New opportunities for Cintra with ISO 9001 and ISO 27001

Cintra has been in business for more than 20 years designing, building and supporting business-critical information management solutions. Its clients come from a huge range of sectors, including finance, retail, healthcare, media and the public sector, and all need agile,cloud-enabled architecture to support their business strategies.

But to keep going, the company knew that it had to show its new and existing clients that it put quality and security at the forefront of their business. “As a business we are in a growth phase and we want to win large, transformational projects,” explained Lawrence Darke, Chief ComplianceOfficer at Cintra. “To enable us to bid for many of these, we must have ISO9001 and ISO 27001 as pre-requisites.”

Aiming higher with ISO 9001

In April 2020, Cintra achieved ISO 9001, the Standard for Quality Management.

Working with one of our consultants, Cintra revisited their Quality Objectives and Policy, refining them, bringing them up to date and making them more measurable. A system of monitoring was also set up to improve service delivery.

Adoption of the new Quality Management System protocol was promoted by educational sessions. These explained the benefits of the new systems to the whole of the Cintra team, with new starters taken through an updated on-boarding program that focused on the new processes in place. This ensures employees are now more productive and work to higher company standards in a shorter space of time.

New confidence

The ability to operate in a scalable, repeatable and high-quality manner has given Cintra new confidence. This has been recognised by their clients, who have begun fresh conversations with Cintra on new opportunities.

Achieving ISO 9001 has also in part reduced some of the negative impacts of COVID-19 for Cintra. The Standard has helped to open up a new business pipeline that had previously been closed to them, leading to future growth estimates of 10-15% over the next few years. This is potentially worth in excess of $1 million (USD).

ISO 27001 – the next step

Information security is key for Cintra’s business. “ISO 27001 is often a must-have when we’re bidding for new work,” said Lawrence Darke. “Being certified is a signal to anyone outside Cintra that we take information extremely seriously.”

To reassure clients and showcase their focus on protecting information, the company implemented ISO 27001, an Information SecurityManagement System and achieved certification towards the end of 2018.

With the help of QMS, the company drew up new, modern policies that were tailored to fit Cintra and its staff. This process condensed their collection of disparate processes and helped them to identify and remove discrepancies, contradictions and gaps.

Information security has been subsequently reprioritised across the company. At the top level, it became a fixed agenda on all board meetings, ideal for regular review. Further down, staff were encouraged to record and report all security issues as well as undertake regular information security training.

Shortly after passing their annual audit in 2019, the company won a deal with a copyright protection giant, in large part to this accreditation.

Open up your own opportunities with ISOs

If you want to start new conversations with existing clients or catch the attention of new business, achieving the right ISOs can be an excellent discussion point. It can even help you to pre-qualify in the early stages of a tender.

ISO 9001 gives your business a framework of processes that can help you to maintain consistent quality, ensuring high customer satisfaction and helping your business to reduce errors and costs.

ISO 27001 gives your business the processes it needs to protect data and mitigate risks towards its security. This demonstrates that you prioritise security, boosting your reputation and the likelihood of new business as a result.

From your first consultation with us, certification can be achieved in as few as 45 days.

If you want to find out more about ISOs and the process of achieving them, get in touch today by calling 0333 344 3646 or emailing [email protected].