Background: The ISO 9001 is an international standard for Quality Management System (QMS). In order to be certified as an ISO, a company must maintain the standards set forth by the QMS. Achieving this standard helps companies focus on customer requirements, improving leadership within the company and grow as an organisation. Navneet Dhiman in his previous article shared the benefits of registration under the Startup India initiative. In this article he explains the top five reasons your company should be ISO certified.

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) created the ISO 9000 series of family. Originally introduced in the year 1987 but adopted by nearly 178 different countries, over the years, as a mark of standard to measure companies.

The following are the obsolete ISO 9000 quality standards:

• ISO 9001:1994 - This is the standard for quality assurance in design, development, production, installation, and servicing. This standard is applicable for companies and organisations whose activities include the creation of new products.
  
  
• ISO 9002:1994 - This model is for quality assurance in production, installation, and servicing and had basically the same set of regulations as ISO 9001 but without covering the creation of new products.
  
  
• ISO 9003:1994 - This regulation is a quality assurance and final inspection of finished products, without any restriction on the process of production.
  
  

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All of these were combined into ISO 9001:2000, which was later updated to ISO 9001:2008 and is now ISO 9001:2015.

Wondering why is it so important to get an ISO 9001 certification?

1. Meet customer requirements: Today, an ISO 9001 certification is a must for customers looking to purchase services from a company. A continued customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of the QMS.  Hence businesses willing to retain their customers and benefit in the long run must get an ISO 9001 certification.

2. Get more revenues: Once you earn your ISO 9001 certification, you can advertise your quality certification and respond to requests for quotes (RFQ) from companies that make ISO 9001 certification a ‘must-have’.

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3. Improve company and product quality: A QMS is all about quality (really!) so, of course, one result of adopting a QMS should be an improved level of quality for the entire organisation. Your employees will have a clear expectation and the required tools to do their job better. The ISO 9001 certification also requires companies to have regular audits to check their quality processes. This helps the company focus on their long term goals.

4. Achieve international quality recognition: As discussed earlier, ISO 9001 is a worldwide standard administered by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), based in Switzerland. ISO 9001 is currently in use by over one million organisations around the world! It is truly a worldwide standard for quality! Obtaining ISO 9001 certification puts your company in a very select group.

5. Increase customer satisfaction: When you have an ISO 9001 certification, all your products are bound to meet the standards as desired by your customers. Hence, along with international quality recognition, you can also earn the badge of trust from your customer which at the end of the day is the most important factor in any business.

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