Serving Customers through E-Technology

Today’s continuous improvement is often a matter of implementing technology in new ways, not only to make one’s processes better but also to better serve one’s customers.

As the articles in this issue show, advancing technology in the food and beverage processing industry covers a vast range of applications:

• Real-time scheduling and monitoring of in-store specifications, such as temperature. (Walmart Drives Food Safety Standards, page 10)
• Online training and education. (Qualifying FSMA’s “Qualified Individual,” page 22)
• Data-driven assessment of incoming goods and suppliers. (How to Assess Risk and Deploy Resources, page 44)
• Technological advances in environmental, and other pathogenic, testing. (Environmental Testing: A New Hot Button for FDA, page 52)

Just as these technological advances in the food industry are geared to better serve your customers, so too do continually advancing technologies in the magazine industry enable us to continually improve and expand the ways we serve our customers.

In the past, print was the primary form of distribution for much of corporate and public media, such as magazines, newspapers, employee and customer newsletters, etc. But today, print is becoming a byproduct of digital media. Newsletters that were put in employee mailboxes or mailed with invoices are now electronic e-newsletters that link to the company’s website; newspapers are diminishing, moving their publications online or reducing days of delivery; and magazines are becoming online “flipbooks” and interactive apps.

While this movement toward digital publications is a response to consumer demand, it also provides our industry with the opportunity to improve quality and provide more options and interactions for readers. The choice is now yours: You can get your magazine in print as you always have; you can opt to read an electronic version of QA with all its graphic design on your computer or tablet; you can download the free Quality Assurance Magazine app from the iTunes app store—or you can select any combination of these.

Are you receiving email notifications of QA’s digital publication and/or our bi-monthly e-newsletters? If not, it’s probably because we don’t have your email address! To start receiving your choice of any or all of these, simply fill out our online subscription form, noting that you would like to continue to receive QA (or start receiving it if you’re reading a pass-along copy), selecting electronic delivery, and adding your email address.

We look forward to seeing you in the e-world!

The author is Editor of QA magazine. She can be reached at llupo@gie.net.