One of the best ways to evaluate the standing of a language service provider (LSP) is to ask if it has an ISO certification.
ISO STANDARDS – The ISO ‘family of standards’ are designed to test and accredit a company’s quality management system (QMS). The ISO 9001 standard is a globally recognised quality assurance. As a third-party certification, it authenticates a supplier’s adherence to a well-identified, well-defined, well-documented set of quality procedures which facilitate the delivery of products and services.
In brief, a company which has been awarded the ISO 9001 has demonstrated four fundamental commitments:
– that no-one use a bad product - that bad products be handled appropriately - that problems be dealt with at the root - that records be kept as a tool to continue improving the system
The ISO 9001:2000 is the definitive version of the benchmark. It focuses above all on process management, and considers a company as a whole, as a sort of nexus of flows and processes, all of which must be optimised both individually and in relation to each other.
These processes are in a variety of categories, including management commitment to quality, orientation towards the customer, adequacy of available resources, employee abiltiy, product design, review of incoming orders, monitoring of processes and calibration of techniques used to do so, and corrective and preventive actions.
Importantly, an ISO certification also requires companies to solicit and respond to customer feedback.
Continue reading ISO 9001 Standards and Translation
