Things to consider when deciding to start your ISO journey
The road to achieving ISO certification is a milestone for a growing or established business. The benefits of achieving certification can speak for themselves – they can include gaining a competitive edge and building even more trust with your clients, but it does require commitment.
If you’re thinking about ISO – here’s some questions and answers to help you on your way:
Why is ISO certification so important?
In simple terms, ISO certification means that you can actively demonstrate you have all the frameworks and systems in place to provide the absolute best possible service to your clients, according to the standards within your industry. It’s also a widely recognised way of you being able to demonstrate professionalism, efficacy, and reliability with your organisation. If you’re looking to win big tenders, you can bet that most of your competitors will have ISO certifications – if you don’t and they do, chances are you won’t make it through to the next stage of the tendering process.
What to consider when you’re just getting started …
Congratulations! Beginning your ISO journey is a big step towards gaining a real competitive edge. It can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Here’s our top four 4 steps to help make the process that bit smoother.
- “How much will it cost?”
Like anything, finances and cost are always things to consider. Developing and implementing your management system, as well as training your employees will cost. You’ll also need to pay to register and to manage your certifications once you achieve them, but our experts will be able to talk you through the process and the financial implications.
- “What are my core business’ processes?”
They will form the basis of your management system. The trick is to identify your business’ core processes and think about what the best practice would be to achieve these processes. Then a management system would be developed which encompasses them. You then need to ensure the systems are implemented by yourselves and your team on a day to day basis.
- “Does my system work?”
It’s essential that your system works – the best way is to conduct an audit to check that what’s been put in place achieves your desired goals, and that they’re being carried out effectively. You can then use it to determine what works and what doesn’t, then make whatever changes are needed.
- “Am I ready for certification?”
If you’ve ticked all the above off your list, then yes, you are! Select an auditing body that’s most appropriate to complete your registration, and make sure you’re prepared for an external review.
Looking ahead …
When you achieve certification another thing to think about is how to manage it. Files and files of hard copy papers can be a nightmare to manage but we’ve made it easy for you.
The system we’ve developed will help you manage your ISO Systems simply and efficiently without the need for shelves full of lever arch files. Our industry experts have designed ISOAIMS™ to specifically help manage your ISO systems on-line.
To find out how we can help, email us at: info@isoaims.com for more information..
