Westcon Group European Operations is awarded ISO 9001:2000
Certification across its European Logistic
Centers and Sales Subsidiaries
Westcon Group, Inc., a multi-national distributor of networking
technology products, announced today that its entire European sales
organisation has achieved the ISO 9001:2000 certification, part of the
International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) ISO 9000 family
of standards.
Between March and June of 2006, ISO certification was gained at
the distributor's sales operations in the Netherlands, Sweden,
Belgium, France, Spain and Germany. These latest certifications follow
other ISO certifications Westcon Group European Operations received
between January, 2003 and April, 2005.
Audits carried out by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance focused on
the processes developed within WGEO's European Process Management
System (EPMS) and the European Continuous Improvement System (ECIS).
These systems were developed as part of Westcon Group's commitment
to develop and improve processes across Westcon Group Europe. The EPMS
was developed to bring visibility to all WGEO's European procedures,
while providing a basis for a European-wide core quality system. The
ECIS enables WGEO to request and monitor business process improvements
for reporting and auditing purposes.
Simon Minett, chief operating officer, WGEO, commented: "Our
European organization is committed to excellence in all we do. We are
always looking for ways to become more efficient and rigorous in our
approach. In achieving the ISO 9001:2000 certification, our sales
methodologies and processes are officially recognized by the ISO."
Project co-ordinator Vincent Povey, European facilities manager
added: "The European ISO roll out has been a most rewarding endeavour,
involving staff at every level of the organisation. Now that we have
achieved ISO certification, we plan to move forward with regular
European group-level quality forums, where common processes can be
further refined and the culture of continual improvement can mature
further across all of our European companies."
Certification for the new EPMS and ECIS management systems were
gained on October 27th, 2004. Comstor UK and WGEO have operated an ISO
9000 accredited system in Cirencester, UK, since 1999 and in November,
2004 a second operational location in the Netherlands attained the ISO
9000:2000 standard and achieved ISO certification. A third operational
location in Germany attained the standard in April, 2005.
In the United States, Westcon Group's Voda One division gained its
ISO 9000 certification in 2002 for its Final Channel Assembly process.
At that time, Voda One, which had no obligation to be certified,
pursued the ISO certification to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to
maintaining high quality management systems.
The ISO 9000 series, originally published in 1987, has earned a
global reputation as the basis for establishing quality management
systems. It is based on eight quality management principles that
reflect best management practices. These principles are:
-- Customer Focus
-- Leadership
-- Involvement of People
-- Process Approach
-- System Approach to Management
-- Continual Improvement
-- Factual Approach to Decision Making
-- Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships
The concept of "continual improvement" contained in the ISO 9000
standard is intended to promote the effectiveness of the quality
management system and increase the organization's ability to compete
in the market.
About Westcon Group
Westcon Group, Inc. is a multi-national distributor of networking
and communications equipment for leading technology vendors, including
Cisco Systems, Inc., Nortel Networks Corporation and Avaya, Inc.
Through its Westcon, Comstor and Voda One divisions, Westcon Group
sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and
service providers. Westcon Group has particular expertise in the
convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies,
including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for
networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and
e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless
connectivity. For more information, visit www.westcongroup.com.
