KEMA awards ISO 9001 certification to carrier neutral data centre EvoSwitch

‘ISO 14001 (environment) is the next step’

Amsterdam, 6 February 2008 – EvoSwitch (evoswitch.com), the Dutch carrier neutral data centre that operates environmentally neutral has been awarded ISO 9001 certification by KEMA (kema.com). “The right first step towards ISO 14001 certification,” according to KEMA.

EvoSwitch has definitely moved past the start-up phase, now that it has obtained ISO 9001 certification. “Ever since the opening of EvoSwitch in April 2007, we have organised our processes in a professional manner,” states Laurens Rosenthal, Innovation Director at EvoSwitch. “The current ISO certification confirms the high quality of our processes and the endorsement of an inspection and certification body such as KEMA.”

ISO 27001, 9001 and 14001
In November 2007, EvoSwitch was already awarded ISO 27001 certification for information protection. Rosenthal: “The current ISO 9001 certification shows that our general operational processes such as sales, operational management and support are also of high quality. Our next aim is ISO 14001 certification. Naturally, we are already very environmentally friendly. We have invested in energy–saving cooling systems. We already save 20 percent on our energy consumption and use green energy, but it is rewarding to receive this quality confirmation from an independent accreditation body.”

Specific environmental requirements
“The step towards ISO 14001 is the next logical step for EvoSwitch,” claims Bas Kruimer, who is responsible for worldwide ISO certification at KEMA. “ISO 14001 builds on ISO 9001, with a number of specific additional organisational requirements related to the environment.”
Otherwise, ISO 14001 does not specify how environmentally friendly an organisation should be. It does provide information about general organisational measures taken to be able to operate environmentally friendly and to work in accordance with environmental legislation. Kruimer: “At EvoSwitch we noticed that serious and structured measures were implemented to operate environmentally friendly. Together with the obtained ISO 9001 certification, and the structured approach, we are well positioned to obtain environmental certification.”

Deming philosophy
The processes at EvoSwitch were already well organised because we started at an early stage by establishing a management document in co-operation with LKC Beheer & Inspectie (a branch of Klaver Giant Groep, www.giant.nl). The Deming philosophy on which ISO 9001 is based: plan, do, check, act was used for the document. This is a model for the continuous improvement of quality.

Bottom-up processes
“Our employees developed the processes themselves,” states Rosenthal. “LKC Beheer & Inspectie examined these processes in detail and removed the bottlenecks. The employees were then asked how they could improve the bottlenecks. We worked from the bottom to the top, and not with a design team that imposed certain processes on the organisation. This has allowed us to interweave the quality guidelines with the actual used method. By placing the responsibility at lower levels in the organisation, employees are more committed to the organisation. It becomes their process, their organisation. The certification procedure took 3 months, while it normally takes at least half a year. They made sure that we could rapidly complete the ISO 9001 procedure.”

EvoSwitch
Koen Stegeman
+31 (0)6 3049 1407
press.nl@evoswitch.com

About KEMA
KEMA (www.kema.com) is a firm of consultants for the energy industry, specialised in business and technical consultancy, operational support, measurement and inspection, testing and certification. Customers of KEMA are companies in the energy chain, investors, government bodies, industries with their own electrical infrastructure and industrial bulk consumers of energy. Suppliers of the energy sector and manufacturers of electrical equipment and retailers also belong to the clientele. The company employs more than 1500 staff in 20 countries worldwide.

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About EvoSwitch
EvoSwitch (www.evoswitch.com) is a carrier neutral data centre with a green character (CO2 neutral). The location of the company in the Amsterdam region has a floor surface of more than 9000 square meters where companies can safely house their IT infrastructure. The data center has a total capacity of 10 Megawatt, with a growth potential to 20 Megawatt. This energy capacity allows EvoSwitch to always supply sufficient energy for customers. EvoSwitch employs 30 staff including engineers, who active and pro-actively manage the equipment of customers. EvoSwitch operates completely climate neutral. In co-operation with the Climate Neutral Group we invest in worldwide projects to restore the CO2 balance in the atmosphere (www.climateneutralgroup.com). Companies that place their equipment with EvoSwitch can show on their website that they use a climate neutral data center by means of the logos in The Green Fan partner programme (www.thegreenfan.com).

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About LKC Beheer & Inspectie
LKC Beheer & Inspectie is part of the Klaver Giant Groep (www.giant.nl) and is specialised in NEN3140 safety inspections, the organisation of electrical operation (NEN-EN 50110) and advice with regard to quality assurance system and their implementation. Especially companies with an increased company risk such as the industry, laboratories and data centres are among the customers of LKC Beheer & Inspectie. LKC Beheer & Inspectie works for customers such as NIKHEF, Genencor International, and several municipalities in the Netherlands.

This release was published on openPR.