There are five elements of customer service: Responsiveness, Knowledge, Integration, Resourcefulness and Dedication. Successful performance of any organisation calls for maintenance of highest level of quality through proper instruction and vigilant monitoring that helps it to identify errors, improve performance and evaluate training deficiencies. The solution requires fitting together human and technical resources into a unique program that gets customers the information they seek for – when and how they like to have it. ISO Certification provides a stable platform that is internationally recognized and serves as a distinctive competitive advantage for an organization.
?| What is ISO 9000? ISO 9000 series of standards relate to Quality Management System (QMS). It requires the organization to establish & maintain the document “Quality Manual” as a means of ensuring product/services conformances to specified requirements and improve continually. The ISO 9000 standards are thus significantly different from normal engineering standards, which typically focus on product or material. Instead, ISO 9000 attempts to standardize all the business processes emphasizing continual improvement. The standard includes a number of “good practices” which must be followed to ensure the effectiveness of the quality system.
?| Advantages of ISO 9000 Adopting ISO 9000 standard offers a number of advantages to all the stakeholders including suppliers, customers, employees etc. The customer feels more confident about the quality assurance system used by his supplier through visibility & verifiability based on documented quality system. The standard contributes effectively in reducing quality cost thus enhancing profit and also leads to an enhancement in the productivity of the employees. In addition, it brings a positive charge in the work culture of an organization.
Features of ISO 9000 Standard ? The standard is not a product standard but a quality management system standard. ? It has been produced by people who were conversant with the problems and failures in the industry and also the requirements of the quality system. ? The various clauses of the standard specify the requirements for quality system management, in an objective manner. ? ISO 9001:2000 is used for contractual situations (2nd/3rd party assessment). The organisation meets the requirements of ISO 9001: 2000 for registration or certification that can be obtained from authorized bodies. ? The standard gives only the basic guidelines. The company or organizations have to establish their own rules and procedures. The rules and procedures will depend on the objective and quality policy of the organization. ? The standard has found wide spread acceptance. ? The philosophy of ISO 9000 is to provide a system, which is transparent, preventive and promises continual improvement of quality of product/services or system as a whole.
?| Structure of ISO 9000 The latest ISO 9000 series of standards were published in 2000. The related standards in quality management include : ISO 9000:2000 - Quality Management Systems- Fundamentals and Vocabulary ISO 9001:2000 - Quality Management Systems - Requirements ISO 9004:2000 - Quality Management Systems- Guidelines for performance improvements ISO 10011-1 : 1991 - Guidelines for auditing Quality System (Part 1 : Auditing) ISO 10011-2 : 1991 - Guidelines for auditing Quality System (Part 2 : Qualification Criteria for Quality System) MODEL OF A PROCESS-BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ISO 10011-3 : 1991 - Guidelines for auditing Quality System (Part 3 : Management of Quality Programs) ISO 10011-1,2,3 have now been replaced by single standard ISO 19011 published in 2002 (Auditing standard for Quality Management System and Environmental Management System)
?| ISO 9001:2000 and NIC Starting as a small programme under an external stimulus by an UNDP project, NIC has grown incrementally and later exponentially as one of India’s major S&T Organization promoting “Informatics-led Development”, which has helped to usher in the required transformation to cope with the trends in the new millennium. Today, NIC is ready to offer ICT consultancy services to other countries and to take up ICT projects on turnkey basis. Need has been felt to opt for ISO 9000 kind of Certification that will provide NIC the required recognition at the international level as well as the capability to compete globally with other ICT solution providers. Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in October, 2002, NIC has appointed Standardization, Testing & Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate, an attached office of Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology as a consultant for its ISO 9001:2000 Certification Process. STQC has been set up as a premier Institution to provide quality assurance & certification support in the field of Electronics and Information Technology. STQC has been providing a variety of internationally recognized certification services such as Quality Management System (ISO 9000), Environmental Management System (ISO 14000), Product Certification (Safety & EMI/EMC), Information Security System (BS 7799).
The scope of the MoU with STQC covers Quality Management System Certification support as per ISO 9000 Series of International Standards in NIC HQ including its units in different Ministries/ Departments/Organizations of Govt. of India, 28 State Units, 6 Union Territories, NCT as well as about 596 District Centres and its promotional units The activities would broadly cover: 1) Preparatory activities such as awareness training, documentation, internal quality audits training, guidance for preparing the quality manual and other documented system and association in initial internal quality audits / pre- assessment. 2) Certification activities such as document evaluation as per ISO 9000 standards, preliminary visit, certification audit and grant of certification. 3) Post Certification activities such as surveillance audits.
?| Current Status of Activities related to ISO 9001:2000 Certification Process in NIC ? NIC has signed an MOU with STQC Directorate in October, 2002 ? Awareness Programmes and Executive Briefings have been conducted for all the employees in NIC Headquarters, State Centres and District Centres. ? Review meetings are being held on the subject on a regular basis. ? Various Groups have been constituted to draft Quality Manuals and document various procedures as required under the process, and these groups are on the job. ? The Quality Policy and Quality Objectives have been prepared and documented. ? Currently Pre-Certification activities are in progress viz. preparation of Quality Manual, Project Life Cycle Document, template for SRS, documentation of various technical procedures practiced in NIC etc. ? Audit Process for Certification will start once the documentation is in place and approved by the NIC management. Draft versions of documents have been made available on IntraNIC (http:// intranic.nic.in), the Intranet portal of NIC for the access of NIC officers / officials through which, useful comments are being received for the further enhancement of the documents.
Quality Policy National Informatics Centre is committed to meet and exceed customer requirements by providing Quality and Reliable ICT Services and Global Solutions. For this, We shall continually improve our Processes through a team of Competent Professionals, Adoption of Appropriate Technologies, Use of International Standards and Best Practices.
The progress of adoption of ISO 9000 in India was in low key, initially. Of late, there has been increased enthusiasm for ISO 9000. In fact the stakes are higher for Indian organizations. Given the direction in which the Indian economy is proceeding in terms of liberalization, international trade & business, Indian organizations will be facing world competition on their own soil. In such a case, quality improvement through total quality efforts & ISO 9000 will be a strong competitive weapon for NIC. The ISO 9000 standards will help NIC in generating confidence through Transparency & Competence. For further information, please write to sbanerjee@hub.nic.in