A study done between October 2010 and June 2011 focused on identifying the economic benefits of ISO standardization and revealed that the overall benefits from the use of standards can cause an increase of up to 4% in the annual sales revenues of companies.
According to Wikipedia; Standardization is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. While the International Standards Organization (ISO) only develops standards for which there is a clear market requirement; the work is carried out by experts in the subject drawn directly from the industrial, technical and business sectors that have identified the need for the standard, and which subsequently puts the standard to use. These experts may be joined by others with relevant knowledge, such as representatives of government agencies, testing laboratories, consumer associations and academia, and by international governmental and nongovernmental organizations. An ISO International Standard represents a global consensus on the state of the art performance in the subject of that standard.
There are 23,504 standards and they address almost every aspect of our daily life; economic, environmental and social. Many of the standards which focuses on work targets all levels of business whether large or small. Some of the popular and mostly required within the Nigeria industrial landscape includes;
| ISO 9001 | Quality Management System (QMS) |
| ISO 27001 | Information Security Management System |
| ISO 14001 | Environmental Management System |
| ISO 45001 | Occupational Health and Safety Management |
| ISO 22000 | Food Safety Management System |
| ISO 20000 | Information Technology Service Management System |
| ISO 13485 | Quality Management System for Medical Devices |
| ISO 17025 | Testing and Calibration Laboratories Management system |
| ISO 22301 | Business Continuity Management System |
ISO standards provide solutions and a strong foundation for operational growth, by helping to save time and reduce waste because of its ability to enact growth, profitability, and cost savings. The benefit of reducing waste also allows your workforce to be more efficient and establish ongoing Quality Management System (QMS) standards for improvement and sustainable customer success.
Possession of these international Standards by companies mean that consumers can have confidence in your services and that your products are safe, reliable and of good quality. At 21Search Limited, along with our local and international Partners we have executed +4,000 Standardization (training, audit and certification) Projects in over a dozen countries across different Standards.
We have set up a webinar for businesses to gather more knowledge on how to implement the ISO Standards in their companies. Register here.
Abidemi.