After over 15 years of ISO consulting, clearly we need a re-birth, now we are a new breed of consultants dedicated to customer performance improvements rather than system
establishment .

It came as a shock to us to be informed by UKAS (The UK Accreditation Service) that ISO 9000 consultants are people who implement ISO 9000. We no longer just put the System (ISO 9000, TS 16949, ISO 14000, OHSAS 18000, SA 8000 etc.) but as a facilitator - someone to facilitate the conversion of their international standard requirements into a dynamic, value adding management system that deliver business outputs.

The message that we conveyed is that, say, the quality management system is that part of your overall management system that delivers business outputs - so lets start by examining your business processes then, if necessary we can consult the standard to see if we have missed anything. This opens up the field of management system consultancy.

Organizations may need help in marketing, process management, human resource management, problem solving and a whole range of subjects. The new regime focuses on the business results that an effective QMS would deliver, not on the certificate. We are conversant with critical success factors, performance indicators and performance measurement.

We are more focused on business performance than conformance to standards. The standard requires organizations to measure, monitor and analyze their business processes. Requirements for the setting of objectives, for planning to meet these objectives, for determination of system effectiveness and for monitoring of customer satisfaction all change the focus of the standard from conformance to performance. The QMS has to deliver results and our consultants understand how such systems can be re-engineered to deliver business results if they are to provide added value to our clients.