Becoming ISO certified is not as complicated as some may think, but it does take time and dedication. In fact, many companies will contract support services that do training or consulting to help them through the ISO certification process. However, some companies find, after reviewing the ISO requirements, their company is already compliant with many of the requirements. The initial outlay of time and money can sometimes appear large, but in the long run, they will find that the savings and cost effectiveness will save money.

The first step you can take in becoming ISO certified is to call a management company that will take you through each step of the process. They can talk with you to ascertain where you are in the process, and what it is that you need. They may ask you:

?Have you developed a quality management manual?

?Have you set up a core team for your ISO to develop your management system?

If you are not able to answer these questions, or have not completed these steps yet, they will refer you to someone to help you with system support. There are systems support specialists that are experts in facilitating the clients progress in developing and maintaining their system.

System support services can do a pre-audit of your system. Consultants call it a gap audit or gap analysis. They are looking for gaps in your management system to see how much you have in place versus what is lacking. Once that is done, they will come in and do training with your core personnel to teach them about ISO.

System support can help develop and build your quality management system and procedures. Then they will train internal personnel to do internal audits, or if the personnel are not available, they will schedule to do these audits themselves on a periodic schedule prior to each certification or surveillance audit. The key is to make sure that a full system internal audit has been completed along with a management review. This is required prior to a registration audit or surveillance audit. Some smaller companies will hire system support services to continue to perform internal audits for the company after they are registered.

Once the manuals are done, processes are documented, and people trained, the company will contact a registrar to schedule their audit.