Enhancing global transparency

As supply chains become increasingly global, the need for organisations to be able to verify the credentials of their suppliers is more vital than ever. Transparency and assurance are key not only to organisational confidence, but also to consumer confidence.

Ensuring that all suppliers are certified to management system standards such as ISO 9001 can be time-consuming. However, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) CertSearch website offers organisations access to a global database that can verify, in seconds, if a supplier is certified and the status of that certification.

The IAF CertSearch website passed an important milestone in late October, when it became mandatory for all accreditation bodies and accredited certification bodies to upload information relating to the management system certifications they have issued to the CertSearch database. This means the global database is now even more effective, because it can draw on a far larger pool of data.

Real-time data

CertSearch offers organisations a way of discovering, in real time, if their suppliers are certified to a particular management standard and, if so, what the status of that certification is.

“If you are a supplier to an organisation, at the point of tendering for work, you might have to show your certification to them. However, the company that is trading with you has no quick way to find out if your certificate is suspended, withdrawn or expired. It is so important for organisations to be able to access live data, so they know exactly what the status of a supplier is,” explains Nigel Johnston, CEO of Quality Trade, the software company that developed not only CertSearch, but also UKAS’s CertCheck database.

“If you have a thousand suppliers, it is a big job to verify their certification status – even just once a year – if you have to search through a certification body’s website or contact them to do the check for you. However, if your company has a thousand suppliers, and you want them to be certified to, say, ISO 9001 or ISO 14001, you can upload a list of all those suppliers to CertSearch and find out, in minutes, the certified status of each one – not just for their head office, but for all locations as well.

"This real-time connection means that accredited certification can be relied on and used more broadly to assess the supply chain, governance and transparency."

Nigel Johnston, CEO of Quality Trade

“Another great aspect of CertSearch’s global database is that you will be alerted in real time if any changes occur with the accreditation or certification of one of your suppliers. If their certification is suspended, withdrawn or expires, you will be alerted. Prior to this global database, this was hidden information, which could only be accessed by contacting the certifying body.

“The database has connected the businesses, regulators and government bodies that are trading with those certified companies to the actual auditor – the certification bodies. This real-time connection means that accredited certification can be relied on and used more broadly to assess the supply chain, governance and transparency.”

For the database behind CertSearch to be a truly meaningful tool for organisations seeking to verify their supply chain, it must have access to as much data as possible. That is where the mandatory requirement comes in.

“All accreditation bodies and certification bodies must put their data into the database. This means we can offer a populated global database, and the more it is used, the more information it can offer,” explains Johnston.

Looking ahead

The IAF CertSearch network currently has data from 77 accreditation bodies around the world, as well as 2,339 certification bodies. There are more than 2.5m certifications on the system, a number that is growing all the time.

“We hope that CertSearch will continue to evolve as an essential trust marker for global supply chains. It is circular, really; if we can gather information from the testing, inspection and certification sector, it raises awareness among organisations of who is certified and what their credentials are,” says Johnston.

“By increasing awareness, you can also understand the benefits of being certified, whether that is in a supply chain or a wider network. Then, organisations can really understand the value of standards, accreditation and certification, which drives more demand and produces more data for CertSearch to verify.”