An integrated ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 27001 management system for Blackmore Ricotech
About Blackmore Ricotech
The business leaders behind Blackmore Ricotech have been at the forefront of secure IT recycling for nearly 20 years and formed the present company from a merger in December 2015 of Blackmore IT and Ricotech, two of the UK’s leading data destruction, secure IT disposal and WEEE reprocessing companies. Data protection is their foremost priority and led to Blackmore Ricotech becoming one of only 35 companies across Europe to have both achieved and maintained the very high levels of data security, service and professional standards that ADISA accreditation demands. The company is an Environment Agency registered Approved Authorised Treatment Facility that combines expertise in whole equipment reuse with a position as one of the UK’s largest online suppliers of refurbished IT and electrical components.
A need for ISO 27001
The newly merged company had sites in Wells and at Chitterne, each with their own operational procedures and quality and environmental management systems. The Directors felt that the quality and environmental management systems at Chitterne were overly complicated and were getting in the way of the business, rather than contributing any real benefits, so the decision was made to develop light weight systems at Wells, to the newly released ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015, which could be rolled out to Chitterne at a later stage. Because information security is central to their business and not being ones to duck a challenge, the Directors decided to add an information security management system to ISO 27001. Blackmore Ricotech was also thinking ahead to May 2018 and the onset of the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
How The HSQE Department helped
The HSQE Department became involved with Ricotech in 2013 through a project to stream-line their existing ISO 9001 quality management and ISO 14001 environmental management systems, so was first choice to work with the newly merged company.
The first stage was to carry out a gap analysis against ISO 27001 and the re-issued ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 at Wells and it soon became apparent that there would be an advantage to start afresh with a lighter-weight set of documents & procedures. The process of mapping out the business environment and Blackmore Ricotech’s risks and opportunities resulted in some fresh thinking around the merging of the two businesses and a decision both to combine operations and to switch development of the management systems to Chitterne.
Working closely with the client’s Managing Director, HR Director & Technical Manager our Associate helped Blackmore Ricotech to develop the top-level policies and procedures needed to conform to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 27001, established a schedule of internal audits and guided the first Management Review. With support from our Associate the company successfully became certified to ISO 27001 and made the transition to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 in December 2016, gaining compliments from the certification body’s assessors in the process.
We continue to work with Blackmore Ricotech to further develop their quality, environmental and information security management systems and to help them to accrue the business benefits that come with them.
What our customer said
Having taken over the MD role at Blackmore Ricotech in late 2014, The HSQE Department were recommended to me, following the help they gave Ricotech in establishing ISO in the business in 2013. With very little experience of the new ISO certification and with the plan to introduce 27001 to the business at the same time, the Associate from The HSQE Department delivered a well organised program and timeline, to successfully take the business to its goal of new accreditations in all three ISO’s. The HSQE Department are adaptable, reliable and professional, particularly as we changed the scope and parameters of the project part way, by moving the entire focus to our larger and significantly busier facility at Chitterne. The Associate guided our development of the three ISO’s and put together a comprehensive Information Management System that is in constant use by all levels of management.
The culmination of our combined efforts was the two day ISO audits, which were actually a pleasure to take part in. The HSQE Department had prepared our team for what to expect and their Associate was with us every step of the way. The external auditors complemented our team and The HSQE Department for a well thought out and executed delivery of the three ISO’s.
Duly accredited to the three ISO’s following the audit, Blackmore then decided to engage The HSQE Department as our ISO partner going forward. A schedule was produced detailing the active involvement we would receive from The HSQE Department and we are looking forward to working with them in the future.
The HSQE Department are a superb firm to be associated with, the professionalism and positive attitude to completing our project was a breath of fresh air, the organisational skill to keep us on track is commendable, particularly given our change in project scope part way through. We would have no hesitation in recommending The HSQE Department as an ISO partner.
Jonathan Blake, MD, Blackmore Ricotech.
Find out more
The HSQE Department can streamline existing ISO management systems and facilitate the transition to ISO 9001:2015 or ISO 14001:2015.
Meet the obligations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation with ISO 27001.
