Now that your organisation is VAT-ready, you might want to think about getting up to snuff regarding some other common standards. Many clients look for organizations that meet specific professional standards regarding how client information and in-house processes are managed. And they don’t want to just take your word for it, they need proof.
Globally some of the key certifications include ISO 9001/ISO 27001. These certifications mark your organization as worthy of trust, as certified by a third party.
There’s a growing need for organizations to be certified under one or both of these compliance standards, but getting certified is difficult, expensive and time-consuming.
What is ISO 9001/ISO 27001?
These are compliance standards most often used to ensure that organizations are meeting standards. These paired standards are a set of protocols that organizations follow to maintain the quality of their work product (ISO 9001) and ensure that the organization’s digital data is handled securely (ISO 27001).
To be certified as IS0 9001-compliant, organizations must demonstrate a clear and effective method for controlling the quality of their work product. This system must consistently provide quality output, meeting or exceeding both customer and regulatory requirements. If an organization receives an ISO 9001 certification, they have proven they have the protocols in place for a sound, quality-driven process.
ISO 27001-compliant organizations have been proven to meet information security management requirements, safeguarding data with rigorous, specific protocols to ensure safety. This includes attributes like appropriate user control, password management, application and operating system control, network security and registration and management all digital assets.
The two compliance standards work in tandem to ensure that organizations have sufficient processes and organizational standards to successfully meet client expectations, both on the quality of the product delivered and the security maintained while performing services.
How Managed Services Can Help
There’s a growing need for organizations to be certified under one or both of these compliance standards, but getting certified is difficult, expensive and time-consuming.
Even organizations doing everything correctly have to collect and codify their standards through a rigorous self-audit, a detailed and time-intensive process.
If your organization doesn’t meet compliance goals alone, you can work with suppliers that are already certified as standard compliant. By working with managed service providers that are already ISO 9001/ISO 27001-compliant, organizations can “piggyback” off their managed providers’ certification, jump-starting their own process.
If your organization’s IT services are handled by a managed service provider that’s already ISO 27001-compliant, you can reap the benefits of compliance without the difficult and time-consuming work of creating your own compliant systems from scratch.
For example, many organizations fail certification because they lack a meaningful disaster recovery plan. By working with IT service providers with a certified DRaaS plan, you can reap the benefits of the provider’s certification without creating a certified plan yourself. Provided you integrate the certified DRaaS process in to your own workflows, you’ll be able to use their certification to bolster your own.
Becoming compliant with ISO 9001/ISO 27001 demonstrates your commitment to standards and security to clients. It’s a valuable step for your business, and sometimes a mandatory one for working with certain clients.
To know more about BIOS's ISO certifications, click here
