About Sterling · Leadership and consultants
The Sterling consulting team: expert and experienced consultants working beside your people.
Every Sterling engagement is led by one engagement team who knows your standard, your scope and your target date. This page explains who delivers the work, how a consultant is assigned to you and how the team works with your own people from the first discovery call to the certification decision.
- One engagement teamA single point of contact who owns the plan, the timeline and the advice for the whole engagement.
- A consultant in your regionSupport from the Sterling office network across 18 countries, for clients in 60+ countries.
- Your team stays in chargeWe develop and advise; you approve every decision about your own management system.
- Skills that stay with youInternal auditor training for your audit team, as applicable to your standard.
Who delivers the work
The Sterling consulting team: expert and experienced consultants who deliver the work.
Sterling's consultants are expert and experienced in the management system standards and compliance frameworks that Sterling supports: ISO management systems, integrated management systems, ESG, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA and GDPR. The same method has been applied and refined across the group since 2003.
The consultant who leads your engagement is the one you speak to about progress, findings and next steps. Behind that lead sits the wider Sterling team and the group's own ISO and GRC software, Effivity, which is used in 50+ countries and included with the engagement at no additional cost.
- Expert and experienced consultants across ISO, ESG, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA and GDPR
- One engagement team for each engagement, from scope to certification decision
- Bylines and client accounts credit the delivery team, because the delivery team does the work
How a consultant is assigned
Your engagement team is set once your scope and level of support are agreed.
Assignment starts with the free discovery call. You tell us your goals, your locations and your target date, and a Sterling consultant in your region helps you define the scope, the timeline and the next steps. That conversation defines the standards involved, the sites in scope and the level of support you choose, and your engagement is led on that basis.
The level of support is one of two alternatives. Design™ is our default model: we develop, and you implement under our expert advice and supervision. Drive™ is fully managed: we design and build under your approval. Your engagement team works to whichever model you choose, and the plan is set on that basis from the start.
- A free discovery call with a Sterling consultant in your region
- Scope, timeline and next steps agreed before the work begins
- Design™ or Drive™ as the level of support, chosen by you
Working with your team
We build the system around your processes, with your people, not around a template.
A management system only works if the people who run the business understand it and own it. Your engagement team works with your management representative, process owners and frontline teams, reviewing how work is actually done and building documentation, controls and records that fit it. Decisions about your system stay with you.
Knowledge transfer is part of the engagement. Your audit team receives internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, and your people receive complimentary awareness training. Sterling Academy offers preferential course access and special pricing through your Sterling consultant for anyone who needs to go further. Effivity gives your team one place to run documents, actions and audits once the consultant steps back.
- Process owners and frontline teams involved in building the system they will run
- Internal auditor training for your audit team and complimentary awareness training for your people
- Effivity included, so the system keeps running after certification
Expert and experienced consultants
What backs the team: a promise, a method and the letters clients have signed.
The Sterling Promise sets the standard every consultant works to: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements. The team supports your response to every finding until the agreed certification outcome is achieved. After certification, Sustain™ continues the support through surveillance and recertification audits, and Revise™ covers version transitions, scope expansion and new standards.
The clearest evidence of how the team works comes from clients. The accounts below are drawn from signed letters on file and describe consultants who met milestones, worked collaboratively with client teams and built systems around each company's own processes.
- The Sterling Promise: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements
- Sustain™ support through surveillance and recertification audits
- Signed client letters on file and available on request
Sterling does not certify. An accredited certification body audits your system and decides on certification; our consultants prepare you for that audit and support you through it.
Client experience
On the record: what clients say about working with Sterling.
The ISO manager reports that the company was very pleased with the implementation approach, and that the consultants guided it to a close integration of its existing systems with the additional requirements of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001.
The ISO project manager writes that every project milestone was met within the agreed timeframe and to the stated objectives, and that the team's expertise, meticulous planning and collaborative approach were instrumental in a smooth and efficient implementation.
The operations director notes that the team understood both the compliance requirements and the company's day-to-day processing operations, and that the guidance and remediation plan improved how teams handle sensitive information across shifts and locations while strengthening compliance practice.
The group quality manager writes that the consultants standardised food safety practice across several sites while allowing for operational differences, and that the training material was clear and useful for managers and frontline staff alike.
Each account is drawn from a signed letter or e-mail on file and reported in our words, with the signatory's role and organisation attached; the original letters are available on request. Ask for references in your sector before you decide.
- 60+countries where Sterling has delivered certification
- 21countries with a Sterling office, eight regions, one coordinated team
- 2003the year the group began implementing ISO management systems; the same method, refined, since
- 8,100+client engagements across the group, from single-site SMEs to multinationals
FAQs
Questions about the Sterling consulting team
How consultants are assigned and how they work with your people.
Who will lead our engagement?
One engagement team, set once the scope and level of support are agreed after the discovery call. That consultant owns the plan and the timeline and is your point of contact throughout.
How much of our own team's time will the engagement need?
It depends on the level of support you choose. Under Design™ your team implements under our expert advice and supervision; under Drive™ we design and build under your approval, so less of your team's time goes into the work itself. Your engagement team sets out what is needed from your side when the plan is agreed.
Will our people be trained?
Yes. Your audit team receives internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, and your people receive complimentary awareness training. Sterling Academy offers preferential course access and special pricing through your Sterling consultant.
Do Sterling's consultants certify our organisation?
No. Sterling does not certify. An accredited certification body audits your system and makes the certification decision. Our consultants prepare you for the audit and support your response to any finding.
Can we speak to other clients about working with the team?
Yes. Signed client letters are on file and available on request, and we can arrange references in your sector before you decide.
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