British Certifications Inc.BENEFITS OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

Certification and small businesses

ISO International Standards provide many benefits for businesses worldwide, both in industrialised and developing countries. But these benefits are not just for large corporations and big businesses.

ISO standards can also help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For example, ISO standards provide state-of-the-art specifications for products and services

They can increase the efficiency of processes.

They can help SMEs qualify for participation in global supply chains.

In short, standardisation can help SMEs compete with bigger businesses for opportunities on the global market.

ISO standards are the key to unlock future opportunities.

Benefits for Society

ISO has over 19,500 standards touching almost all aspects of daily life.

When products and services conform to International Standards consumers can have confidence that they are safe, reliable and of good quality. For example, ISO's standards on road safety, toy safety and secure medical packaging are just a selection of those that help make the world a safer place.

International Standards on air, water and soil quality, on emissions of gases and radiation and environmental aspects of products contribute to efforts to preserve the environment and the health of citizens.

Certification to such standards assist organisations to demonstrate Commitment to meeting the standards and compliance with the standards

Benefits for Government

ISO standards draw on international expertise and experience and are therefore a vital resource for governments when developing regulations.

National governments can make ISO standards a regulatory requirement (remember ISO standards themselves are voluntary). This has a number of benefits:

Expert opinion - ISO standards are developed by experts. By integrating an ISO standard into national regulation, governments can benefit from the opinion of experts without having to call on their services directly.

Opening up world trade - ISO standards are international and adopted by many governments. By integrating ISO standards into national regulation, governments help to ensure that requirements for imports and exports are the same the world over, therefore facilitating the movement of goods, services and technologies from country to country.

Reducing technical barriers to trade

The existence of different national or regional standards can create technical barriers to trade and increase the cost of doing business. International Standards provide the technical basis on which political trade agreements can be put into practice, whether they are at the regional or international level.

10 Benefits of Certification to business and Organisations

1 . Standards and Certification level playing field for small business with bigger enterprises

2 . Standards and Certification can open up export markets for products and services

3 . Standards and Certification help businesses continually improve by discovering and improving practices

4 . Standards and certification drive efficiency in your business operations

5 . Standards and certification add credibility and confidence for your customers

6 . Standards and certifications open new business opportunities

7 . Standards and certifications gives an organisation the competitive edge

8. Standards and certification help build the platform to grow

9. Standards and certification enable a common “ language ” to be used across an industry sector

1. Standards and certifications level playing field for smaller businesses and organisation with bigger enterprises

“ In general smaller organisations are shy to talk about their achievements, and don’t market themselves well internationally. They don’t have the aggressiveness of our foreign competitors. When this organisation gets certified to a standard they are able to let the standards certification speak for them. It gives them credibility.”

2. Standards and certification open up export markets for your products and services

“ The payoff for engaging in standards work is greater than many small business people realize. Standards are both important and interesting. For a company SME, it’s essential to get involved with the working groups so we can get started early with our planning for future designs and production methods. Globalization means that ISO standards are key for any company that hopes to succeed in export markets.”

3. Standards and Certification help businesses continually improve by discovering and improving practices

“ When high technical level of activity are involved they must be based on a sound methodology, on personnel experience and on rigorous project management. ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 helped us in building up processes to manage all these aspects coherently and unambiguously from design, up to deployment and customer help, which is deeply appreciated by our national and international customers.”

4. Standards and certification drive efficiency in your business operations“ Without standards I would have had to close down… Not taking part (in standardization) would

have cost me my company and my livelihood… What does it cost me if I do not get involved and others define rules that are out of line with my needs, interests and experiences, but which I have to comply with because they are laid down in a standard? Hence, it is best to join in right at the start.”

5. Standards and certification add credibility and confidence for your customers

“ In addition to achieving higher customer confidence levels and better customer retention, standards and certification impact on vendor selection process. For example, potential vendors are invited to make changes to their businesses to be in line with ISO 28000 requirements, such as improving their document control, restricting access to certain areas to authorised personnel only, and enhancing security at their premises by installing CCTV cameras. Only vendors whose business processes are aligned to ISO 28000 will be selected. This ensures that our customers will receive consistently good service.”

6. Standards and certifications open new business opportunities

“Companies to embrace the use standards in order to upgrade the quality of their products / services will get access to both local and export markets.”

7. Standards and certifications gives an organisation the competitive edge

Quote from buisness “Basically, I was prompted into finding out more about ISO 9001 because many of our competitors were starting to publicize the fact that they complied with it. Now that we can do the same, we are finding that we are attracting lots of business from larger companies that want the reassurance of dealing with a firm that can demonstrate it complies with appropriate standards. A lot of businesses choose to trade with companies that comply with recognized standards ahead of those that don’t – especially in a trade like ours, where we deal with lifesaving devices.”

8. Standards and certification help build the platform to grow

Commitment to compliance with standards lead to assuring the quality and the satisfaction of customers, which becomes the platform for the business to keep growing.

9. Standards and certification enable a common language to be used across an industry sector

Standards provide a common “ language ” for our industry by defining the quality benchmarks that products and specifications to comply with. Standards clearly show that the end product eg: a building project – will meet minimum standards of health, safety and performance.”

Resources

ISO’s Website:

www.iso.org