During the 13 years we’ve been developing and implementing software for quality assessment, I noticed an obvious evolution in the way people are working on achieving a quality standard.

Mid to late nineties a considerable number of companies were only trying to get a quality standard for the sole purpose of business growth. Especially subcontractors were required to obtain one or more to be able to provide services particularly to bigger companies. They wanted the sign up on the wall in the lobby and the reference on their website and correspondence.

Meanwhile, other companies were doing great efforts on getting accredited in order to really improve their business and customer experience. You could easily distinguish them by the vigorous way they were working towards their goals and how to perfectly apply the advantages of working on quality.

It would probably be bold to claim that the ratio was about 50/50. Still, that was my impression.

Needless to mention that the second kind was destined to grow more than the first kind.

Fortunately, things have changed. Today almost every company achieving a quality standard really appreciates the opportunity of staying up with the everyday more and more competitive market. They are truly looking at the advantages of constantly working on quality.

The demands of the ISO9001:2000 standard also are more focused on real quality improvements.