To have a competitive edge in today’s business means to stand out in the services that an organisation delivers. You may offer a unique service or product that no one else can offer and having this may be very helpful in garnering new business opportunities. What happens though when your new service or product is not up to scratch of your client’s needs? Sure, it does everything on the tin like it said it would, but there are functionality errors or quality issues. Or the client can’t enquire about a specific part of your service, because they can’t get in touch with anyone at your organisation? This is where Quality Management will help. 

The ISO 9001:2015 Standard is an internationally recognised standard designed to help organisations monitor and manage quality across all departments, even if they are not directly linked with delivery or client focused aspects of the organisations. The ISO 9001:2015 standard has been around for some time with its origins traced back to 1971, when the British Standards Institute (BSI) published the first UK standard for quality assurance (BS 9000). Since then the standard has undergone several revisions with the current version released in September 2015. The standard has now been aligned with other standards such as, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 the Information Security standard.  

The ISO 9001:2015 Standard offers a set controls that enables your organisation to implement a Quality Management System (QMS). The QMS gives your organisation the ability to monitor, improve and provide a consistent level of quality across your services and products.  

If an organisation chooses to implement the a QMS in line with the ISO 9001:2015 standard the organisation can then have the QMS audited by an independent certification body. By doing this the organisation can prove that their QMS is at recognised standard. There are a number of benefits to implementing and gaining ISO 9001:2015 certification: 

• Allows your organisation to become a more consistent competitor in your marketplace 
• Better quality management helps r organisation meet customer needs 
• More efficient ways of working will save time, money and resources 
• Improved operational performance will cut errors and increase profits 
• Motivate and engage staff with more efficient internal processes 

• Win more high value customers with better customer service 
• Broaden business opportunities by demonstrating compliance 

It should be mentioned that organisations do not necessarily need to be certified against the SO 9001:2015 standard. Organisations can implement a QMS that is compliant with the standard. By implementing the standard, organisations can benefit from the controls and best practices set out in the standard. However, there are some draw backs in not certifying. For example, you will be unable to give reassurance to your interested parties and clients that your QMS is to a recognised level. Another drawback is that many tenders and contracts now ask for the ISO 9001:2015 standard certification and you will struggle to prove your QMS is at the required level without a formal certification process. 

For more information on ISO 9001 please contact us.