Certification Transfer – Dispelling the Myths

In this podcast we look at what can often seem like a complex topic - transferring your ISO Management Systems Certification from one Certification Body to another. We dispel the myths, highlight how straightforward the process really is, and explain why Intertek makes it easier than most. 

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Transcript

00:00 David Lilley 

Hello and welcome to our podcast. I'm David Lilley, Sales Director for UK Business Assurance here at Intertek. I'm joined by Nick Bell-Tye, who brings over 15 years of experience across both operations and commercial roles in the certification industry. Nick has a deep understanding of how certification works from the inside out and today he'll be guiding us through what can often seem like a complex topic - transferring your certification from one Body to another. He's here to dispel the myths, highlight how straightforward the process really is and explain why Intertek makes it easier than most.  So, let's dive in. 

 
Welcome to the podcast Nick – what exactly is a Certification transfer? 

 
00:43 Nicholas Bell-Tye   
Yes. Thanks, David, and welcome all. So certification transfer is when you currently hold UKAS/IAF accredited ISO certification and you're looking to move from one certification body to another, ideally without any interruptions in the validity of your certificates. 

 
00:01:03 David Lilley   
Great. And typically, why do companies transfer? 

 
00:01.07 Nicholas Bell-Tye   
So there's a lot of reasons people look to transfer their certification. I'll go through a few of them now. Typically it could be for service if they're currently not getting their audits booked in or they're not actually receiving the right type of audit, they're looking for, it might be that they're looking to gain additional standards to their current suite of standards they hold and their current certification body doesn't have all the standards they're looking for. It might be they're looking for additional expertise within specific standards that they hold.  It could be that they've made acquisitions and they're looking to broaden their scope of business and they might need additional EA/NACE codes. And their current certification body doesn't have the full suite of codes. It could be for their own procurement requirements. They might have a three to five year tender requirement and they have to look to go out in that period of time. It also could be that they just want a fresh approach. 
You know, do they feel they're getting value for the for their money at the moment and maybe another certification body can have a slightly different look and there's the old adage as well, cost will always come down to it. So the number of reasons people will want to look to move. 

 
00:02:19 David Lilley   
There really is a plethora of reasons there. I guess the burning question is then why choose Intertek as your new certification body? 

 
00:02:28 Nicholas Bell-Tye   
So Intertek essentially has a complete dedicated scheduling team based here in the UKI think. One of the things that we really want to do is talk to our clients and understand why they hold certification and what they really need out of their certification. So how do we schedule their audits? What type of auditors are they looking for? and do they need things like certificate presentations, etc. We really want to understand the reasons our clients hold certification.   We also have very transparent pricing. We invoice after audits. We have a great portfolio of auditors across the whole of the UK and the world. So we can look after clients that maybe have head offices in the UK and based further afield as well. We have a 97% retention rate of our clients. Hopefully that goes to show that you know our clients really do like coming back to us. We also have a full coverage of standards and sector codes from our UKAS accreditation.  So basically, there's very, very little that we can't audit against. And if there are any new standards coming out, we're always at the forefront of making sure that we are going for accreditation in those standards. But ultimately the key factor is that we really want to speak to our clients. 

 
00:03:45 David Lilley    
Fantastic. Some really compelling reasons to pick the phone up and speak to us. So tell our listeners then, Nick, what is the process? We've said it's relatively straightforward, but what does that process look like? 

 
00:04:01 Nicholas Bell-Tye  
Effectively it's pretty much five simple steps to certification: 1) the first step starts with contacting us. At that point, you know we will talk you through what we're looking for. We'll be looking for things like your current audit reports, the certificate, we'll be checking expiry dates are your audits up to date, etc and non conformances. A that point. 2)  We'll then issue a quote and that quote will typically look like what your current schedule is. But you know we will talk you through exactly when we look to transfer and how we will look to transfer. 3) Step three comes where you guys would want to accept our proposal and then we move it forward.  4) Going into step four where we conduct our application review. This is an internal review done by our technical team, so we won't need to come out and do an additional audit to bring you on board. It's all done internally and just from the documentation you've already sent us and then essentially 5) Step five is where we issue your certificate.  We will inform your incumbent certification of the move and issue you with a certificate.  Recommendation at this point is that I would say for any clients moving for them to also inform their certification body because you wouldn't want obviously future invoices etc just for clarity. 

 
00:05:23 David Lilley   
Fantastic. Thank you. And you have been in the industry for a number of years, Nick, what tips have you got for a smooth transfer? 

 
00:05:33 Nicholas Bell-Tye   
For a smooth transfer, essentially have certificates and audit reports ready. That's really useful because that's where we get the majority of our information from.  A staff breakdown of your business is really useful. You can check to see whether your current certificate is UKAS or IAF accredited, but we will do that as part of our due diligence anyway. 
Key area is not to leave it too late. A lot of people look to transfer as their audits coming up, but the sooner we have these conversations, the easier we can make it and we will work with you to ensure that we transfer at the very best time for you.  But you know what I always say is that we want to make sure that it feels like a partnership between the certification body and the client. So if you feel if you feel it's the right partnership for you, that's a really good tip for moving forward. 

 
00:06:21 David Lilley      
Great tips there, Nick. Thank you for that. Lastly, we do get some common questions when it comes to transferring and I'd like to just ask you three of those if I can as we close. So the first one is – “will I lose the longevity of my registration?” 

 
00:06:37 Nicholas Bell-Tye  Intertek    
Definitely not, no. So when we transfer certification, we pick up the scope exactly as it is at the certificate, exactly as it is. So your scope, your issue day, your certificate expiry day, etc, they all remain exactly the same as it is with your incumbent certification. So you will definitely will not lose that longevity of certification. 

 
00:06:55 David Lilley   
The second one is “Can I transfer mid cycle?” 

 
00:07:00 Nicholas Bell-Tye   
Absolutely you can transfer mid cycle essentially with any UKAS / IAF accreditation bodies, whilst you have a contract with them, you're not tied into a particular length of time. So you can move you choose to. 

 
00:07:18 David Lilley  
And then lastly, “how long does it take?” 

 
00:07:21 Nicholas Bell-Tye   
If we have all the right information up front, and the documentation's all correct etc, it will take anywhere between a week to two weeks to go from the initial enquiry through to certificate issue. 

 
00:07:37 David Lilley   
Fantastic, Nick. Thank you very much for your time today. Really appreciate it. And listeners, we hope that Nick has dispelled some myths around the transfer of certification. As mentioned a couple of times, we are really keen to speak to you, so you can contact us via email : ukenquiries@intertek.com or call us on 0116 2961620.