"There were a lot of packages that tried to do everything -- we didn't want a complete system, just fair and square policy development and adoption," he said.

McFarlane chose NetIQ's ViglEnt Policy Center, because of its policy distribution, evaluation and ease of comprehension as an in-house, Web-based solution.

"Part of the attraction was its simplicity; we didn't want to build a new system," McFarlane said. "We also had a suite of NetIQ products already so we knew it would fit into our existing infrastructure."

The system, which staff access via NHW's computers and user log-on IDs, is split into two facets - Compliance Reporting, and policy comprehension.

The initial component allows documents to be marked as compulsory, requiring staff verification, or general information to assist comprehension, while the latter uses quizzes to test staff understanding of policies.