ISO 9001 is the most popular of the ISO certifications and many organisations that start the process to achieve this don’t have knowledge of the standard.  So in this series of ‘ ask the ISO expert ’ we try to answer some of the most popular questions that a new client might have.

Caroline Geoghegan has been an ISO consultant for over 9 years and has worked with many clients of different sizes in different industries. So she is our ‘ ISO expert ’ in the spotlight today.

ISO Certification – Could a company not do it without a consultant?

In theory they could, however, we find that many companies approach us to help them achieve ISO certification because they do not necessarily have the in-house expertise or staff available to take on the project.  It is vital that somebody who is qualified and has experience leads the project to ensure its success.

As certified lead auditors we have the qualifications to actually audit which is a requirement of ISO.  We have done this hundreds of times so the time frame for the completion of ISO is actually reduced by having the ISO consultant as we can get the job done in a much quicker time because of our expertise.

Somebody in-house would not know the specific requirements of ISO because ISO does not expressly state what you should do, it just gives a high level overview of what a company or organisation should consider.  Based on our experience of audits and the amount of companies that we have assisted in terms of planning, developing,  implementing and improving their management systems, we can share that knowledge and give the ISO quality management representative the necessary information to enable the company to achieve ISO certification.

Furthermore the organisation may not have the time to work on the project.  We have had experience of companies coming to us after two years of trying to get certified.  The ISO project may be important to them but business demand obviously is a priority so staff members will concentrate on their own job first, leaving the ISO project as secondary to their primary function.

Hiring an ISO consultant comes with a project plan that specifically has time parameters to keep the project on track.  All my clients have received ISO certification on their first attempt and within the agreed time frame and that time frame can be anywhere from 12 weeks right up to 30 weeks because we are quite flexible in our approach.  We have a people approach, we have a process approach and we are very much focused on our customers so it is whatever our customers’ needs and want!  We ensure that we deliver a quality service and meet the needs of all of our customers.

Does ISO certification really increase our ability to win business?

We found that many clients have increased their revenue as a result of winning more tenders because ISO would be a prerequisite for all government work and especially for multi-nationals as part of their supplier chain management procurement process.

How much work would we have to do?

We would typically estimate that for the establishment phase of the project, much of the time and input would be required from the project team. In order for me to quantify that it’s just a bit difficult because it depends on how small or how large the organisation is. But we would typically look for 3 days for a gap analysis and out of that 3 days each person would literally spend 3 hours with me to help me understand what their key business processes are.

What process do you use?

The first day would involve meeting and greeting the staff and we would always request that there is a project team approach to this.  A staff member would be selected per process or per department and they would be the champion or the owner of that process.  Then we would define each of the processes and we would require one on one time with each of those responsible persons where I would say ‘tell me what you do on a day to day basis and how you do it’.   Then we would look at the process and then look at what the standard requirements are in comparison.

How is CG Business Consulting different?

I think we are different in the sense that our approach is different.  We have a friendly, relaxed, flexible approach and we are genuine, honest experienced consultants who want our clients to achieve ISO certification.  We get such a sense of satisfaction at the end of the process when a client gets ISO certification.  We think we are different because we actually help our clients, we take all the heavy lifting off them as we do the establishment and documentation of the management system.  We write all of the management system requirements, the manuals, the procedures, forms and we enable them to understand ISO.  We try and simplify it by offering training on it and are straightforward in the way we communicate and interact.  Our approach is professional but it is also friendly and  relaxed and we try to make it as fun as we can by putting clients at ease.  We aim to get them to buy into ISO because the ISO standards are just best practice guides and we love to see clients actually applying them to the organisation to continually improve.  Using all of the requirements of ISO to improve their business not only helps them manage their business but it leads to achieving ISO certification.

We will continue this ISO expert series throughout the year, let us know if you have any questions that you would like our ISO expert to answer for you.