If you are looking to bid for and win tenders, then ISO certification will have significant impact on your ability to be adopted as a supplier – especially if you are bidding for work in the Public Sector. The question is, which standards are the most accepted and pertinent to your type of organisation, and are they necessary to win bids?
Whilst successive Governments have promised to streamline the tendering processes to make them consistent across local, regional and government departments, in reality this hasn’t happened; so if you are bidding for government work, then certification will help make your job easier.
In the private sector too, requirements vary considerably. The safe option is to assume that certification will be important as part of any Invitation to Tender (ITT) or Pre-Qualification Process (PQQ), particularly when dealing with larger clients.
What are the most common standards to consider?
The most common standards used are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 27001. Recognised internationally, ISO 9001 is a catchall quality standard that sits at the heart or proving good business practice, consistency of service and that proper management systems are in place.
If you already have ISO 9001 Certification, then ISO 14001 will be familiar in terms of how it is structured and communicated, but depending on your type of organisation will be of lesser or greater importance in bidding for work. ISO 14001 focuses on demonstrating green credentials and shows that you are measuring and controlling your impact on the environment, particularly with regard to reducing CO2 in a post global warming world.
If security is a priority, then ISO 27001 may be a prerequisite. Since publication in 2005, ISO 27001 has become a key component in many tenders, covering all aspects of security for physical location of hardware through employees, the public, premises and data.
Similar in structure to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, ISO 27001 is now a global standard recognised by Governments and adopted by some of the largest organisations in the world, but is equally relevant to a small business.
In the same way that ISO 14001 is becoming increasingly important for an organisation where environmental impact needs to be demonstrably controlled, ISO 27001 is designed to give clients confidence that security, including their information, will be handled effectively.
While not one of the more common standards used, the OHSAS 18001, the standard for health and safety management, aligned with ISO 14000 and ISO 9000, is becoming increasingly important, and is recognised globally as the premier occupational health and safety standard.
OHSAS 18001 focuses specifically on the need to control health and safety performance, particularly with regard to having in place robust occupational safety management systems.
Making it easier to bid for and win business
The ISO standards benefit an organisation in two ways, firstly in bench marking how they run their business, enabling them to optimise performance and bid for work they might otherwise fail to qualify for. Secondly, they make the job of tendering easier and faster, as having the right certifications can mean a raft of questions in bid documents can be answered simply by ticking the right box.