Does your company currently have any organizational certifications, like: ISO 9001, Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) or Support Performance Certification (SPC)? & if YES, why did your organization decide to obtain the certification?
I'm trying to understand organizational certifications better, so I have a couple of questions I hope people will be willing to answer.
Answers (9)
Andrew R
Principal at AmberleySeven
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Nancy,
I worked for a captive outsourcing unit in Malaysia focused on IT outsourcing. Because the organisaiton was built from scratch, we used BS15000, BS7799, and CMMi as a way of directing the growth in sensible directions.
The certifications gave people a goal to focus on and built a sense of pride and achievement. Second, they gave the management team the assurance that a young/fast-growing organisation had some of the basics in place. Third, it allowed us to assure our "customers" that we could deliver reasonable service - critical in a business transformation program of that type.
Please feel free to contact me directly if I can help further.
Andrew
Marcel E
Project Management Consultant
Best Answers in: Project Management (3), Accounting (1), Non-profit Management (1), Supply Chain Management (1)
Hello Nancy.
Currently nothing as the organization is very small at this moment.
Regards,
Marcel
Alexey Y
Deputy Director of Consulting Services dept at BMS Consulting ltd., CISA
There are several certifications, but they are everything about Plan-Do-Check-Act structure (quality cycle). So if you have service oriented Company - you need to be ISO 9001 (Services/Products) or ISO 20000 (IT Services) certified. But if your task is to protect your assets and mitigate existing risks - you need to be ISO 27001 (ISMS) compliant. From my point of view - companies are selecting most simple and not too expensive way to obtain certification. Absolutely, the main task is to be compliant with external and internal requirements.
Bertrand R
Head of Customer services at MERCER; Insurance & financial services Executive
Nancy,
I am part of a company which is ISO9001 certified since 1996. The initial goal was to support our service standards and to gain credibility for both our existing customers and when we were taking part in tenders. The aim was also to adopt a common understanding of our business objectives.
The certification only involved at the time the operating part of the organization (i.e claims adjudication for health & benefits group insurance) and proved to be very efficient in focussing the teams toward client focussed objectives.
When we had to migrate toward ISO9001:2000, we faced the challenge to expand the certification to all the functions of the organization, including somes which were culturally far away from this type of codification, e.g. marketing & sales.
When I look behind, I would say that the first outcome of certifications is to provide a support to streamline operations and and gain operating efficiency to the cutomer’s advantage. The second aspect is more top line driven : according to the business you are in, either certification will bring you a competitive advantage which will enable to grow the top line (better efficiency in a market where competitors are not efficient), or certification will be a « defensive tool » in a mature market which states that you simply comply with state-of-the-art. It will bring additional credibility more than a competitive edge as such.
I Hope this helps. Do not hesitate to contact me directly for further questions.
Best regards.
Bertrand
Shaun S
Managing Director
Best Answers in: Quality Management and Standards (9), Change Management (2), Organizational Development (2), Ethics (2), Mentoring (1), Government Policy (1), Corporate Governance (1), Databases (1)
Statistically by far the most common reason for certification is to satisfy a customer contractual requirement. Many organisations use it as a pre-selection criteria for its suppliers and therefore certification enables the company to bid for such contracts
Mark R
Quality and Productivity Improvement consultant, speaker and author (mark.randig@gmail.com).
Best Answers in: Quality Management and Standards (3), Project Management (2), Organizational Development (1), Career Management (1)
While I'd like to say that the driving force is to improve their operations, in reality, an overwhelming majority of our customers pursue such certifications (ISO, RCMS, etc.) in order to meet eligibility requirements imposed by their customers.
Hope this helps,
Mark
http://www.masquality.com
Shrikant M
AVP at ABB Limited , Certified Manager of Quality & Organizational Excellence from ASQ
Best Answers in: Quality Management and Standards (2), Regulation and Compliance (1)
Hello Nancy,
Yes. Our organization has been certified for ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System Certification.
We are one of the newest unit of the ABB India operations ( just 2 years old..!!).And immediately after starting our operations we opted for the ISO 9001:2000.
Now coming to your point - why we have opted for this certification ?
(1) ISO 9001:2000 provides a basic framework for establishing a standardised way of working for all functions of business.
(2) It is also a customer requirement.
(3) It adds into brand image of the organization.
(4) It also serves as a marketing tool when you seek new business/ customers.
(5) It helps in increasing confidence of our customers in our organization as a systematically working supplier.
Last but not the least -
(6) We believe that - ISO 9001:2000 QMS is a foundation for our organization build on further systems on it.
Hopefully I have adequately answered your question. You are free to contact me for further clarifications on this. Thanks.
BR/Shrikant.
Management Representative ( Quality Management System)
Bala R
Sr.Consultant
Best Answers in: Quality Management and Standards (4), Business Analytics (1), Organizational Development (1), Planning (1), Career Management (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
Hi,
I have consulted around 200+ organizations on various certifications including ISO 9001.
Many organizations go for this certification for 2 reasons.
1. Customer / Market requirement
2. Improvement
I should say that out of most of the organizations that I have consulted belong to the first category.
I was fortunate to lead a few organizations who did implement the requirements of ISO but did not go for certifications. They focussed only on improvements and they really did.
I would be glad to answer any specific questions on this from your side.
Regards
Bala Ramanan
Nancy,
Many companies go in for such Certifications for a two fold reason -- to improve their own capabilities and to project this certification to the world at large.
