In short
Implementation support is hands-on help to build a management system that meets an ISO standard and works for your business. Equas offers two routes: a Full System Build, where we do the work, and an Assisted System Build, where we work alongside your own team. Both are fixed price, both are backed by the Equas Guarantee, and both lead to UKAS-accredited certification.
What Implementation Support involves
There is no single right way to implement an ISO standard. It depends on how much internal resource you have, how much of the knowledge you want to keep in house afterwards, and how quickly you need to be certified.
That is why we offer two routes rather than one package.
Full System Build is for organisations without the internal capacity to take this on. We build the system, write the documentation, run the training and take you through to certification. Your team contributes knowledge about how the business runs, and reviews and approves what we produce, but the drafting and the project management sit with us.
Assisted System Build is for organisations with a committed internal resource, often a quality, HSE or operations manager who will own the system afterwards. We provide the structure, the templates, the training and the expert advice, and your person does the building with us checking the work as it goes.
Assisted System Build usually costs less and leaves more capability behind. Full System Build is faster and takes almost nothing off your operational team. Neither is better. The right one depends on who you have available and what you want to be true in two years' time.
Whichever route you choose, the destination is the same: a system that meets the standard, that your people actually use, and that passes an audit by a UKAS-accredited certification body.
Both routes are quoted at a fixed price, agreed before work begins, and both are backed by the Equas Guarantee: if your certification audit raises an issue with documentation we prepared, we put it right at no extra cost and cover the certification body's return visit. In more than twenty years, across over 1,000 clients, we have a 100% success rate at certification audits.
Who it is for
Working towards certification
This is the main event: the work that takes you from a gap analysis report to a certificate. Choose the route that matches the internal resource you can genuinely commit.
Already certified
Adding a new standard to an existing certified system is an implementation project too, though usually a smaller one. The same two routes apply.
What is included
Full System Build or Assisted System Build, chosen to match the resource you have available.
A plan with dates and owners, and somebody keeping it moving.
The system is built around how you already work, not bolted on top of it.
Policies, procedures and records written or adapted to fit your organisation.
So the system is understood by the people expected to use it, not just the person who owns it.
A full internal audit of the system, which the standard requires before you can be certified.
We are with you for the certification body visit, on site or remotely.
The price is set before work starts and does not move, and the work is backed by the Equas Guarantee.
Choose your level of support
Implementation Support is available in the following options. Explore each one to find the right fit.
How it works
- 1
Choose your route
We look at your available resource and recommend Full System Build or Assisted System Build. There is no penalty for changing your mind early on.
- 2
Plan and scope
An agreed project plan with milestones, owners and a target certification date.
- 3
Design and document
The system is designed around your existing processes, then documented to the level the standard requires.
- 4
Implement and train
New processes go live, with awareness training for everyone affected.
- 5
Internal audit and management review
The two things certification bodies check for first, completed and evidenced.
- 6
Certification audit
Stage 1 and Stage 2 with a UKAS-accredited certification body, with us alongside you.
The most popular standards we support
Equas helps clients achieve UKAS-accredited certification across every ISO standard we cover.
The international standard for quality management systems
The international standard for environmental management systems
The international standard for IT service management
The international standard for business continuity management
The international standard for information security management
The international standard for AI management systems
The international standard for occupational health and safety
The international standard for energy management systems
Quality management for the built environment, built on ISO 9001
The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme
Frequently asked questions
Related services
Gap Analysis
Know exactly where you stand before you commit
Full System Build
We build the system. You approve it.
Assisted System Build
We build it with your team and we make sure it is right.