• ISO is the recognised name for the International Organisation for Standardisation. It is not an acronym, it is derived from the Greek word ISOS, which means equal to, which suggests that all members of the organisation have an equal voice.
• ISO was founded in the 1940s and is a voluntary organisation which consists of multiple countries, where their standards division collaborates to discuss best practice standards.
• The Objective of ISO is to standardise standards globally, so as to ease trade and create a level of uniformity in conforming to best practice standards.
• There are over 26 000 different ISO standards ranging from Geometrical Specifications, Environmental, Textiles, Cabling, Quality, Safety and Health.
• Clients who require an ISO Certificate are looking for confidence and assurance your organisation is conforming to best practice standards and has the ability to deliver products and services to an optimum standard.

• Attaining an ISO certificate is not a membership you pay for, it is a process where you implement a Management System.
• A Management System comprises of Policies, Processes, Procedures, Work Instructions, Risk Assessments, Forms, Templates and records aligned to the standards requirements.
• Depending on the size of the organisation and its current conformance to the ISO Standard, an organisation will have to provide a minimum of 3 – 6 months of records to justify conformance to the standard.
• WWISE has assisted organisations from as short as 7 days to as long as 3 years, depending on the organisation’s size, the current conformance to standards, the commitment of management and the culture of the organisation.
• On Average WWISE can commit to assisting an organisation to conform to an ISO Standard within 3 months.

• Implementing an ISO Management System and conforming to the standard is tedious and challenging, the amount of work required to implement a system that works for the organisation requires careful understanding of the organisation’s culture.
• Once certification is attained approximately 55% of clients lose their certification in the first year of attaining it, due to failing to maintain the system. Some of the risks in the process of attaining certification includes losing the certification within the first year and losing credibility with clients because of it..
• The key to a successful management system is to document what the organisation does and to align the generic requirements of the standards to the organisation’s environment with appropriate documentation.

Any organisation wishing to become ISO certified, needs to implement and maintain an ISO Management System. The Steps that are recommended for an organisation to become ISO certified are as follows:

Step 1 – Gap Assessment

Why do organisations need gap assessments?

• To understand the organisation’s current conformance to the ISO Standard of their choice.
• To identify the relevant documentation and records the organisation might already have which are aligned to the standard and identify how to map it to the ISO Standard’s requirements.
• A gap assessment assists the organisation and WWISE to indicate the amount of work required to conform to the ISO standard and to comply to legal requirements.

What are the outputs of the Gap Assessment?

• A Gap Assessment report indicates the current conformance to the standard and the performance of its Management System.
• An obligation free proposal to assist the organisation in closing the identified gaps to conform to the standard with a task list/project plan for implementation and preparation for certification.