Sycous work with Episode Consultants to gain and maintain four ISO standards
In this short film they discuss ISO 14001 Environmental Management, ISO 45001 Occupational Health & Safety, ISO 27001 Information Security Management, and ISO 9001 Quality Management.
“Episode learnt about what we do, then they applied their expertise. Collaborating with us and bringing those two things together is so valuable. This is why the ISO accreditation is not a tick box, it's not a piece of paper, it's something that's actually ingrained within the business now.”
Matthew Hall, Managing Director at Sycous.
Summary
Sycous provides a comprehensive solution for heat and energy network operators and other utility providers to meet their metering and billing requirements.
As they manage highly sensitive personal "personally identifiable information", as GDPR defines it, it is vital that Sycous has robust information & cyber security systems and processes.
Equally important is the fact that engineers attend residential & commercial properties to install the metering equipment. Ensuring this is done safely is critical to all concerned, as is minimising their carbon footprint.
Syycous turned to Episode to help establish a certified integrated management system for ISO 9001, quality, ISO 14001, environmental, ISO 45001, occupational health & safety, and ISO 27001, information security management.
Find out more on their website.
About Sycous
Sycous are a B Corp Certified Company providing innovative metering, remote data collection and billing solutions, metering and customer billing services for utility networks, and providers of IoT technology, allowing a new way to collect and utilise data.
Using this infrastructure they manage the complete billing process, from metering utility usage through to billing and payment collection.
What were the issues
The senior management team at Sycous recognised very early on in the company's establishment that robust management of critical activities such as information security and health & safety was going to be crucial.
As Matt highlights in the video, they also knew they wanted to establish efficient and effective systems and processes as soon as possible, and that ISO standards give the best framework to do this.
They had the foresight to speak with us early on in the process, so that we were able to give some pointers before we were formally engaged.
What we did about it
The Episode team worked closely with Matt, Joe and others to really understand how things worked at Sycous, long before we started establishing the integrated management system.
There are a lot of elements that come together to deliver their services to the clients (& their clients' customers, as Sycous provides helpdesk & other related services to the residents as well).
Considering the risks and opportunities for quality (ISO 9001), environment (ISO 14001), health& safety (ISO 45001) and information security (ISO 27001) required a lot of thought & discussion. As such a number of workshops were run with all stakeholders, including staff), to indetify the critical risks and opportunities, and decide what we were ging to do to minimise the risks & maximise the opportunities.
By starting with their strategy, & understanding their values as a business, we were able to establish a comprehensive, efficient management system that works for the company. Only them did we think about becoming certified.
The outcome
Sycous is a great example of an organisation using ISO standards as they are meant to be - a framework asking you to consider all the relevant aspects of the subject in hand, and adopting best practice.
The standards don't tell you how to do things - they just ask the right questions.
What is really pleasing is that there is nothing in the management system just to satisfy an auditor. Their business management system underpins everything they do, and Mel, our Lead Consultant working with them, is seen as an integral member of the team.
They are certified by a UKAS accredited certification body to all of the standards, and have an ongoing managed service from us to maintain certification & gain continual improvement.