ISO Certification

In this modern era, companies with widely used products always try to meet their customers’ requests and fulfill their expectations. To do this, companies will usually adhere to a certain set of standards to maintain their organizational goals. Usually, a company uses a set of business processes called quality management system (QMS) to meet its customer base’s demands and expectations. Many companies can document processes, procedures, and responsibilities for achieving its certain objectives by using QMS. To achieve these objectives, there are different QMS standards that are used around the world.

Currently, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) resides as an international standard-setting body consisted of representatives from various organizations around the world. This organization is also famous for setting up the ISO standard that is widely used by many companies to standardize their performance. Curiously, ISO itself does not involved in a company’s certification and does not issue the certificate itself to the company. Instead, it is up to other certification bodies to certificate the company by using the ISO standards.

There are several set of requirements a company must fulfill for becoming ISO certified. A company must submit several documents to the certification body before the certification process. The required documents are usually consisted of internal audit results, design and development output records, management review results, and many others. Other documents such as sales procedure and internal audit procedure are usually included, although they are not obligatory in nature when compared to other mandatory documents.

After submitting the documents, there are some steps that a company needs to do to be certified. First, it needs to identify its own business process to manage the organization. Secondly, it needs to implement the management procedure and monitor its effectiveness. Thirdly, the company needs to identify all the strengths and flaws it has for future improvement. Finally, the company needs to contact an external auditing body to ISO registration. If the company can finish all these steps, then the company can be categorized as ISO-certified.

Furthermore, there are levels of documents that are submitted to an ISO certification. Commonly called as the ISO documents’ hierarchy, this hierarchy is used to effectively document the functions of all of the submitted documents. The hierarchy are consisted of five levels, such as:

• policy level (identifying the company’s overall policy)
• manual level (documenting the scope of the company’s goals)
• procedure level (identifying the company’s operational scope and responsibilities)
• product and process instructions level (providing instructions for the company’s balanced performance)
• records and forms level (documenting the company’s operational results)

By categorizing these documents, the certification body can easily assess all of the required documents for the certification. While there are different forms of ISO certifications for different needs, this hierarchy is commonly used to assist the overall process.

The certification process may seems difficult, but it is very beneficial to the companies! By being an ISO-certified company, it can improve its efficiency in so many ways. Some benefits of ISO certification are consisted of increase in efficiency and productivity, consistent outcomes, improved customer retention, and others. ISO standard can also improve the company’s reputation to both its customer base and as well as many other companies elsewhere.

Due to its high standard, AdIns also realizes the importance of ISO standard for its performance. Since 2008, the company has been certified with an ISO 9001:2008 certification as a proof of its commitment for the company’s quality control and process standardization. This certification also gives an edge for AdIns to be a highly prestigious IT solutions provider in the regional market. And through this certification, it is AdIns’ wishes to always strive for its continuous performance and productivity.