Does it really make sense to get certified to three standards at a time? Yes! That’s the resounding experience of our team at ATC Certification. Many of our language service company clients are certified, and get audited to, ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 17100 for translation services, and ISO 18587 for machine translation post-editing – at the same time, with the same auditor, at a fraction of the cost of doing separate certifications.
How do 9001 and 17100 work together?
ISO 9001 is the world’s most well-known quality management standard. At a language service company, it is usually implemented at operations level, to demonstrate the company’s ability to consistently provide services that meet client and regulatory requirements, and to improve customer satisfaction through an effective application of a quality management system, and continuous development.
ISO 9001 is often the standard that language service companies’ clients recognise the best. But it’s not specific to language services, and that’s why many companies also need (or want) industry-specific standards to demonstrate compliance to international standards for specific services. This is where ISO 17100 and ISO 18587 come in.
ISO 17100 provides requirements for the core processes, resources, and other aspects necessary for the delivery of a quality translation service that meets applicable specifications – the daily operations of a language service company.
In an ISO 9001 quality management system implemented by a language service company, the processes, procedures, and documentation required by ISO 17100 usually slot in perfectly under 9001 clauses 8: Operation, and 9: Performance evaluation. The design, delivery, and follow-up of translation services is not a separate operation from the company’s other activities, and so it makes a lot of sense to incorporate ISO 17100 compliance into ISO 9001 compliance, under the same quality management system.
What about ISO 18587?
ISO 18587 provides the requirements for full, human post editing of machine translation output, and post-editors’ competences.
In most language service companies using MT, post-editing is not a separate task, but often carried out in tandem with translation, in a multi-modal environment – and post-editors are largely the same people as translators.
As such, it makes a huge amount of sense to implement ISO 18587 in tandem with ISO 17100, in a company eager to demonstrate that they know what they’re doing with MT.
What can you expect from the audit?
One of the guiding lights of ATC Certification has always been to provide industry-expert auditing, a service that makes sense and adds value to our language service clients.
This is why we don’t arrange three separate audit dates to audit your company for three separate standards, because your quality management system supports your operations, and vice versa. ISO 9001, 17100 and 18587 are best audited together, at the same audit.
When you book a certification audit for ISO 9001, ISO 17100, and ISO 18587 with ATC Certification, we expect your documentation to incorporate evidence of compliance to all three standards. At the audit, our auditor will review your quality management system, operations, and services, as a whole. They ensure that you fulfil the requirements of the three standards, but they don’t audit the standards in isolation – giving you a much more comprehensive, complete audit experience, but in considerably less time.
What about the cost?
We have never inflated our fees with unnecessary costs, so what you pay for in your certification audit is the number of days needed to audit your operations. It’s individual for each company, depending on your size, operational complexity, and the standards you are looking to get certified to.
But the good news is that because our auditors understand your operations, and how the language services industry works, they are able to incorporate the audits for ISO 9001, 17100 and 18587 requirements into much less time than doing the audits separately – which saves you a pretty penny.
Get in touch to get a quote for ISO 9001, 17100 and 18587 today!
