In recent years it has become increasingly crucial to be able to stand out from the competition in the international marketplace. For this reason, an added value on which enterprises should focus these days is certainly company and product certification. A guarantee of quality that positively influences the relationship and builds confidence with customers and also becomes vital for relations with Public Administration, which more and more often considers certification mandatory to participate in public tenders.
The award of a certification to a product or company is an acknowledgment that the creation, application and maintenance of a Company System is compliant with specific reference standards, valid internationally. The most authoritative organization in the world on the subject is the International Organization for Standardization of which we all know the acronym ISO. These certifications take special care in the process of certifying the compliance of the company with evaluation criteria aimed at establishing the presence of specific elements within the company processes.
Keeping all ISO certifications in mind would be impossible, given that it is a set of hundreds of elements; for the sake of simplicity, let’s try to mention the main ones with their field of application:
- ISO 9001: synonym for quality and continuous improvement, it ensures the adoption of a structured and systematic approach to quality management that optimizes processes, thus improving customer satisfaction and ensuring operational efficiency and competitive advantages;
- ISO 14001: focused on environmental management, it highlights the importance of adopting sustainable practices to reduce the environmental impact of business activities, promoting in this way an environmentally responsible and sustainable approach;
- ISO 27001: in an era where data is a valuable asset and protection of the same is crucial, ISO 27001 certification ensures information security. It guarantees that the company adequately protects sensitive data, maintaining trust and credibility with customers and business partners;
- ISO 50001: it sets the requirements for energy management systems (EnMS) within organizations. Its main objective is to help companies continuously improve their energy efficiency, reduce costs, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
Alongside a competitive advantage and the possibility of participating in public and private tenders, the value of the certifications lies mainly in the internal improvement path that the company undertakes. The management can acquire a deeper awareness of the company’s operations and for all the staff, the certification becomes an opportunity to implement procedures considered valid and improvements that they never had time to apply. As a gradual process, the company embarks on a path of improvement that leads it to grow with synergy following the standards required internationally. From a substantial point of view, this improvement can translate into a reduction in the risk of not respecting what is promised to customers and in the ability to keep processes under control by measuring performance and identifying adequate key performance indicators.
The certifications that play an important role in our sector of competence are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 27001, with particular reference to extensions 27017 and 27018: company quality, environmental management and information security with particular attention to the cloud environment.
The reflections you have just read are those that led us to embark on our certification journey starting in 2020. We achieved the certifications we targeted: ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 (with extensions 27017 and 27018).
These certifications are not mere attestations, but reflect a continuous commitment to improvement, sustainability and safety. Investing in ISO certifications means investing in the future of the company, ensuring sustainable and responsible growth. Therefore, we consider these certificates as a good starting point to guarantee our customers products and processes of increasingly high quality.
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