ATC ISO Certification Service is three years old today. Time to step up the game!

The ATC’s ISO Certification Service is three years old today!

I remember standing on the stage at the ATC Language Industry Summit in September 2017, presenting the Certification Service to a home audience for the first time. I thought that we had a great idea, but as no one had done anything like this before, I just couldn’t be sure.

The idea in its simplicity was this: Provide language industry expert auditing and ISO certification services and training to language service companies across the world, and do it remotely where it makes sense.

What we did have was a supportive Council who funded the development of the service, the UK’s foremost expert on ISO standards for language services, and my own experiences and motivation from having experienced excruciating annual audits with an auditor who had no clue about what a translation company did.

Three years on, I’m hugely proud to say that the ATC’s ISO Certification Service works. I’m proud that the ATC as professional membership association has been able to build something as meaningful as the Certification Service, but more than that, I’m proud that our core mission, adding value to language service companies, hasn’t been diluted or altered. That is the one thing that still stands from the original, tentative business idea, still today totally aligned with the ATC’s objectives of raising the profile and standards of the language services industry.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without our dedicated, expert auditors Chris Cox and Sam Somerville, and our fabulous Certification Committee Doug Lawrence and Jonathan Bowring, as well as our certification team Christine Joyce, Holly Daly and Sandra Foster.

A huge thanks also goes to our certification clients who have put their time and resources, sometimes their sweat, blood and tears, into investing in ISO certification, committing to annual audits and continued improvement, and through their custom and feedback showing us that there is value to the service we provide.

And now we’re stepping up the game, though I unfortunately have no podium this time to announce the big news from.

The ATC’s ISO Certification Service has in the past three years proved its viability, and it’s time to enter stage two of its development. The ISO Certification Service will from October 2020 be managed by expert ISO consultancy Assent Risk Management, and from April 2021 the Certification Service will operate under a standalone limited company, jointly owned by the ATC and Assent.

Why? Well, we like to keep things simple. Simply so that we can offer you a mature, robust service, better training, more of our trademark expert services, and more of the language-industry relevant ISO standards that add value to your business.

In this new joint venture, Assent will provide deep ISO consultancy and certification expertise, and the ATC will continue to oversee the development of the service, and provide the language industry expertise that is the Certification Service’s corner stone.

I’m hugely excited about the Certification Service’s next chapter, and feel lucky to have been able to not just be there from the very start of the journey, but to get to continue it with this amazing team, and these quality-minded clients.

These three years have flown by, and I look forward to the next three – thank you for being there with us on this journey, and watch this space for more news!

Raisa McNab

Chief Executive Officer

Association of Translation Companies