Parkopedia has recently undertaken a number of certifications, namely ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) and ISO 27001 (Security Management).
Why have we done this? Parkopedia was founded in 2007 and having surpassed 100 employees and continuing to grow, the time was right to standardise the processes we had in place. ISO standards are a way of demonstrating to our customers, partners and staff, that we have processes, policies and procedures in place that are internationally recognised, ensure a level of accountability and provide customers with confidence they will receive a consistent and high-quality service.
ISO 9001 is concerned with Quality Management. By keeping customer requirements and satisfaction at the core, ISO 9001 enables us to deliver continuous improvement through a self-monitoring process. Looking at our customers’ requirements as the input, our output benefits by aligning product development with customer satisfaction. Earlier in 2019, we conducted our first ever B2B customer satisfaction survey, where 4 out of 5 respondents confirmed they were “satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with Parkopedia and were likely to recommend us to colleagues based on their experiences with us.
We are also concerned with managing our carbon footprint and the impact we have not only locally but also globally. In our recent ISO 14001 Environmental audit, we examined how Parkopedia utilises gas, electricity, water and our travel as well as our local environmental efforts. Across all locations, Parkopedia supports remote and flexible working to minimise commuting and unnecessary travel, adopting an interactive workshop approach internally and with clients where feasible to negate carbon impacts from travel. Indeed our CEO has even been known to utilise some very environmentally friendly transport where available (see pictures below!). Longer term, we are examining what steps we can take to offset any air travel that is required.
As an organisation, Parkopedia supports an ethos of “giving back”, with employees encouraged to take time off for charitable or voluntary work. For example, Parkopedia employees have participated in voluntary work at children’s orphanages and animal shelters, as well as having organised events and funds for the elderly, disabled individuals and families in need. We have also organised two forest clean-up days so far this year, having a positive immediate and visible impact on the local area.
Finally, ISO 27001 looks at Parkopedia’s security controls, including access to offices and our development environments, as well as information security around personal employee data, commercial data from customers or partners and our code bases. We are also looking at our business continuity and succession planning, developing and implementing relevant controls to mitigate risk and ensure continuous delivery of service to our customers. Under ISO 27001, we have put in place a large number of policies with set targets which we monitor and evaluate against at regular intervals to understand areas for further development.
For each area, be that quality management, environmental and security, we now have in place a full system that covers everything from the initial planning, through to the implementation, monitoring and feedback loop to uncover future improvements. Ultimately, it will be this cycle of continuous improvement that will help Parkopedia to continue to grow and serve our customers’ needs.
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