Darko Golubovic, process management consultant at Halifax Consulting - Service improvement through standardization

Darko Golubovic

Halifax has recently finished the accreditation process for ISO 9001 and EN 15038 standards.

Darko Golubovic, process management consultant at Halifax Consulting, tells eKapija that they opted for these standards to meet the needs, demands and expectations of their clients in the best way possible.

The company adopted ISO 9001 quality management system standard and EN 15038:2006 European standard that defines requirements for translation services.

eKapija: Could you explain briefly what the ISO 9001 and EN 15038 standards mean?

- Standards are experience distilled into requirements that need to be fulfilled, and the result of standardisation is good business practice. There are two types of standards, management standards and standards for goods or services.

ISO 9001 is a management standard that sets requirements for the management of an entire organisation. The standard helps the organisation to meet its clients' needs, demands and expectations continuously, in a predictable, reliable way. The key word is trust – the client's trust in the organisation, the organisation's in its system. To establish trust with a client means that he will, in exchange for his money, receive a top quality product or service every single time without exception.

How to establish trust? By providing quality service every time and for each project. This can be achieved through establishing and monitoring clearly defined procedures and responsibilities, use of quality resources, and willingness to learn and improve the level of services.

When it comes to translation, this can be done by introducing, for example, the EN 15038:2006 standard, the European standard that defines requirements for providing quality translation services. The standard specifies the requirements in terms of personnel and technical resources, quality and project management, the framework for conclusion of contracts and the procedure of service provision. A certificate issued by an independent and accredited organisation is a confirmation and guarantee that an organisation is doing everything necessary to build a client's trust.

The important thing is that a company, in line with its development policy, may go even further than minimum standard requirements. This is what we are doing now in Halifax. The operational standards that lead to ISO and EN certificates have been achieved and now we are working on constant improvement of our services. This is a sure sign that Halifax will continue with its policy to provide top quality services.

eKapija: How was the standardisation process carried out in Halifax?

- Introducing standards is nothing more than adapting the business operations of an organisation to the requirements defined in the standard. We in Halifax first looked at the current state of affairs to establish what level of activity was needed, then analysed good business practices to see how others work and how to apply that in our company, reviewed our own operations, drafted templates and procedures, then continued with training, implementation and finally auditing. The certification went smoothly, no problems whatsoever, which was first and foremost the result of the commitment and correct approach of all actors – management, employees and consultants. Being aware of the need to govern the management process and striving to raise the level of service provision have been the main drivers of this entire process.

eKapija: What does the application of these standards mean for the quality of translation and, generally, of the entire business operation?

- The obligation to perform linguistic revision and the method of selecting the best translators guarantee the same quality level for every translation project. Efficient management implies continuous evaluation and learning from mistakes so that they can be avoided in the future.

We try very hard to follow the motto of Edwards Deming, one of renowned authors in the field of quality: Plan – Do – Check – Act.