Following the release and publication of the new ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems Standard, organizations in the Oil and Gas, manufacturing, healthcare and service industries among others have began drawing up plans and programs to enable them transit to the new ISO 9001:2015. As organizations begin to focus and commit their limited resources to transition from ISO 9001:2008 to the new ISO 9001:2015, the key question many business owners and stakeholders understandably ask is “what their organizations stand to benefit from the investments that would be made in this regard". Looking at the currently available version of the ISO 9001 standard, some of the clear cut benefits are that prospective and already certified organizations stand to get from implementing or transiting to the new ISO 9001:2015 standard are as follows:

(1) Risk Management
(2) Business Opportunities Identification 
(3) Continuous Improvement Enhancing 
(4) Increased Leadership Commitment to QMS operations
(5) Performance Monitoring and Measurement
(6) Easy Integration of Management Systems
(7) Increased Competitive Advantage


(1) Risk Management
The new ISO 9001:2015 standard introduces and promotes the concept of ‘risk-based approach’. This approach lays emphasis on organizations focusing or channeling their limited resources to areas which give or are likely to give them cause for concern. A concept encourages organizations to put in place risk-based compliance programs which will help them identify, manage, monitor and reduce compliance risks key to their business operations. This will eventually ease the burden of reporting to relevant authorities. 

(2) Business Opportunities Identification 
Through the help of the new ISO 9001:2015 QMS standard, organizations during risk assessment will be able to identify business opportunities with ease for bottom line improvements.

(3) Continuous Improvement Enhancing 
The new ISO 9001:2015 standard promotes integration and alignment of Quality Management System (QMS) to organization’s objectives and targets.

(4) Increased Leadership Commitment to QMS operations 
With more emphasis on Leadership, the new ISO 9001:2015 standard is poised to drive greater involvement and commitment from top management regarding the running of QMS. This will help to ensure that employees are motivated towards the stated goals and strategic objectives.

(5) Performance Monitoring and Measurement
The role played by self-governance and organizational behaviour on performance and capacity to create value for customers and employees cannot be overemphasized as effective performance measurement and self-governance can result in higher levels of innovation, employee loyalty, and customer satisfaction; as well as superior financial performance.This again, is another benefit that the standard hopes to help organizations achieve. 

(6) Easy Integration of Management Systems
The high level structure of the new ISO 9001:2015 standard is synonymous with all new and revised management system standards. The high level structure, also referred to as Annex SL, makes integration of two or more management system easier and thereby reducing the nightmare faced documentation officers when trying to develop an IMS for organizations. In reality, as organizations begin to understand and appreciate the value of different management systems all speaking a common language, it will be organizations - and in turn the consumer - who stand to be the true beneficiaries.

(7) Increased Competitive Advantage
The new standard will boost customer confidence in organizations thereby making ISO 9001:2015 certified organizations the preferred choice during tendering, bidding and business prospecting.

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FPAL (First Point Assessment - verification) in some ways, attempts to ensure that potential suppliers address some of the points above but implementation should follow a different strategy and be aligned to company objectives. 

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