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Secrets to Finding a Good Quality Consultant
Finding an ISO, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Malcolm Baldrige or
CMMI quality consultant to help improve an organization’s
performance or achieve a quality management system certification is
not as easy as you might think. In fact, the process can be quite
time-consuming!
But before you begin searching for a quality consultant, be sure you
recognize the likely resource impact on your company. For example,
if your firm wants to become ISO 9001 certified, be prepared to
allocate people and time to make this happen. An outside consultant
can provide guidance and training, but your employees must do the
actual work in creating a quality management system. Expect several
months of effort to be ready for an ISO registration audit, and be
prepared to support ongoing maintenance activities thereafter. The
ultimate payoff for achieving ISO certification is significant, but
the cost is much more than just the consultant’s fees.
So, if you are ready to perform a search for an experienced quality
consultant, you can reduce the effort by being specific in your
search engine criteria:
• You are going to be charged for consultant travel and
lodging expenses. So it is best to pick a reasonably local
consultant if practical. For instance, if your organization is
located in Los Angeles, you would be bettor off selecting a
California consultant over a New York one to contain costs. Try
putting your search phrase in quotes (e.g., “Find ISO consultant in
California”) to help the search engine zero in on your needs.
• Now there are several types of ISO, so help the search
engine by including the exact certification you are seeking, such as
“Find ISO 9001 consultant in California.”
Even then, you may not discover all the available consultants that
could satisfy your needs. Not all Websites are equal in the eyes of
search engines. They rank each differently depending upon a plethora
of criteria which add up to their unique definition of “popularity.”
You could have the perfect consultant living ten minutes away and he
may not show up in your search results because his Website is new or
does not contain enough incoming links to satisfy Google’s ranking
formula.
That is why Internet users often turn to specific online directories
to find consultants that can meet their specific requirements.
Unfortunately, the directories for quality consultants are typically
incomplete and buried in some other Website.
A new online directory which is rapidly gaining a following is
www.FindQualityConsultant.com. It
organizes U.S. and Canadian quality consultants in an intuitive
fashion and makes it easy to drill down by geography to locate
specific consultants by expertise and location. In addition to
consultants, the site includes related software solutions, such as
document management and control for ISO quality management systems.
Moreover, the site is maintained by human editors who actually
review each consultant’s entry before it is allowed to be published.
Once you identify a short list of candidates, however, it is your
responsibility to review their Websites, customer lists and
references to narrow down the list those you wish to interview. But
having a comprehensive directory to begin your search process puts
you ahead of the game.
About the Author
Al Kernek is the CEO of Pacifica Endeavors LLC, a marketing and
business consulting firm that focuses on small businesses and
entrepreneurs. His company launched
www.FindQualityConsultant.com after
seeing an Internet void for consolidated, easily accessible
information that assists searchers in quickly finding ISO, Six
Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Malcolm Baldrige or CMMI quality
consultants, as well as relevant software packages. Al can be
contacted at info@FindQualityConsultant.com or by phone: (866)
284-4955.
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