How to select a good ISO consultant
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Congratulations on your decision to go for ISO 9001 / ISO 14001 / OHSAS 18001 / HACCCP ISO 22000 / ISO 27001 / SA 8000 / ISO 20000 / ISO 17025 management system implementation and certification. We appreciate your initiative to implement and get certified to a globally recognized, respected and accepted management system like ISO 9001 / ISO 14001 / OHSAS 18001 / HACCCP ISO 22000 / ISO 27001 / SA 8000 / ISO 20000 / ISO 17025. There are two components involved in any ISO certification process :- (A) Consulting, Training and implementation:Done by a consulting company (B) Certification body assessment and issuance of ISO certification body: Done by an accredited certification body. Success of the ISO certification initiative, ISO standard implementation project any where in the world depends on QUALITY AND COMPETENCE OF THE CONSULTANT you hire. Our aim is simple…… To help you select the best ISO certification consulting company that is appropriate to your business and save you from malpractices of so called ISO consultants with their “One Hat Fits All” & “Cut – Copy – Paste” approach. Given below are questions you need to ask to any individual or organization that want to provide you consulting services for ISO certification project of your company:- } Is he / she a free lancer or a one many consulting company or a proper legal entity working as a professional organization? } It is strongly advised to work with a full scale consulting organization and to avoid free lancers or one man consulting companies because of professionalism, combined knowledge, reliability play very important in timely project completion with value addition to the processes. } How many complete project life cycle experience does the person has for ISO certification? } In order to bring in effectiveness, make sure that the consultant is fairly experienced with not less than a total of 100 ISO certification project life cycle exposure and experience to his / her credit. } Does the consultant has exposure and experience to your industry? } A MUST, always look for the consultant who has worked with companies in your field earlier. } Is the consultant a technocrat? } A MUST, in order to realize the true potential of the ISO standard, the consultant must be an engineer with management degree so that he / she can understand and analyse operational & commercial aspect of business process. } Is the consultant presentable, effective communicator and has good personality? } Very important as a lot of “One Hat Fits All” & “Cut – Copy – Paste” type of so called ISO consultants have none of the above and they don’t look like a professional who you can trust to drive your project. Make sure you meet the consultant himself who will work on your project and never take a decision without meeting and knowing the consultant himself / herself. } Does the consultant only talks about ISO certification? } IMMEDIATELY REJECT THAT CONSULTANT as aim of ISO certification is to bring in process improvement, ISO certification should be the by product of the process standardization and operational improvement activities. Only good consultant can make this happen, One Hat Fits All” & “Cut – Copy – Paste” type of so called ISO consultants can no do this as they don’t have any knowledge on process improvement and so talks only about ISO certification. } Ask the consultant to elaborate on documentation by taking some example. } An experienced and competent consultant will give you an example specific and related to your organization on the basis of information he/she might have gathered during your conversation. “One Hat Fits All” & “Cut – Copy – Paste” type of so called ISO consultants will fumble and will not have specific example and will quote something unrelated or vague } Does the consultant says that he will give you some readymade templates and asks you to fill some data into it to complete the project fast? } IMMEDIATELY REJECT THAT CONSULTANT as ISO certification is not just about documentation but process improvement. ISO documentation is to be developed specific to the business processes of an organization and only competent consultant can do that to enable organization true benefits of process standardization. } Does the consultant insist / recommend to get certified from some / few certification bodies only? } IMMEDIATELY REJECT THAT CONSULTANT as these are unethical consultants who does not have sufficient knowledge for effective system implementation and has back-door informal tieups with a few less reputed & lesser known certification bodies to get your ISO audit done without proper system implementation. You must select the certification body yourself after exploring all the options and take input from the consultant if required. } Does the consultant suggest to forge records or prepare back dated records for the ISO audit purpose ? } AVOID SUCH CONSULTANTS as these kind of consultants are very dangerous who play with your money, time, market reputation and resources. They preach and initiate a wrong trend in the organization just to satisfy the ISO auditor (That too a majority of times the auditors find out and you as an organization suffer) that proves suicidal for the growth and market image of the company. Summary:- Don’t select a consultant who just talks about documentation and not process standardization or process improvement, who is reluctant to work with top notch certification bodies or certification bodies you suggest and is comfortable with a few lesser known & less reputed certification bodies and might outsource work to somebody else due to lack of his/her domain specific knowledge and expertise. |
