News

Westcon Group Extends ISO 9001:2000 Certification throughout European Organisation

TARRYTOWN, NY, July 31, 2006 - Westcon Group, Inc., a multi-national distributor of networking technology products, announced today that its entire European sales organisation has achieved the ISO9001:2000 certification, part of the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) ISO 9000 family of standards. 

Between March and June of 2006, ISO certification was gained at the distributor’s sales operations in the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, France, Spain and Germany. These latest certifications follow other ISO certifications Westcon Group European Operations received between January, 2003 and April, 2005.

Audits carried out by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance focused on the processes developed within WGEO’s European Process Management System (EPMS) and the European Continuous Improvement System (ECIS).

These systems were developed as part of Westcon Group’s commitment to develop and improve processes across Westcon Group Europe.  The EPMS was developed to bring visibility to all WGEO’s European procedures, while providing a basis for a European-wide core quality system.  The ECIS enables WGEO to request and monitor business process improvements for reporting and auditing purposes. 

Simon Minett, chief operating officer, WGEO, commented: “Our European organization is committed to excellence in all we do.  We are always looking for ways to become more efficient and rigorous in our approach.  In achieving the ISO9001:2000 certification, our sales methodologies and processes are officially recognized by the ISO.”

Project co-ordinator Vincent Povey, European facilities manager added: “The European ISO roll out has been a most rewarding endeavour, involving staff at every level of the organisation.  Now that we have achieved ISO certification, we plan to move forward with regular European group-level quality forums, where common processes can be further refined and the culture of continual improvement can mature further across all of our European companies.”

Certification for the new EPMS and ECIS management systems were gained on October 27th, 2004.  Comstor UK and WGEO have operated an ISO 9000 accredited system in Cirencester, UK, since 1999 and in November, 2004 a second operational location in the Netherlands attained the ISO 9000:2000 standard and achieved ISO certification. A third operational location in Germany attained the standard in April, 2005. 

In the United States, Westcon Group’s Voda One division gained its ISO 9000 certification in 2002 for its Final Channel Assembly process.  At that time, Voda One, which had no obligation to be certified, pursued the ISO certification to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to maintaining high quality management systems. 

The ISO 9000 series, originally published in 1987, has earned a global reputation as the basis for establishing quality management systems.  It is based on eight quality management principles that reflect best management practices.  These principles are:

• Customer Focus
• Leadership
• Involvement of People
• Process Approach
• System Approach to Management
• Continual Improvement
• Factual Approach to Decision Making
• Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

The concept of “continual improvement” contained in the ISO 9000 standard is intended to promote the effectiveness of the quality management system and increase the organization’s ability to compete in the market. 
         
About Westcon Group
Westcon Group, Inc. is a multi-national distributor of networking and communications equipment for leading technology vendors, including Cisco Systems, Inc., Nortel Networks Corporation and Avaya, Inc.  Through its Westcon, Comstor and Voda One divisions, Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and service providers.  Westcon Group has particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless connectivity.  For more information, visit www.westcongroup.com.

Contacts: 
Jeffrey Touzeau   
Westcon Group, Inc.   
(914) 829-7388   
jtouzeau@westcongroup.com