Eighteen months ago, we identified at Mannin a requirement for change, and we decided that those changes were going to be centred around our accreditation for ISO 9001 for Quality and ISO 14001 Environmental Awareness. There are UK based organisations that guide companies through these accreditation processes, but we decided, after speaking to Kevin and Gemma at ISO QA IOM, to retain them. The ISO processes, which were implemented by Kevin, were designed to work with our current production system and although the process of adopting ISO procedures was in some instances, hard to get to grips with, nothing was so difficult it couldn't be done. As Chief Executive at Mannin, I have to make decisions all the time about a huge number of different things. Implementing ISO procedures was one of the best decisions we have made, and appointing ISO QA IOM to implement the procedures was a brilliant choice. We were awarded our ISO certificates at our first attempt at accreditation. I doubt that would have happened had we not had Kevin and Gemma's guidance.

Earning ISO 9001 certification is a daunting challenge – we had been trying to settle on the best way to go about it for over a year. But we found the year long project much more straightforward because of the invaluable help we received from ISO QA Isle of Man. Without their assistance we would not have accomplished certification in such a short time. ISO QA helped us understand what was important, and what was not, greatly simplifying the task. Then they helped us lay out a plan. The regular meetings we had made sure that we made steady progress and got there – first try. They are friendly, positive and proactive and essential to our initial success with ISO 9001 and so we continue to use their services.

During the summer of 2016 Office World Limited embarked on a project to attain ISO 9001:2015 accreditation not only to enhance our client service and satisfaction levels but also ensure a best practice structure throughout all facets of our business. It was immediately apparent that we required specialist professional advice to implement this project efficiently. To that end we engaged local Manx Company ISO QA Isle of Man Limited as our professional partners to formulate both an action plan and devise implementation strategies to ensure our objectives were accomplished in a focused and structured manner. Their extremely knowledgeable and dedicated personnel worked very closely with us on site, first acquiring an in depth understanding of our Company, our systems and procedures with particular regard to the way we interfaced with our end user clients and equally as importantly, our suppliers, leaving no stone unturned. Once this exercise had been completed and documented in precise detail, we initiated an agreed comprehensive formal programme of improvement process which after our final on site audit by the independent World Certification Services inspector on 17th November 2016 culminated with full accreditation to the standard, our original objective successfully achieved. This achievement was not only as a result of our own staff endeavours but also in no small measure to those of ISO QA Isle of Man Limited personnel who initially precisely assessed the undertaking then meticulously mapped our course from start right the way through to the successful conclusion.