How to choose an ISO consultant and certification body

Two different choices

You choose an implementation consultant to help you build the system, and a certification body to audit it. These are separate decisions with separate checks. Impartiality rules do not allow a certification body to provide management system consultancy to a client it certifies.

Choosing an implementation consultant

• Experience: has the consultant worked with businesses like yours, and who will actually do the work?
• Scope and deliverables: what you receive, what is excluded and what you must supply.
• No guarantees: nobody can promise a certificate before the audit. Treat "guaranteed certification" as a warning sign.
• References: ask for contactable clients and check them.
• Handover: can your team run the system after the project ends?
• Conflicts of interest: does the consultant have a relationship with the certification body they recommend?

Choosing a certification body

• Accreditation: ask which accreditation body accredited it. In India, check NABCB's directory of accredited bodies, or the equivalent national body for a foreign certification body.
• Scope: check that the accreditation covers your standard and your sector. Accreditation for one standard does not cover another.
• Customer acceptance: if a customer or tender requires a particular accreditation, confirm the certification body meets it before you commit.
• Certificate scope: confirm the wording of the scope that will appear on your certificate.
• Fees: ask for audit days, travel and surveillance audit fees in writing.

Red flags

• A certificate promised in days, or before any audit.
• A "100% guarantee".
• A price far below every other quote with no explanation.
• No way to verify the certification body's accreditation.
• A consultant and a certification body that share an owner or an address.

Verify a certificate

Ask the certification body to confirm the certificate, its scope and its expiry date. Check the certification body's accreditation with the accreditation body. ISO itself does not certify organisations.

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