ISO & R2 Consulting Services

An ISO certification is an independent verification of your high quality and shows current and potential clients and customers that your organization is well structured, follows industry best practices, and is ready to scale.

Each ISO standard has unique benefits. For example:

• ISO 9001: indicates that you invest in quality management and provide customers with a quality product or service
• ISO 27001: proves you protect information and data
• ISO 14001: shows you work to reduce your environmental impact
• ISO 45001: demonstrates your commitment to protecting workers
• Responsible Recycling (R2): verifies your responsible management of used electronics

All ISO standards share the following benefits:

• Increased efficiency
• Reduced risk
• Lower insurance premiums
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Increased customer confidence

Earning and maintaining an ISO certification will help your organization attract new business from large, forward-looking companies and will establish systems that facilitate rapid growth.

ISO certification follows the same general process, regardless of the standard you are seeking. At a high level, you must:

1. Establish, implement and verify your ISO management system
2. Conduct stage one audit: internal documentation review
3. Contact stage two audit: a full system audit by certification body
4. Resolve any findings
5. Receive your certification
6. Maintain your system to pass surveillance and recertification audits

Earning your ISO or R2 certification can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. Certification requires you to show, through objective evidence, that you have an effective management system in place. The time it takes to become certified depends on a few factors, including:

• Whether you work with a consultant or pursue certification exclusively in-house
• Your consultant’s experience and qualifications (or lack thereof)
• The resources your team has available to support the process
• The standard’s requirement for how much evidence you need to support certification

If you work with an experienced, certified consulting partner, like Glacier Consulting, and are motivated to get certified quickly, you can complete the process in weeks. However, the process can take over a year and lead to a failed audit if you work with an inexperienced, part-time consultant or pursue certification independently and with limited capacity.

The certification consulting industry is unregulated, which means consultants are not required to be certified in order to advise clients. Many consultants throw documents and templates at you, then fail to help you implement their system or support you through the auditing process. This “document dump” approach puts the onus on you to complete the work – and often results in a failed audit.

If you need to get certified quickly and want to pass your audit the first time – with no major findings – don’t waste your time and money on “document dump” consultants. Thoroughly vet prospective clients by requesting:

• A copy of your consultant’s (or consultants’) certification(s)
• A detailed explanation of their experience
• A list of references (preferably those who work in your industry)