KEMA awards ISO 9001 certification to EvoSwitch
Posted on: 06-02-2008
‘ISO 14001 (environment) is the next step’
EvoSwitch, the Dutch carrier neutral data centre that operates environmentally neutral has been awarded ISO 9001 certification by KEMA. “The right first step towards ISO 14001 certification,” according to KEMA.
EvoSwitch has definitely moved past the start-up phase, now that it has obtained ISO 9001 certification. “Ever since the opening of EvoSwitch in April 2007, we have organised our processes in a professional manner,” states Laurens Rosenthal, Innovation Director at EvoSwitch. “The current ISO certification confirms the high quality of our processes and the endorsement of an inspection and certification body such as KEMA.”
ISO 27001, 9001 and 14001
In November 2007, EvoSwitch was already awarded ISO 27001 certification for information protection. Rosenthal: “The current ISO 9001 certification shows that our general operational processes such as sales, operational management and support are also of high quality. Our next aim is ISO 14001 certification. Naturally, we are already very environmentally friendly. We have invested in energy–saving cooling systems. We already save 20 percent on our energy consumption and use green energy, but it is rewarding to receive this quality confirmation from an independent accreditation body.”
Specific environmental requirements
“The step towards ISO 14001 is the next logical step for EvoSwitch,” claims Bas Kruimer, who is responsible for worldwide ISO certification at KEMA. “ISO 14001 builds on ISO 9001, with a number of specific additional organisational requirements related to the environment.”
Otherwise, ISO 14001 does not specify how environmentally friendly an organisation should be. It does provide information about general organisational measures taken to be able to operate environmentally friendly and to work in accordance with environmental legislation. Kruimer: “At EvoSwitch we noticed that serious and structured measures were implemented to operate environmentally friendly. Together with the obtained ISO 9001 certification, and the structured approach, we are well positioned to obtain environmental certification.”
Deming philosophy
The processes at EvoSwitch were already well organised because we started at an early stage by establishing a management document in co-operation with LKC Beheer & Inspectie (a branch of Klaver Giant Groep, www.giant.nl). The Deming philosophy on which ISO 9001 is based: plan, do, check, act was used for the document. This is a model for the continuous improvement of quality.
Bottom-up processes
“Our employees developed the processes themselves,” states Rosenthal. “LKC Beheer & Inspectie examined these processes in detail and removed the bottlenecks. The employees were then asked how they could improve the bottlenecks. We worked from the bottom to the top, and not with a design team that imposed certain processes on the organisation. This has allowed us to interweave the quality guidelines with the actual used method. By placing the responsibility at lower levels in the organisation, employees are more committed to the organisation. It becomes their process, their organisation. The certification procedure took 3 months, while it normally takes at least half a year. They made sure that we could rapidly complete the ISO 9001 procedure.”
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