ISO 9001 is an international quality standard developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), a worldwide federation of national standards bodies representing 130 countries. ISO 9001 can be applied to any type and size of organisation, from small family-run businesses to the world's largest corporations and government institutions. It provides a structured yet flexible framework for a customer focused business management system that will drive business performance improvement. It is estimated that over one million ISO 9001 certificates have been issued to organisations in private and public sectors, in manufacturing and services, and in 170 countries.
ISO 9001 is based on eight quality management principles, which are incorporated within the requirements of the standard, and can be applied to improve organisational performance:
* Customer focus
* Leadership
* Involvement of people
* Process approach
* System approach to management
* Continual improvement
* Factual approach to decision making
* Mutually beneficial supplier relationships
The standard covers all aspects of an organisation's activities, including identifying its key processes, defining roles and responsibilities, policies and objectives, documentation requirements, the importance of understanding and meeting customer requirements, communication, resource requirements, training, product and process planning, design processes, purchasing, production and service, monitoring and measurement of products and processes, customer satisfaction, internal audit, management review, and improvement processes.
In the past, many organisations initially implemented ISO 9001 because they had to. Either their customers demanded it, or their competitors had done so, making it imperative that they do the same to stay competitive. As time went by, however, these companies soon realised that ISO 9001 gave them many significant and noticeable benefits. For management, an important benefit has always been improved financial performance. Many studies have shown that companies implementing a quality management system have realised cost savings through improved process effectiveness and efficiency. In addition to benefiting the bottom line, companies also realise many other advantages, including improved employee and customer satisfaction, resulting from better-defined and implemented business processes.
A new edition of ISO 9001 has been approved and issued: this is known as ISO 9001:2008. MyVoip Communications (MVC) is proud to be one of the first organisations to be accredited on the new standard during December 2008. ISO 9001:2008 will be the fourth edition of the standard, which was first published in 1987.
MyVoip Communications (MVC) is a 100% HDI-owned corporation with a BEE Level Three Compliance Certificate from Empowerdex. Its consultants have extensive experience in developing solutions across the entire it development cycle. MVC specialises in cost-effective, universal open source technologies using various development tools and languages, and specialises in bespoke Java development. MyVoip is managed by a number of industry specialists that are able to address all of the various requirements of design, construction, modification, delivery, integration, training, roll out and implementation of all aspects of solution design, construction and delivery.
The speed within which MVC qualified and was accredited bears testimony to the fact that it has always prided itself on well documented processes. This is one of the reasons that MVC is able to deliver on time, within budget and compliant with specifications. Given the fact that this is problematic in the IT industry, the accreditation is one further proof and reason that MVC is a “quality driven organisation”.
Share
