How to Achieve ISO 9001 Certification Without Paper Folders and Excel Lists

There are many digital tools available to make ISO 9001 certification less painful and more effective, but make sure you’re using the right tool for the right type of information

Tom Vogel
5 min readDec 18, 2021
Paper folders on a shelf
Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash

In our company, there isn’t a single paper folder — all information is kept fully digital. Nevertheless, we achieved ISO 9001 certification without any major findings or a helping hand from expensive consultants.

ISO 9001 used to be a static, heavy norm designed to produce folders full of paper processes that collected dust after the certification audit was over. Not so anymore. With its 2015 update, the ISO 9001:2015 norm became more actionable and practical, with more focus being put on living the processes in daily life rather than on completeness on paper.

Being practical people, we asked ourselves the following questions at the beginning of the certification process:

What information changes all the time, and what information needs to be kept consistent?

What information is so important that we have to communicate changes to our workforce?

Where is the “master copy” of each piece of…

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Tom Vogel
Tom Vogel

Written by Tom Vogel

Entrepreneurship and resilience advice for all aspects of life. 👉Practical and to the point👌. Follow me and I will follow back.

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