured to meet most of our core requirements. One of the most valuable aspects was the hands-on training and support during go-live, which helped ensure user adoption. However, there were some challenges around data migration and aligning the system’s capabilities with our existing workflows, which required more time and effort than anticipated. Overall, the experience was positive, and the lessons learned have positioned us well for future system enhancements.
I am not sure if it's my company that makes getting Sauce Labs integrated into the team difficult or is it Sauce Labs. The process for getting Sauce Labs for a project is quite a tedious process and the information for using Sauce Labs initially is quite lacking. There is little support for getting started
MasterControls' user interface is more visually appealing than others I have seen. It enhances the user experience of utilizing MasterControl Quality Excellence and provides clearer visual cues when certain items require attention. Other systems I have used rely on knowing what will execute the functions without much assistance. MasterControl provides additional cues when hovering over items that require entry to provide additional context.
Firebase is pay per use and so was difficult to work out the true costings, it also felt more developer focussed whereas Sauce Labs had better Appium support for our Automation team. AWS Device Farm appeared to require either Android or iOS and we wanted both, so that wasn't a great fit. It was also not possible to run Cucumber tests on Android in AWS but this may no longer be the case, but it was another unknown for us and not worth the risk. Sauce Labs explicitly mentioned Cucumber support.
With private devices, you have full reign over usage of them, so no complaints there. Public devices are available if no one else is using it, which is understandable. Browser VMs are based on number of open sessions and Saucelabs give you a certain number depending on what you need. If you need more, then you pay for more. It is as simple as that. You need more devices, then you can pay for more private ones too. A workaround for public devices is to pick the first available one and not be too picky, that's if you are able to of course.
Paper-based change control processes that previously took weeks have been reduced to days, significantly improving operational efficiency and document turnaround times.
Custom-developed forms within MasterControl Quality Excellence have enabled data validation at the point of entry, which has substantially reduced input errors and deviations. This benefit, however, is dependent on internal developer resources, as the platform functions primarily as a host.
After 15 years of use, poor initial implementation and software limitations created lasting technical debt. System migrations to resolve these issues is still ongoing after years of manual efforts, and unmet functionality continues to impact productivity, forcing additional software purchases to address gaps.
Provided an ability for us to run 55,000+ tests/month across all browsers.
Gave us an opportunity to showcase the great things we have done in quality using Sauce Labs. This was through a white paper and an opportunity to speak at Sauce Con. People in our company have a far better appreciation for the what we do and how far we have progressed in the quality space.
