Balancing Act: A Phased Approach to Global QMS Transformation at Ascensia | Propulsion 2025

In this Propulsion 2025 customer presentation, Courtney Collins-Pallatta shares how Ascensia Diabetes Care took a pragmatic, phased approach to transforming its global Quality Management System (QMS) using Propel. Her role as the program lead meant navigating competing demands—efficiency vs. customization, global standardization vs. local needs, and innovation vs. compliance.

In this session, she explains how Ascensia moved from fragmented legacy systems to a unified EQMS and PLM platform by leaning on industry best practices and external expertise from PwC. With Propel at the core, Ascensia prioritized an out-of-the-box implementation strategy to minimize cost and maximize time-to-value, while still allowing for business-critical configurations.

Courtney outlines the real-world challenges of balancing perfectionism with pragmatism, managing risk-averse teams, and orchestrating global stakeholder alignment—all in service of streamlined, audit-ready quality processes. Propel customers will gain valuable insight into building scalable systems with measurable ROI—without sacrificing compliance or flexibility.

KEY INSIGHTS

"It's a process of balancing people, process, and systems. Just because you're bringing in a new tool doesn't mean everything else is going to follow. There's work associated with that. We're balancing compliance support and business impact. We're balancing using an out-of-the-box tool versus flexible configuration and the add-ons you could do, and trying to find the right balance to get us launched on time and within budget."

We didn’t design for 100% of everything—every situation, every nuance. We focused on the 80% of situations and kept a running list of things outside that boundary. We addressed the 80% first, and then, time permitting, we addressed the things that came up along the way—especially if there was considerable risk involved."

"We decided to go with Propel Premier Support, and it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made on this project. You can ask a lot of questions, especially if you haven’t done this kind of project before. It’s better to ask questions and try to discover what you don’t know and what you might need to think about going forward. You need an open environment where people feel comfortable asking questions and not feel stupid for not being in the know."

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