HOW DOES THE SERVICE WORK?
There are two communities within the service, namely 'member companies' and 'clients'.
Member companies provide information about themselves by answering a set of questions (called the ‘company information profile’ or CIP) into an online database. They also upload supporting information to support their answers. On completion, the CIP is checked for completeness and then company is certified as having achieved the 'Listed' level. .
Some companies for commercial reasons may wish to be to progress to be certified by a UKAS -licenced Certification Body. Provided there are no extant non-conformances reported by the certification body, the company is shown on the website as 'Accredited'.
For a flowchart of the certification process, click here.
Clients may be private organisations, national or local authorities, or principal contractors that wish to view member companies' profiles online with a view to retaining/inviting them to provide a service or product within a framework or join a supply chain for a specific project. Their level of access is controlled and only bona fide organisations can register. Only certified companies are shown together with their certification status and a summary of key information. All other profile information held on the certified company is only accessible to clients that have their own status tracker group. All access is subject to password protection.