Riyada receives ISO 9001/2015 certification

Muscat: Public Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Riyada) made a new breakthrough and has obtained the ISO 9001/2015 certificate, after fulfilling all requirements and being audited by Lloyd's Register during the period from May 13 to May 15, 2019.
Badriya Abdullah Al Hanai, Director of Planning Services and Quality Assurance at Riyada said: “We are very pleased with this new achievement. The ISO certificate is a recognition of our commitment to improvement and a culmination of the efforts and dedication of our staff.”
She also added that the certificate is an important step in improving Riyada’s services and contributing to the development of performance in accordance with international standards.
Badriya explained that obtaining the ISO 9001/2015 reflects the efforts of Riyada’s employees in order to improve the quality of services provided to the beneficiaries especially the SMEs. This is reflected positively on the performance of the employee during the next stage.
She also pointed out the authority earns the fruits of hard work, good planning and efficiency of all departments in Riyada. The Director of Planning Services and Quality Assurance poined out that the certificate will contribute to motivating the authority to continue its efforts to achieve the main objectives, especially the development of small and medium enterprises, which will help in the development of the entrepreneurship sector and accomplish the progress and development of the national economy.
This achievement assures Riyada’s commitment to improving the level of services and performance by identifying all the challenges, finding suitable solutions to overcome them ,and setting up developing performance indicators to measure its operations.
Subsequently this will help in achieving its goal, which is improving the satisfaction level of the beneficiary of the authority’s services and to meet the requirements of the concerned parties.
The new version of ISO 9001/2015 focuses on increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the procedures. The most important change is the risk-bases thinking system, which contributes to increasing knowledge of the risks, identifying the available opportunities of the authority and in developing a plan to deal with them. The system also helps to organise processes and develop guidelines for each employee so that he/she can perform the tasks in a more structured manner.
“Riyada is one of the first government units to design internal electronic platforms to manage the quality system and to document the operational procedures according to Riyada’s administrative divisions," said Badriya.
She also explained that the authority aimed at improving the level of services it provides and improving the procedures and operations related to the stratification of the beneficiaries by identifying their needs and meeting their requirements. As well as, striving for the development of the staff and developing their skills.
Badriya also illustrated the phases of the project, which includes four basic ones : preparation phase, diagnosis and assessment phase ,documentation and implementation phase and internal audit, management review and external audit phase.
She explained that each phase has specific goals and outputs, which were evaluated through special indicators. Furthermore , she pointed out that the preparation phase included an explanation of the proposed work plan and implementation mechanisms.
She added that the project has been named “Itqaan”, and it includes an internal visual identity for the project and focusing on that the quality is the responsibility of everyone. The project also included various training programmes to make the employees gain the concepts and requirements of the ISO 9001/2015, to increase the awareness level, and establish the quality concept in Riyada.
Concerning the diagnostic phase, Badrya clarified that it aimed at analysing the current work system and determining its suitability to the requirements of the standards. He also pointed out that the gaps and improvements have been identified in the system and then a development plan was prepared to build and upgrade the system.
Then it comes the turn of documentation and implementation phase. The documentation phase started with the employee’s training in the scope of the project’s work, the documentation mechanisms, the documentation and development of the current processes and procedures and the preparation of the quality guide according to ISO 9001/2015.
She pointed out that the documentation phase was followed by working on the implementation of the updated developments and initiating the procedures of change.