Propel Reviews & Product Details

Like having excellent traceability. Opportunities for configuration. Excellent technical support team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Pages take long to load. Interface is not intuitive and even less intuitive for admin work. With no previous experience, I have to turn to technical support for every detail. In our organisation we often struggle with Propel quizzes. If one answer is wrong on a 10 question quiz, a person is not given a clue where they made a mistake and have to circle around in the quiz over and over which discourages them from doing the training. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Propel is a fully functional, highly customizable PLM. Bringing documents and records together in a single system is especially well suited for medical device compliance. I also find it particularly user-friendly that the same CO can include both parts and document item types. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The Salesforce UI/UX feels a bit clunky at first, but users tend to get accustomed to it with some experience. Administration is also more complicated than it needs to be, since some tasks have to be handled in Salesforce settings while others are done in Propel settings. Performance can lag to a frustrating degree at times, resulting in very slow page loads. Frontline support often feels like a robot and is pretty useless, and the onboarding process doesn’t provide enough fully documented, pre-configured OOTB solutions that are truly turn-key. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With it being on the Salesforce platform you get a wide range of customizability related to automations and user interface. Propel integrates decently into other software's such as PDM and ERP as long as you can make the API connections. There are some limitations to what you can display on the typical page layout due to how they are setup with LWC. Support and AE are responsive and do try to provide you with assistance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

How locked down the page layout is since it is all depending on LWC so limits the customizability but for us that is not major. Pricing is a little step if you do not use all of the functionality. I would be interested in breaking out the pricing model to allow you to buy just what you need instead of paying for all of it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Propel is most important to me since it enhances coherence and order in product operations. All tasks and updates are connected with the responsible team member, and the high feature base provides efficient progress monitoring and recording the decisions. The regular usage has made it the core of keeping all teams in the right track and regular usage makes sure that tasks, approval and updates are done in time. This has enhanced coordination and errors in our product lifecycle have been minimized. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As far as I am concerned, not all high tech workflow environments may be easy to install. A high number of features is flexible but when inconsistency occurs in the application by team members gaps or mistakes are realized. Due to the daily use of the platform, even minor misunderstandings can have an impact on several product improvements. Different departments also require customization of dashboards or views, which is an added time hence slight slow operations of teams. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The most important feature I think, is the workflow visibility; I can clearly see who is next in line, who has already completed approval of a certain item, etc. and who is dragging their feet. Before we were using a system of files everywhere, and we never knew which version of anything was current, and it was always a huge headache. Being cloud-based allows me to access it via my phone while I am on the floor, or when I’m away from my desk, which I thought I would never end up doing, but I do. At the end of a long day, I’m simply happy that we are no longer wasting time finding duplicate files, and figuring out which version of something we should be using. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Setting it up takes longer than you’d ever think. Also, a minor pet peeve, but a real pet peeve – you can’t really attach additional links or supporting documentation to each step of a workflow, as I would like to. It’s a small thing, but I continue to run into it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I find Propel to be very useful once you're trained and know the ins and outs of it. It's very easy to use and provides good alerts. We use it for tracking expirations of equipment and calibrations, which helps us stay in compliance and make sure tools are ready at the right time. It also alerts us when deviations expire. This email alert system is more efficient than a calendar system because it lets us know when a calibration is about to expire so we can schedule accordingly and keep records up to date. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The attachment system for attaching documents is a little hokey in my opinion. For our users to view items, they often have to go through several different portals or links in a sense. There are some limitations with using the mobile device, or we use iPad or tablet-like devices here for viewing things. And so there are some limitations using those. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that the out of the box features of Propel fit well with our existing processes. I was initially concerned it may require a lot of customization to fit our needs, but it's a purpose-built package that fits well with what we want to accomplish with it. Also, the setup was intuitive and I had no struggles at all. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I'm not totally satisfied with the integration for Propel to communicate with other software packages. It's not as seamless as I hoped it could be. It would be great if it could easily interface with SAP, Solidworks Vault, QMS systems, etc. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The element that I appreciate the most is that Propel has made responsibility and ownership of tasks transparent. I often use it in my position as a coordinator of product launches to keep track of the different people responsible to do every bit of the work such as certification approval and launch progress. It is simple to view the status of each item due to its wide capabilities surrounding task reminders and version logs. As it is something that we use on a regular basis, the platform simplifies the confusion, stays the projects on the timeline and makes everyone in various departments responsible. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

A weakness I have observed is that task dependencies are not always easy to visualise where the product line is large. Although the workflow and approval tracking features are rather powerful, it takes additional effort to see how different items are related to each other. Due to the frequency of use, this can make planning periods slow where coordinating different teams is required which would need clarifications and follow-ups. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The most notable aspect of Propel to me is that it enhances collaboration better than any other thing. I do use it on a regular basis since updates on the products can be seen by all the parties concerned. The Salesforce integration makes the sales trust the data they are working with. Although it contains many features, the concentration on interdependent workflows actually helps my business to be on track and minimize delays in the implementation of products. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One aspect that I would like to dislike about Propel is the fact that some processes are too fixed. As our business requirements vary, modifying workflows in implementation may be time consuming. I also find the system slow when handling huge updates, as this influences my decision to use it on a particular day when I am busy. They do not stop our process, but do slow down the momentum and in some cases cause little delays in deliveries. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It provides a well-organized database for documentation, review and approval, training, and change order workflows. It can take some getting use to, but overall not difficult to navigate for frequent use. Implementation went fairly smooth transitioning from one PLM to Propel. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The sign off features are a little cumbersome, typically creating a pop up window in order to complete the sign off. Linking of the training module and ensuring recurrence was a little confusing with the use of training plans versus training assignments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.