In essence, a standard is an agreed way of doing something. It could be about making a product, managing a process, delivering a service or supplying materials – a huge range of activities and objects undertaken by organizations and used by their customers.

A management system is a proven framework for managing and continually improving an organization's policies, procedures and processes.

The best businesses work as complete units with a shared vision. This may encompass information sharing, benchmarking, team working and working to the highest quality and environmental principles.

A management system helps your organization to achieve these goals through a number of strategies, including process optimization, management focus and disciplined management thinking.

Certification allows you to demonstrate your commitment to best practice, efficiency and sustainability. You’re showing your clients, partners and shareholders that you meet the highest industry standards. And you’re proving that you care about doing things well. For an ambitious organization, it’s simply essential.

In the context of management systems standards, "certification" refers to the issuing of written assurance (the certificate) by an independent, external body that has audited an organization's management system and verified that it conforms to the requirements specified in the standard. "Registration" means that the auditing body then records the certification in its client register.

The organization's management system has therefore been both certified and registered. For practical purposes, then, the difference between the two terms is not significant and both are acceptable for general use.

That said, "Certification" seems to be the term most widely used worldwide, although registration (from which "registrar" as an alternative to registration/certification body) is often preferred.

On the contrary, using "accreditation" as an interchangeable alternative for certification or registration is wrong, because it means something different.

In this context, accreditation refers to the formal recognition by a specialized body - an accreditation body - that a certification body is competent to carry out certification in specified business sectors.

In simple terms, accreditation is like certification of the certification body. Certificates issued by accredited certification bodies - and known as "accredited certificates" - may be perceived on the market as having increased credibility.

Unfortunately not. Each Certification Body holds their own register of Certified Organisations. Certificates can be verified with the Certification Body who has issued the certificate. You will need to know the certificate number and company name in order to verify a certificate

Your Management System, once implemented, should run seamlessly into the day to day operation of your organisation and should therefore require high levels of additional resource. You will be required to implement an Internal Audit and Management Review process specific to the Standard(s) you are implementing and allocate human resources to these. Other resources required will be defined by what you do as an organisation and what you need to provide those products or services.

The Veritas Assurance team are experienced across a whole range of industries, wherever possible we will ensure that someone experienced in your industry is sent to you.