You might have heard or seen the letters ISO in relation to industrial products you’ve purchased but not quite sure what it means. If you were to sum it up in two words it would be “quality process.” ISO stands for “International Organization for Standardization” – an international agency made up of locally based standards organizations in more than 160 countries.

ISO provides a framework for companies to organize and optimize their internal process with the goal of continually improving performance and quality. The local bodies work directly with companies providing consulting and auditing to assure they are following the standard.

In many cases, it’s hard for a buyer to know that a potential vendor can deliver on what is promised during the sales process. This is especially true for international business. Even today in the age of instant information, it can be difficult to understand a supplier’s internal processes and customer service methods that will assure a buyer of a solid and successful partnership. While it is not an insurance policy, it is a strong indicator of a company’s commitment to quality, performance and customer satisfaction.

In a September 2013 article for QP Magazine, Oscar Combs outlined the results of a Harvard Business School study comparing 916 organizations that adopted ISO 9001 against 17,849 companies that have not implemented ISO standards. His findings clearly showed that organizations following the ISO standard realized higher growth and survival rates, increased employee wages, as well as improved productivity and safety performance.

At Smartplay, the ISO Standard touches every aspect of our business – from sales, to operations and production, to support and customer service. This framework provides a clear and globally recognizable method of measuring performance. You can’t improve unless you measure. Being able to measure every aspect of our process has allowed us to continually improve on even the smallest details in operations, production and customer support.

Every business has hundreds of moving parts and it can become easy to place important tasks on a list to be addressed “another day when we’re not as busy.” The ISO standard provides a methodology to tackle every issue in an organized and prioritized so every member of our team understands their role in producing and maintaining the best lottery systems each and every day.