In layman’s terms, ISO standards are internationally agreed by experts from around the world. They called it a ‘friendship of equals’ amongst their founding members.
And we can think of ISO as a formula that describes the best way of doing something.
ISO standards help organisations to benchmark on how they deliver services, measure service levels, and assess their performance. It is continuous, and it is about how standards are maintained and improved upon on an ongoing basis.
It is a pledge for an organisation to make, to indicate their serious approach and philosophy to delivering the best service possible for clients.
What about ITSOL and ISO?
As part of our long term commitment, we are looking at getting on board on this substantial journey of attaining ISO accreditation.
We are in it for the long term as an outsourced IT partner to our valued clients. And this is yet another worthwhile way of demonstrating our promises and obligations for the whole of our IT and service offering.
What is ISO?
It’s all in the name – ISO – International Organisation for Standardisation. ISO has different acronyms for different languages, so, in 1946, the founders decided to give it the short form ISO. This is derived from the Greek ‘isos’, meaning equal. So, whatever the country, whatever the language, they are known worldwide as ISO.
It could be about making a product, managing a process, delivering a service or supplying materials – standards cover a huge range of processes and activities.
Standards are the distilled wisdom of people with expertise in their subject matter and who know the needs of the organisations they represent – people such as manufacturers, sellers, buyers, customers, trade associations, users or regulators.
Who runs ISO?
ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organisation with a membership of 167 national standards bodies. They are based in Switzerland.
Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.
Are there ISO standards specifically for Information Technology and Services?
Yes. In fact, in total, there are over 22,000 different types of ISO across the whole spectrum. Part of these are for Services, Quality Management, Information Security Management, and Information Technology – to name a few.
There are key ISO standards that are most popular with certain sectors, and they are continuously reviewed and updated to meet any of today’s emerging challenges.
We would seek to embark on ISO standards specifically linked to our greater Information Technology and Managed IT Services package. This will further enhance the already significant service and tech standards we imbue as our company philosophy and as a way of operating, and that our clients already enjoy.
ISO standards in the tech sector are aplenty.
But using them also enable organisations to manage the security of any kind of digital information; and assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted by third parties.
This is particularly important in the industry sectors we serve, such as financial services, manufacturing, amongst others.
Why ISO Certification?
Some organisations choose to implement ISO standards in order to benefit from the best practice it contains. While there are others would like to get certified to reassure customers and clients that its recommendations are being followed.
At a time when more of us are connected and working remotely than ever before, it’s good to know that there are people keeping our activities secure with ISO standards.
We’ll keep you posted on our progress. In the meantime, we continue to work with our valued clients in a spirit of ‘friendship of equals’ and deliver to our own very high standards that we set for ourselves here at ITSOL.