For most organisations who are looking to strengthen, expand, grow and develop their business, doing so will require obtaining new customers and strengthening relationships with existing clients. Success in tenders should be an essential part of your business strategy and having an ISO management system certification in place is a great way to increase your chances exponentially.
ISO standards exist to ensure that safety, quality and efficiency are maintained to the required standards of the industry which means that suppliers can be effectively measured and evaluated to verify compliance. ISO certification has become an increasingly common requirement during the tendering process throughout various industries, usually at the PQQ stage.
How Can ISO Certification Help The Tendering Process?
The tendering process itself can be extremely time consuming and complicated with many different steps and factors involved between application to procurement. Here are some of the problems that are often encountered during the tendering process and how ISO helps to alleviate these issues;
Issue – It can be difficult to effectively structure, format and put into words your tendering application document in a way that clearly explains how your business oversees its health and safety, delivers consistent levels of customer service or manages its environmental performance.
Solution – With ISO certification in place you already have a head start thanks to a properly implemented and well executed documented management system. Quite often, most of the required answers to tendering questions will already be documented such as – How does your organisation manage its subcontractors? How do you handle customer complaints?
Issue – Being able to provide good and relevant case studies with the necessary documentation, evidence and records to back it up.
Solution – When you have ISO certification in place there are proper processes to follow when it comes to documenting and maintaining records. This means that great case studies are always at the touch of your fingertips and can be pulled together quickly and efficiently to highlight and demonstrate your business in its best light. This is a really important part of the tendering process and having records that are properly completed, up to date and filed correctly can make all the difference.
Issue – For some tenders ISO certification to certain standards can be a pre-requisite, especially within certain industries. This can mean that your bid is rejected or that you are deemed ineligible early on in the process, quite often at the PQQ stage. If allowed to continue to bid without ISO certification, it will be incredibly difficult to prove that against accredited competitors you have the equivalent standards in place and that they are of equal calibre.
Solution – With ISO certification it couldn’t be simpler. This gold standard of quality is internationally recognised, and you merely need to present your accreditation documents to clearly demonstrate your organisations competence.
What ISO Standards Can Help You Win Tenders?
The type of ISO standard that is most beneficial to an organisation will depend on a number of factors such as the industry or sector their business is based and in what areas would improvements be most valuable to the employees, customers and shareholders.
If you are unsure of what standard is most relevant and best suited to your organisation, professional ISO certification consultants can assess your needs and help to determine which ISO certification would benefit your business.
ISO 9001 – Quality
Considered the ‘core standard’ ISO 9001 is quite often required during the PQQ for a lot of tendering and is a great way of increasing your chances of success. This international standard for quality is relevant across all industries and focuses on delivering consistent, high quality customer service, streamlining processes and the overall progression of the business.
ISO 14001 – Environmental
This crucial standard provides the vital structure and framework that organisations need to recognise, regulate and manage their impact on the environment across crucial areas such as processes, goods, products and services. The many benefits aside from improved chances of success when tendering include
reduced costs, improved corporate image and improved compliance amongst other things.
ISO 45001 – Health & Safety
Due to government initiatives from recent years it is being seen more frequently that more points are being awarded to organisations that hold Environmental and Health & Safety certifications which in turn positively impacts tendering success.
This important standard provides the structure, information and guidance that businesses need to be able to implement a more proactive approach to identifying potential issues before they become a problem and resolving them quickly and efficiently. Having ISO 45001 certification in place benefits organisations by creating a safer working environment for employees, reducing work related injuries and illnesses, increasing productivity and enhancing their corporate reputation.
At JR Consultants we are often contacted by clients who have applied for a tender, stating that they are working towards their ISO certification. Then when they win the tender, there is a rush to try and implement it as soon as possible. Our ISO consultants can provide a letter of intent to clearly demonstrate that you are working towards the chosen standard and are on the path to certification.
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