Communicate Directly With TL 9000 Experts! BIZPHYX is a leading TL 9000 quality management consulting firm. As QuEST Forum TL 9000 Master Trainers and Experts, we assist organizations with TL 9000 (the telecom quality standard), ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 training, consulting and implementation. Our support desk provides complimentary education and current news regarding these standards. BIZPHYX has a 100% client certification rate.
We like to share the results of our hard work and dedication to the craft of quality management. At the recent 2015 QuEST Forum Leadership Summit held in Dallas, BIZPHYX was once again presented with a “340 Club Award”.The 340 Club is for those members of QuEST Forum that exhibit exceptional membership participation in forum activities through their employee’s investment of time and efforts in multiple work groups, sub-teams and regions, along with generous event sponsorships.
BIZPHYX is in great company in 2015, as nearly 30 other ICT companies were recognized for their contributions. Other 340 Club Award winners include Verizon Wireless, Telus, Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco, Mastec Network Solutions, Karlee, Huawei, Fujitsu, Axis Teknologies, ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent and AT&T to name just a few!
Featured in this photo from left to right are QuEST Forum Chair, Steve Pickett, BIZPHYX Senior Vice President, Bob Clancy, BIZPHYX President and CEO, Sue Clancy and QuEST Forum CEO, Fraser Pajak.
This is the 4th year in a row that BIZPHYX has been recognized for its contributions to QuEST Forum, including event sponsorships like the Americas Best Practices Conference (below). BIZPHYX remains dedicated to leadership in QuEST Forum Small Business initiatives.
BIZPHYX Leadership in QuEST Forum:
In 2015, Sue Clancy will continue to serve as Co-Chair of the Jump Start Committee, as well as Chair of the Small Business Group. In addition, Sue was reappointed to the 2015 QuEST Forum Executive Board, as an Executive Contributor. BIZPHYX Senior Vice President, Bob Clancy will continue to serve as Co-Secretary of the Global Business Excellence Group (GBE). Bob and Sue are both prior QuEST Forum COO Award winners.
Senior Consultant, Gale Leonard who operates the BIZPHYX Southeast Office, will remain active in the Training sub-team.
Congratulations to ALL of the 340 Club Award winners and those who are dedicated to telecom and ICT quality!
In Chinese Astrology, they say that 2015 is the “Year of The Goat”. For those of us in the realm of quality management, we’re affectionately labeling 2015 as “The Year of Quality”. This is primarily due to the new update of ISO 9001:2015, which is projected to be published at the end of the year.
Here’s a quick recap on where things stand, as it seems like the last 2 months have been a blur. We went from the QuEST Forum Leadership Council and Work Group meetings straight to a flurry of year-end implementations and training projects, just as ISO announced critical new timeline updates for the new ISO 9001:2015 standard.
The New Year kicked off with the QuEST Forum Leadership Summit where new ICT quality initiatives we announced. Then the ISO/TC 176/Sc 2/WG 24/TG 5 committee, responsible for the ISO 9001:2015 revision, began working through some important member responses to the FDIS. Like we stated, 2015 is going to be a very busy year in the world of quality management.
ISO 9001: 2015–UPDATE:
We can report this,—it’s progressing. In November 2014, ISO 9001 moved to the final stage of the update process, FDIS (Final Draft International Standard). Nigel Croft, Chair of the ISO subcommittee revising ISO 9001 (ISO/TC 176/ Sc2) released a video and provided an update on the status of the FDIS stage. He maintains that new ISO is on track for scheduled publication. The updated version is resting on a new core concept of “risk basked thinking”, which is aimed at preventing undesirable outcomes. Here is that video update:
The ISO 9001:2015 revision will impact other standards and there is much complexity to the update as defined in previous articles on our blog. For example, standards like ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 27001 (information security management) will share the new alignment. Ultimately, TL 9000, the ICT quality management standard will be updated (TL 9000 6.0) to incorporate the new changes in ISO 9001.
Recently the ISO/TC 176/Sc 2/WG 24/TG 5 committee published their Validation Report, incorporating and scoring comments from member organizations that have the duty to provide input (both positive and negative) about the proposed revision. In the USA, ANSI provided critical input, for the UK, BSI submitted detailed comments and other global member organizations such as SCC (Canada), AFNOR (France), DGN (Mexico) and BIS (India) all contributed to the Validation Report data. At this point, the comments are now being reviewed by ISO and its up to the committee to acknowledge and address the input. Right now things are fluid, as the ability to “audit” risk based focus and activity is being weighed.
NEW ISO Standards and Guidelines
The update to ISO 9001:2015 certainly hasn’t curtailed the release of new guidelines and standards. In fact, in just the past few months, ISO has released and updated several standards and guidelines. Here are just a few pertaining to the sectors and clients we serve:
ISO 37500:2014 Outsourcing
This standard aims to provide general guidance for outsourcing for any organization in any sector. It provides a general vocabulary for outsourcing practitioners across all industry sectors. It includes typical outsourcing concepts to improve the understanding of all stakeholders, by providing a set of practices that can be used to manage the outsourcing life cycle.
ISO/IEC 27018:2014 Data Protection, Cloud Privacy
This International Standard establishes commonly accepted control objectives, controls and guidelines for implementing measures to protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in accordance with the privacy principles in ISO/IEC 29100 for the public cloud computing environment.
(Microsoft just certified to this standard)
ISO/IEC 27040:2015 Guide On Data Security, Storage
This provides detailed technical guidance on how organizations can define an appropriate level of risk mitigation by employing a well-proven and consistent approach to the planning, design, documentation and implementation of data storage security.
ISO/DIS 37101 Sustainable Communities, Management Systems and Guidance For Resilience and Smartness
In our rapidly changing world, ensuring cities and communities are fit for the future is a key priority for many city leaders. Providing sustainable energy supplies, coping with environmental and climate changes, building and maintaining durable infrastructures and meeting the needs and expectations of citizens is the focus of this new standard.
As you can see, nothing is slowing down in the world of quality management as it pertains to ICT, the cloud, data security and sustainability. So stay tuned, there’s much more to come in 2015 and we are creating a resource for our clients to check in on the latest updates on the ISO 9001:2015 revision.
For more information on ISO 9001 or implementing any of the standards above, please contact info@bizphyx.com.
If you’re a subscriber to our support desk, you know we are active members in QuEST Forum and have been for many years. BIZPHYX Senior Vice President, Bob Clancy was a part of the original team who helped frame the TL 9000 quality standard.
We’re often asked about the value of membership in QuEST Forum. Of course we’re going to tell you that membership is invaluable, our CEO is the Chair of Small Business! However that doesn’t change the truth, but you need to judge for yourself.
Watch this new video featuring QuEST Forum CEO, Fraser Pajak, as he is interviewed for OSP TV:
Tower Safety • Modern Networks • The Modern Day Field Tech • Intelligent Network Nodes • Better, Cheaper, Faster Challenges • Gigabit Communities • SDN • IPTV • Mobile Exabyte Demands • Benchmarking Quality • Industry Collaboration
By listening to Fraser articulate the many missions of the organization, you’ll learn that QuEST Forum drives ICT quality and is worth your time and membership!
Living in Texas we deal with a lot of wind. In the fall, when temperatures are dropping we experience “northers” blowing down on Texas, bringing with them cooler weather and lots of wind. In fact, we had 90 mph winds just a few weeks ago from a thunderstorm. However fall is my favorite time of year, as it ushers in a welcomed change from the heat.
Right now, I see many “winds of change” happening in the ICT industry, with next generation technologies, quality standards and leadership. At the September QuEST Forum Americas Best Practices Conference held in Florida, Tim Harden, President of AT&T Supply Chain and Fleet Operations, announced his retirement at the end of 2014.
If you have been around QuEST Forum for any amount of time, you know that Tim has been a real force of leadership and has been a true advocate for small business. Tim is one of the few executives I know in this industry, that is always gracious and more than willing to take the time to speak with you. It doesn’t matter if you are a small business, a C-suite executive with a large corporation or anything in between, Tim is always there to shake hands, encourage and share his years of wisdom. He is a legend and will be greatly missed in the leadership of QuEST Forum and especially with Small Business.
He has tirelessly elevated the case for ICT supply chain quality and next generation technologies as a 2-time Chairman of the QuEST Forum Executive Board. While I know that very capable leaders will continue his legacy at QuEST Forum, he will always have a very special place in my heart for his kindness, especially for allowing me to interrupt him at any time, to introduce a small business or new diverse supplier. In all the time I have had the pleasure to know Tim, not once did I ever see him be anything but gracious. He is a rare breed, an incredible leader, a true patriot and one of the just plain “good men” in this world.We will miss him tremendously.
As I said, our industry is navigating many winds of change. Be sure you are prepared for these changes, like the ISO 9001 revision coming in 2015. BIZPHYX is staying on top of all of the ISO developments and we will be ready to help your company upgrade and implement to the new standard(s).
Tim, thank you again for your leadership and your friendship,
As mentioned in a previous article, another focus for QuEST Forum is the Small Business sector. BIZPHYX President and CEO, Sue Clancy recently presented to the Executive Board about Small Business initiatives as Chair of the Small Business Group.
In July, Sue Clancy and QuEST Forum CEO, Fraser Pajak had the opportunity to speak to TIG (Technology Industry Group) in Chicago. If you aren’t familiar with TIG, they are a group of supplier diversity executives from various technology companies in the ICT industry including Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Apple, SAS Institute, Intel, Futjitsu, as well as others. Some time back, the Telecommunications Industry Group and the Technology Industry Group joined efforts to form the new TIG.
Sue presented on the QuEST Forum vision for Small Business Education. In an effort to add more value to QuEST Forum’s Small Business Group and ICT industry technology start-ups, QuEST Forum, QuEST Forum Academy and the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) Business School are developing educational tracks to drive improvements in the overall health of ICT small businesses. They’re also addressing education for technology start-ups to improve product speed-to-market with fewer defects and innovation and entrepreneurship:
The goal is to have these educational tracks ready and available by Spring, 2015. These classes will be taught virtually through Telepresence to reduce costs for the students and the instructors. 75% of small business members in QuEST Forum (most of whom are ICT suppliers) are also diverse businesses (WBE, MBE, DVBE, HBE, SBA and SDVOB):
It’s important that these small companies and technology start-ups are healthy and viable, especially as as more of these players enter the ICT supply chain. These small businesses ultimately impact the quality and delivery of service for the entire industry.
The Small Business Education vision was well received by the QuEST Forum Executive Board and TIG. Now comes the work of pulling it all together. Sue and her group are very excited about what the future holds. We will post updates as this initiative moves into implementation stage.
For more information on TL 9000 and QuEST Forum Small Business, please contact sclancy@bizphyx.com.
Mid-year we always provide an update on QuEST Forum conferences and current TL 9000 initiatives. In late June, BIZPHYX executives attended the QuEST Forum EMEA Regional Conference in Vienna, Austria. This is QuEST Forum’s annual conference covering activities in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This year’s EMEA conference really highlighted the Executive Board’s focus on Sustainability. Who isn’t focusing on CSR and Sustainability, right? Well, EMEA telecoms are no different. Steve Pickett, Chair of the QuEST Forum Executive Board and CEO of WesTower Communications, presented about the Board’s news sustainability objectives and how they will impact the TL 9000 standard going forward. QuEST Forum recently included several sustainability requirements in TL 9000, including a requirement for organizations to define product disposal as part of its product lifecycle.
John Spears, Director at epi Consulting in Gloucester, United Kingdom gave a very compelling presentation entitled: “Sustainability – What, Why & How, the Proposed QuEST Forum Approach to Sustainability.” John specializes in supply chain strategy, sustainability, energy efficiency and circular economy in the EU. He works with ICT suppliers and service providers such as Vodafone, Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Samsung, Saudi Telecom, Energis and Scottish Power. He and Wes made the case for a set of global initiatives in ICT sustainability.
So stay tuned for future updates to the standard. This corporate reality is not going away and that’s why we are becoming more involved in helping clients certify to complimentary standards in electronics recycling, like R2. More to come on that subject in a future article and upcoming podcast.
As always, these conferences provide excellent presentations on the value of the TL 9000 standard and ICT quality practices in general. A stand out presentation was provided Nokia Networks’ Dr. Sunita Chauhan and Soma Sarkar who presented their paper on Nokia’s software quality defect detection model.
Together, they described Nokia Networks’ approach to eliminating defects early in the software development process. This model has significantly improved Nokia’s ability to prevent defects, contain and detect them early, and correct them faster. In turn, this has resulted in virtually zero known defects in their end product for customer pilot projects. They achieved this without compromising delivery schedules. In fact, Nokia Networks has decreased open customer defects in its software by more than 60% since 2011 and cut network outages by a third since 2012. That’s serious business. Nokia recorded this presentation and you can watch it here:
So for now, outside of the updates that will likely occur to the TL 9000 standard as the result of the impending ISO 9001:2015 revision, keep two concepts in mind– Small Business/Technology Start-Ups and Sustainability. These will be the likely drivers of future organizational goals within QuEST Forum and for the TL 9000 quality standard. Now, we begin preparing for the Americas Best Practices Conference which, will be held in Clearwater, Florida in September!
This story was featured in our recent Q2 edition of THE STANDARD, but we also wanted to provide access to this story on our blog.
Do quality systems, certifications and frameworks matter to an organization? You bet they do.
While they’re not a client, a fellow WBENC and QuEST Forum member company, KARLEE recently celebrated their 40-year anniversary. Many of you know KARLEE as a shining example of a company dedicated to ICT Quality. As Treasurer of the QuEST Forum Executive Board, KARLEE CEO JoAnn Brummit, is focused on driving supply chain excellence.
If you’re not aware, BIZPHYX President and CEO Sue Clancy and KARLEE CEO JoAnn Brummit, lead the Small Business Group in QuEST Forum.
As a result of this 40-year milestone, JoAnn was recently featured in a Dallas Business Journal article and FACETIME video. You can watch JoAnn’s video by clicking the image link below:
What makes KARLEE so special? KARLEE is a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient and is recognized as one of the Top 10 Woman-Owned Businesses in the DFW Metroplex. They are a provider of contract manufacturing services including precision machining, sheet-metal fabrication, mechanical assembly and electro-mechanical integrations. KARLEE services the telecom, defense, medical, energy, aerospace and commercial industries. Of course it goes without saying, KARLEE is TL 9000 certified!
Congratulations to JoAnn and the entire team at KARLEE on an honor well deserved! You’re an example that ICT quality standards and frameworks–DO matter.
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