ISO implementation support that ends in a documented system your people actually use.

It covers everything between deciding to adopt a standard and running a system that meets it: the gap analysis, process mapping, the document set, registers and records, release in Effivity, training and a verifying internal audit with management review. It ends with a handover, so your team owns the system. If certification is the goal, the system is then ready for the certification body's audit.

We can weight an engagement towards documentation, for example where a system already runs but its documents are out of date or were never finished. What we will not do is hand over a generic set with your name added. Documents that describe work nobody does fail at the first audit, so every engagement includes mapping the real process and releasing the documents to the people who follow them.

Less than most organisations expect. Each standard names certain documented information that must exist, such as a policy, a scope and specific records; beyond that, the amount depends on the complexity of your processes, the competence of your people and your risks. We write a procedure where its absence would cause errors, and a form or record where that is enough.

No. The gap analysis identifies what already works, and it stays, adjusted where a requirement is missing. Many organisations have more than they think: quality checks, safety inspections, access reviews or supplier approvals that happen every day without being written down. We document those practices as they are, rather than replacing them with something new that people then have to learn.

For one standard at a single site, the stage timings shown above are indicative. The real calendar depends on how mature your processes are, how many sites and people are in scope, and how quickly drafts are reviewed and approved on your side. The system also needs to run for a period before handover so there are records to verify. Share any fixed date at the start and we will plan backwards from it.

They are two alternative levels of support, not stages. Under Design™ we develop and your team implements under our expert advice and supervision, drafting on our templates between weekly sessions. Under Drive™ we design and build under your approval, so the work is fully managed by Sterling. In both, your management approves every document.

It prepares you for certification, but Sterling does not certify. An independent, accredited certification body audits your system and makes the decision. If you want Sterling alongside you through choosing the body, Stage 1 and Stage 2, our ISO certification service carries the same implementation through to the certificate, with the Sterling Promise attached.

In Effivity, the ISO and GRC platform built by the Sterling group, which is included with the engagement at no additional cost. Documents are controlled there with versions, owners, approvals and review dates, and registers, actions and training records sit alongside them. You can still export documents whenever you need to share them with a customer or an auditor.

Yes. The same mapping and documentation method applies to frameworks such as GDPR, SOC 2 or HIPAA, where the outcome is compliance or an independent report rather than a certificate. For SOC 2, for example, the report is issued by the service auditor, a CPA firm; we prepare the controls, policies and evidence it will examine.