What is IQNet? – What are the IQNet Certificates?

What is IQNet?

IQNet is an international certification entity, formed by more than 30 of the most relevant certification entities of the most important countries.

iqnet certificate

Some certification entities involved in IQNet are the following: AENOR (Spain), AFNOR (France), AIB (Belgium), ANCE, IMNC (Mexico), APCER (Portugal), CCC, CSIQ (Italy), CQC (China), CQS (Czech Republic), Cro Cert (Crocacia), DQS (Germany), DS (Denmark) , ELOT (Greece), FCAV (Brazil) , FONDONORMA (Venezuela) , HKQAA (Hong Kong), ICONTEC (Colombia), Inspecta (Finland), IRAM (Argentina) , JQA (Japan) , KFQ (Korea) , MSZT (Hungary), Nemko AS (Norway), NSAI (Ireland), PCBC (Poland), Quality Austria (Austria), RR (Russia), SIQ (Slovenia) , SQS (Switzerland), SRAC (Romania) , TSE (Turkey), YUQS (Serbia), AFNOR, ICCS, DQS, NSAI (USA), etc. .

The purpose of the IQNet certificates

The IQNet certificates are used by  companies and organizations worldwide to testify that they are certified in a particular standard (as ISO 9001, ISO14001 or any other).

Here is an example of a IQNet certificate :

iqnet

How could my company obtain an international IQNet certificate?

The way of working is as follows:

If your company has implemented an ISO 9001:2008 management system standard, then it should be certified by an external certification entity as, for example NSAI in USA, or AENOR in Spain (of course, that depends on the location of your company 🙂 ). By obtaining the certification of this local entity, you can talk with them for obtaining an equivalent international certificate signed by IQNet.

By doing that, you will be able to use the certificate of your local certification entity in your country (from NSAI, AENOR or whatever), and use the international IQNet certificate when you need to do business in other country, or when you want to sign contracts with other international companies.

The main point of this is that a foreign company probably will not know the name of your local certification entity, but they surely will recognize the international IQNet logo.

The IQ Net seal

iqnet sealThe IQNet Certified Management System seal is a logo which the certified companies usually add with the stamp of their local certification entity. These logos are accompanied with the codes of the standards that they have certified .

The most common certified standards are the next ones:

ISO 9001 (Quality) , ISO 14001 / EMAS (Environment) , OHSAS 18001 (Risk Prevention), ISO 2200 / FSSC 22000 / BRC / IFS (Food Security), SA8000 / BSCI / IQNet SR 10 ( Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility), ISO 27001 (Information technology ) , BBP / IBEC (Business Excellence), ISO 22301 , ISO / TS 16949 (Automotive Industry) , IRIS , TL 9000 , ISO 29001 and other international standards.

Original post (in Spanish): Los certificados IQNet