One of the many questions being faced by organisations today as budgets and manpower are squeezed, is whether the time and costs involved with attaining standards is time well spent or does it just become another “Investment in Paper” with no actual return?

eacs is extremely proud of our achievements, none more so than having been recognised by an independent third party as a Centre of Excellence in regard to our business practices. We are fully committed to continue to deliver excellence which is highlighted by our extensive range of ISO Certifications.

We will not be resting on our laurels though in our drive to be able to deliver the level of service our customers deserve. Looking ahead, work has already started on adding a 7^th Certification – ISO20000 (International IT Service Management) which we hope to attain by the end of 2020. 

So what has driven us to spend what from the outside may look to be an inordinate amount of time and money on what some people may consider to be “just a piece of paper”? Well the ongoing COVID challenges has reinforced to me the importance of why we did what we did.

Following a request from our Management Board, I was asked to research the certifications and/or standards that would be of most benefit to eacs from both a business and staff perspective. Following lots of discussion internally, it was clear that the modern client and supplier is looking for that additional bit of confidence in not only a company’s ability to deliver great service but also analyses HOW they actually go about delivering it and perhaps more importantly, CAN they continue to deliver it is times of crisis?

eacs successfully attained ISO22301 Business Continuity last year and this has proven to be a real benefit to us as a business.  Having gone through the rigorous auditing and testing process to actually attain the certification we were confident in the processes and plans we had put in place. As a consequence as soon as “lock-down” was announced we were able to quickly and effectively implement our BC Plan and move seamlessly from having 25% of our staff working remotely to over 98% inside of 48 hours with no impact on operational or customer service levels. A timescale we potentially wouldn’t have been able to achieve had we need not made the decision to go down the route we did.

The whole principle of actually doing what you say you can do is tested when you go down the certification path, but only really comes to the fore when you have to do it anger. Demonstrating to knowledgeable, independent external third parties how you go about it underscores that you are a professional, capable business who incorporates and follows recognised best practices in every aspect of its operations.

In summary, I understood there were external benefits, but for me the benefits to be had internally are much more important. Having taken the company through its recertification program for our existing ISO certifications, it showed me that it was a great opportunity for us as a business to review the processes, procedures and policies which were in place to ensure that they, and as a result eacs, remained at the forefront of current industry best practices. 

Achieving accreditations though is not the end of a journey, it is actually the start of one. We feel that the investments and focus we make now will future proof our business operations and drive a culture of continual improvement and assessment across our growing teams.

So in answer my initial question, in my experience standards when planned and executed correctly can prove to be an invaluable tool for all businesses providing they are both relevant and appropriate to you. How many you need, well that is up to you. As the saying goes – you can never have too much of a good thing!

eacs can talk you through the options. Whether you are already using Configuration Manager, or you are on a journey towards a cloud-based device management product, eacs can find the optimum solution for your IT organisation. For more information or to talk with one of our specialists, contact eacs by either emailing information@eacs.com or calling 0800 8047 256.