Interested Parties

The first question that should arise in your mind is, ‘Who are the interested parties?’ The second question should be, ‘Why is it important to understand the needs and expectations of the interested parties?’

For example: When you enter a showroom, you enter it with an expectation that the store will provide you with what you are looking for. You become an interested party as soon as you take a step in the store, and the store has to do its best to fulfill your requirements. However, they can satisfy your needs only if they understand your requirements.

Continuing with our example, if a customer is new to your store, you will use a different tactic to sell the products than the one you use for selling your products to your regular/old customers. This is called ‘understanding the expectations and needs of the interested parties.’

According to ISO 9001:2015, the organizations have to determine their interested parties and their requirements that are relevant to the QMS.

An organization along with identifying its interested parties, should also understand their needs and expectations relevant to the functions for effective stakeholder management.

There are various ways in which the organizations can conduct stakeholder analysis. Some of these are ranking the stakeholder’s needs based on the power of their influence, addressing stakeholder’s needs based on their impact on the organization and stakeholder cycle.

Every interested party poses a risk to the organization’s ability to provide its products and services that meet the requirements of the customer as well as statutory and regulatory requirements. It is also to be noted that not all interested parties pose the same sort of risk or have same type of expectations every time. Their expectations keep on changing over time.

In the end, it is for the organization to decide if a particular requirement of an interested party is relevant to its QMS or not.

Eurotech, an IRCA approved training partner (ATP), is conducting ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Trainings in your city. To know more about this training, drop an email at trg@eurotechworld.net or call us at +91 9316744482 or 0172 - 4191128.