When a company claims that they are ISO 9000 certified or registered, they mean that an independent registrar has audited their quality system and certified that it meets the ISO 9001:2000 requirements. It means that a registrar has given a written assurance that ISO’s quality management system standard has been met.
However, when a company says that they are ISO 9000 compliant, they usually mean that they have met ISO’s quality system requirements but have not been formally certified by an independent registrar. In effect, they are self-certified. This is perfectly acceptable for many companies, especially small ones. Of course, an official Certificate does tend to carry more weight in the market place.
