Gurjeet Dhaunsi – Analyst- QA/CSV
ISO (International Organization of Standardization) is non-profit organization which is setup with a goal to achieve standardization across global markets for same products in terms of consistency & quality.
ISO was inaugurated in 1946 in London & today more than 24000 standards are in force, published by ISO in various fields ranging from environment to safety, ethical standards, and safety protocols, to quality and risk management.
These standards are widely used by organizations all over the world to conform to international standards, streamline their business operations and to compete more effectively with others.
ISO Certification is mark of quality and credibility for any organization. No matter how big or small a company is, an ISO certification is always an asset for the organization.
ISO certification certifies that a management system, manufacturing process, any service, or documentation procedure has all the requirements for standardization and quality assurance.
Benefits of ISO certification are not just limited to standardization but also helps in proper functioning & efficiency improvement. Following would be key benefits while relevant ISO certification is achieved:
Benefits of ISO certification
- Save Resources: Organizations that are ISO certified often must analyse their business processes to identify bottlenecks, which in turn enables them to resolve the same and speed up their various processes so that they are able to meet the desired target on schedule. This is most important especially when it comes to large-scale companies but all companies that are ISO certified generally can streamline their functioning and, in the process, hence enabling them to deliver ahead of schedule.
- Improving customer satisfaction: With the relevant ISO certification, organizations can provide services to their customers with better satisfaction. To remain compliant, they must generally be quick to get back to their customers on all their queries and all issues are handled by the organization at the highest level and resolved in the shortest time possible. By doing so, the organization manages to build up a reputation of providing customers with enhanced service and these results in better publicity and more visibility, which in turn enables them to retain their clients and attract new ones with ease.
- Resources utilization planning: It is a fact that most organizations often waste valuable environmental resources without ever utilizing the same. With the right ISO certification, organizations must evaluate their various business processes, limiting any such wastage, and even eliminating the same altogether. One such example would be the use of carbon paper and since we are in a digital age, there is no need for companies to use carbon paper anymore to make manual copies of the content. It is always a good idea to run manual checks to see if there is any wastage of resources and seek to eliminate the same.
- Risk management: With ISO certification, organizations would have to assess all internal and external threats, take measures to mitigate the same and set in place certain protocols which can help to better protect the organization and all its key assets. Often, most organizations do take many measures when it comes to protecting proprietary information related to their organization but often such measures do not extend to client data and information. However, with the requisite of ISO certification, companies must enforce a strict protocol, regulate access to valuable information and key data, ensuring that random checks are carried out and ensure that various protocols are in place to protect their data. By ensuring better data protection, organizations can gain better in terms of credibility and as a result, are able to attract new customers with ease.
- Better Work environment: Organizations that are ISO compliant can provide their employees with better working conditions and would have various measures in place to guarantee their safety. Recently, a check revealed that most organizations often do not allocate enough resources to train their employees in safety nor do they have adequate evacuation protocols in place. However, with ISO certification, organizations must be required to have fire escape plans in place, ensure that their employees are better protected and have random safety checks done periodically as well.
- Environment resources Protection: With relevant ISO certification, organizations would be required to reduce their carbon footprint. This can include various activities from recycling to migrating from paper to digital mode. All of these can enable a company to reduce its carbon footprint, use more plants in the office, go green and essentially promote the idea of doing something for the protection of environment.
- Decision making: One of the key things that are imperative for any organization is the right decision making. Organizations must decide based on an analysis of the information and processes that are followed rather than a gut feeling. ISO standards offers a structured framework for quality management, thus, ensuring the right decision making in case of being ISO certified.
- Meet the requirements specified by the government: Grabbing the government contract could be a big deal for any organization. Organization that wishes to apply for the same needs to be equipped well so that it can match the criteria specified by the government. Government tenders usually mention the ISO certification as qualifying criteria. Hence, having this certification makes your company eligible to apply for government contracts.
- Empowered Employees: One of the key criteria that any organization needs to match to get ISO certification is the training of the staff. It also provides the necessary tools for them to perform their tasks like metrics, procedures, and the right protocol. It eventually helps in making the employees more knowledgeable, and they can perform their tasks more efficiently and without flaws.
- Detailed report of the functioning of your organization: The ISO certification requires that any organization going for this must-have documented a detailed process using business metrics. The objective is to have a detailed guideline for the functioning of the organization. Moreover, this can also become a protocol for reference in the future. Also, it guarantees customers about the credibility of the organization.
- International Quality recognition: As ISO is a globally recognized quality standard, and any organization that has this certification matches up to the international quality standards. The protocol of quality management, production management or services remains the same globally. Hence, organization can approach global clients with ease.
Conclusion: From all above discussed benefits it is certainly imperative that organizations having ISO certifications would have edge than other organizations in terms of quality, business processes, environmental aspects and many more. Hence in turn providing more business opportunities across globe.
