Beyond The Standard

Douglas Stafford achieves international quality management standard.

Douglas Stafford, a company whose services include mystery shopping, has attained ISO 9001:2008 in recognition of its quality management systems (QMS). The internationally recognised standard was achieved through Certification International.

Douglas Stafford has worked with large blue chip companies across a broad range of consumer markets for more than 20 years, delivering performance improvement programmes which help them measure, understand and improve their customers’ retail experiences. These are achieved through highly cost-effective mystery shopping and customer surveys, and are supported by industry-leading training programmes and processes that are proven to improve standards of customer service. In achieving ISO 9001:2008, it ensures first class quality management systems are in operation throughout Douglas Stafford’s operations and that these systems are monitored and maintained for future improvement.

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Certification International, a leader in the field of assessment and certification of international, national and industry standards, has incorporated a new auditing software system – Exero Beyond – into its assessment processes.

Exero Beyond has been created to evaluate the compliance of an organisation’s management system against a range of standards, and it offers a pioneering approach to auditing. Certification International has introduced the system in order to advance the delivery of its third party certification services.

Exero Beyond collates input from all participants throughout an organisation without the disruption normally endured during traditional auditing. The multi-level system reports on all areas and processes within a company. In an organisation – where further investigation may be required – third party certification assessors can use this data to focus their onsite audit visit to target the areas and processes highlighted.

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Being ‘green’ and environmentally friendly is now expected of all companies as we have become more aware of the need for sustainable resources and the effects of pollution. Sadly though, many companies are still not doing enough and continue to make costly mistakes – costly in terms of both potential savings that could be made and cost to the environment too.   Energy and climate change legislation, for example, can be confusing for some companies and there is a high percentage who still do not realise that they pay a Climate Change tax for the energy they use – on top of the price they pay for the use of the energy. This is a shame because properly focused, costed and effectively implemented energy reduction initiatives can bring benefits both in terms of reduction of energy used and reduction in the climate change levy tax that needs to be paid. Also, there are specific grants available from central government to fund certain capital investment projects that meet the defined criteria for funding.

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Today care for the global environment has never been so important. It is not just about ‘being green’ and socially responsible but much more. It is about the long term sustainability of the planet we live on and it is good to see that after so many years governments and big corporate companies around the world have at last started to take such matters seriously.

The original concept for an environmental management system, or EMS, can be traced back to 1972, when the United Nations (UN) first organised a conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was also launched. These and other early initiatives led to the establishment of the “World Commission on Environment and Development” (WCED) and the adoption of the ‘Montreal Protocol’ and ‘Basel Convention’. It was the first Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio-de-Janeiro though, which first generated a global commitment to the environment.

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Hardly a week goes by without the media reporting another scare story or scandal relating to food safety.  Sometimes it’s a horror story about a food establishment breaking food storage and preparation rules leading to food poisoning – even restaurants owned by celebrity chefs, such as Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck, have hit the headlines – or it could be a new scientific finding about a particular food product that damages our health.

What is very clear is that after many years of bad press about food safety it is now something that is taken very seriously indeed.  We are proud that Certification International was one of the first UK certification bodies qualified to offer UKAS accredited certification services for the food safety management systems standard, ISO 22000:2005.  ISO 22000 certification demonstrates a commitment to food safety across the whole supply chain in order to deliver safe food products to the final consumer.

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Defining what is meant by the word “Quality” goes back a long way. Even Plato and Socrates spent a lot of their time discussing and debating this elusive term and I think they would be very surprised to learn that it is still debated today! And yet given how much we all talk about it, it’s surprising that there is still a lot of confusion about what quality actually is.

Seth Godin, one of the most successful and prolific “bloggers” working in the media today, has an interesting take on the whole subject of quality which is worth sharing. 

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During the last year at Certification International Bulgaria, we have seen many companies moving towards the integration of their existing management systems, particularly ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 27001:2005. This is a welcomed opportunity as Certification International has the ability to provide integrated audits covering quality and information security.

The process of integration usually leads to a reduction in audit time compared to the time required to carry out two separate audits and the organisation being audited only needs to arrange a single visit from Certification International personnel and auditors.

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Parkway, Newbury, a new shopping and residential development in the heart of the West Berkshire town, has secured certification to ISO 14001:2004, the internationally recognised environment management standard. The standard was awarded by Certification International – a UKAS accredited organisation providing assessment, analysis and certification services to companies of all sizes across a wide range of standards.

Parkway is a 475,000 sq ft mixed-use development owned by Standard Life Investments and is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle. The certification demonstrates its commitment to reducing its environmental impact. Jones Lang LaSalle manages many retail centres across the UK, and Parkway is just one of many to achieve ISO 14001 certification. The company is working with Certification International to roll out environmental certification across a number of other sites.

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Certification International, a leader in the field of assessment and certification services to internationally recognised standards, says figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)* show companies are taking health and safety seriously.

Certification International believes the ongoing falling trend in the number of people being injured or made unwell in the work place is due to organisations implementing occupational health and safety management systems and gaining certification to OHSAS 18001:2007 – a standard designed to clarify an organisation’s impact on health and safety issues.

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With greater emphasis being given to Business Continuity Management (BCM) systems, it is important for companies to identify potential incidents that threaten their organisation and put in place relevant systems which safeguard the interests of key stakeholders. This can easily be achieved through certification to SS 540:2008 and BS 25999. 

Certification International Singapore has provided auditing services to companies who wish to achieve certification to these standards since September 2010. It works with a network of experienced assessors, who have the required mix of industry knowledge and practical experience, to assist in providing assessment and certification based on SS540:2008 and BS 25999 standards.

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