Certification Consolidates Key Quality Principles for RelianSys®

Certex is proud to congratulate Jeff Ryall and the entire RelianSys® team on achieving ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems (QMS) certification in February 2022.  

ISO 9001 is one of the most widely-used quality management standards around the world. It is designed to help organisations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders while complying with statutory and regulatory requirements related to their products. 

Embarking on a ‘Journey to Excellence’

RelianSys® is a cloud software firm with a team of 10. It was spun out of a consulting company specialising in quality, risk, and compliance management 15 years ago. RelianSys® has developed a suite of software applications for managing audits, risk, compliance, delegations and other governance functions, as well as legal content. It provides a total solution for Customers and is the market leader of governance software in its key markets.  

As a start-up, RelianSys’® biggest challenge in its early stages was growth and development, as it funded growth through earnings. It immediately recognised the importance of customer service in gaining a competitive edge.  

Jeff Ryall, Founder and Managing Director of Reliansys, explained, “From the beginning we focused on service – something that’s often not done well by software firms. We realised that being accessible to our Customers, and providing good service was key to Customer retention. We really try to maintain a personal relationship with our Customers. This also helped to bring the voice of the Customer into the business” 

Five years later, as RelianSys’® processes became “sufficiently stable to be documented..., aspiring to excellence became [its] motivation and focus”. This included internal audits and risk controls - “it’s where we really began to move forward in our Journey to Excellence.” 

However, as expected with any business change, not all members of the organisation were convinced. 

“Not all staff ‘got it’ or totally bought into the Journey. We found that by not compromising our expectations, they either came on board or self-selected out.” 

A ‘quality culture’

RelianSys® defines quality as “giving Customers the experience they want”. Its three key quality principles are clear and understandable: 

• Think like a Customer

• Do things properly

• Continually improve on one thing at a time

Jeff believes that Quality can’t be something that’s tagged onto the business-as-usual as a label.  “It must BE business as usual – part of everyone’s professional DNA. For us it started with a shared understanding that Quality is at the core of delivering value. This is something that reputable sources such as Harvard Business Review – and of course AOQ (Australian Organisation for Quality) – consistently emphasise. The challenge is to contextualise Quality to our business and the markets we operate in, in a sensible, meaningful way.” 

RelianSys® also acknowledges that a ‘quality culture’ must be led and role-modelled from the top.  

“Management has to understand what Quality actually means in behavioural terms, and constantly reinforce it through example and guidance to consistent behaviours and application. That’s what created the Quality culture we have at RelianSys®.” 

Striving to be the best

Having achieved the international standard of excellence, the RelianSys® team sought to validate it with external certification. ISO 9001 certification would not only ensure long-term sustainability of a ‘quality culture’ in the business but would also allow the team to celebrate this stage of their ‘Journey to Excellence’. 

“ISO 9001 certification provides us with a label of credibility. It has also been a confidence boost to our people – an affirmation that we are doing things well. ISO 9001 certification also means that we stay in tune with the evolving Customer expectations of excellence.” 

Certification with Certex

RelianSys® did not present for certification until they were fully confident in meeting the standard, and after over four years of rigorous internal audits before certification, no-one was at all stressed about going through the process.  The firm chose Certex because of both organisations’ shared belief in quality and aspiration for excellence.   

Jeff was adamant that “We didn’t want one of those tick-box auditors who treat certification as a commodity.” 

In March, RelianSys® hosted a celebratory party at a stunning rooftop Melbourne venue with its staff, Certex, and other interested parties.  It was an achievement to be proud of.  Speaking on behalf of his team,  Jeff said that “Having achieved this milestone on our ‘Journey to Excellence’, it was something we could celebrate - which we did!” 

Contact us

Certex is accredited with the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) ISO 9001 as well as Safety and Environmental standards. 

To learn more about Quality certification for your business, please do not hesitate to give us a call or email.