Choosing a Registrar - What Should We Look For in a Registrar?

Energy, I would have to say yes that the consultant would get a finders fee for you choosing a Registrar that he pointed you towards. My company currently uses TUV, while the audtors they send us are excellent the customers service for TUV stinks!!! I would love to change Registrars I think we are getting soaked by ours 20k for three days two guys to me is out rageous. I have quotes from other Registrars that are a 1/3 of the price, however the powers that be in the company I work for do not want to swtich, for what I think is a very poor reason, but hey who am I to know anything about business matters I just work in Quality, this comes from the same people that don't even have a businees plan in place for running the company. Ok enough about that.

NSF-ISR in Michigan they are very good and in my opinion very inexpensive for a large Registrar. 1-888-673-9000 if you want more specifics about the company e-mail me and I will give you some names of people to talk to.

The other not sure what your business is but DLS-Quality Technology in New York, small Registrar very service oriantated very reasonable in price.

And hey you never know if you decide to go with one of those Registrars I may be your auditor!!

Anyway feel free to e-mail me and I will be more than happy to provide any information I can.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Registrars being registered?

As far as registrars getting ISO certified themselves, well let's just say that of the ones I heard of doing that, it was essentially done through the backdoor either by another division of their own company or by another registrar (because who else could do it?) and what sort of credibility do you think that lends anyway? If it is a registrar who is registering another registrar, then what gives your confidence that the registrar that did the certifying is competent? Because they themselves are registered? And who would have registered THEM? It is a chicken and egg and doesn't mean a darn thing. If it ran this way it would be a self-policing industry running amok.

The registrars are essentially certified to their own standard. It encompasses ISO 900X requirements and then some. It is the accreditation bodies that do the certifying for a registrar and tell you if they meet snuff. If you want to identify a good registrar, try choosing one who has had their feet put to the fire by many different accreditation bodies, rather than just one. I worked for a registrar for four years and experienced my share of accreditation audits and surveillance visits. We held 17 accreditations for 9000 and 14 for 14001.

Some accreditation bodies are lazy and will pass anyone. RAB audits are a joke. You can put the evidence of nonconformance right in front of their nose and they won't do anything. UKAS is pickier, InMetro was a bugger, etc. What several accreditation bodies will accept, there will be one or more who will say "no". The more accreditations a registrar carries, the tighter their controls have to be. And if you decide to go with a smaller registrar without multiple accreditations, then at least go with one that has UKAS. I would not accept a registrar who carried RAB only.

That's my 4 cents worth...

Oh, and btw, office location of a registrar means nothing. The auditors are stationed all over the country. They aren't office based. The only ones in the office are the administrative and managerial staff. And where an assessor lives is equally unimportant because he ain't coming to see you from his house - he's coming to see you from wherever his other client(s) that week are ! So don't limit yourself to finding one "close by".

Other recommendations I have are:

Intertek Services
NSF-ISR (as previously given)
AOQC Moody

I don't have any relationship with these other than what I've heard or personally seen.

You can also look at:

American Global Standards
International Standards Accreditation Authority

Good luck and have a great holiday

I went thru 63 registrars in choosing our registrar ( info,questions, surveys,interviews,etc.) our final 5 based on our needs in 2000 were:
UL
NSF-ISR
TRA
BVQI
Orion

A good day!

Thanks for Registrar leads. We are also looking at UL out of Melville, NY. We are a UL listed manufacturer of Industrial Electrical Panels. The relationship may make things easier and we have UL Inspectors here periodically to bless the panels and install the coveted UL label to our product. So I now have the beginning of the Registrar Selection Plan. With the various checklists available, we can begin. This coupled with the flow chart plan makes for a good day.Yup, the sun is shining unusually bright today on my unusually shiny dome!

Different people and registrars have different setup arrangements. I never get a 'finders fee' because I see that as a serious potential bias to this site (which may change if I resort to accepting advertising). I recommend several registrars and let the client decide - which is why I have the registrar rating spreadsheets in the Premium Access subscription area and the powerpoint file with things to consider when choosing a rgistrar.

I have spoken with others and registrars typically offer finders fees ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand bucks. Depends upon how big the potential client is.

That said, many consultants (or whatever you want to call us) have (to be kind) gentlemen's agreements. I'll send clients to you if you send clients to me. Some folks call these 'sweetheart' deals and suggest many are not always on the up and up. I do know that to be a registrar (other than the paperwork and some odds and ends) it's pretty much a US$20,000 investment. Registrars are popping up everywhere.

Re: Registrars being registered?

Originally posted by Lucinda

The registrars are essentially certified to their own standard. It encompasses ISO 900X requirements and then some. It is the accreditation bodies that do the certifying for a registrar and tell you if they meet snuff. If you want to identify a good registrar, try choosing one who has had their feet put to the fire by many different accreditation bodies, rather than just one. I worked for a registrar for four years and experienced my share of accreditation audits and surveillance visits. We held 17 accreditations for 9000 and 14 for 14001.


Some accreditation bodies are lazy and will pass anyone. RAB audits are a joke. I would not accept a registrar who carried RAB only.

Click to expand...

17 accreditations that must have been very costly. I am assuming you worked for one of the larger Registrars?? You have to remember the smaller Registrars cannot afford to have RvA, RAB, UKAS, etc... accreditation. Once again jmho but I don't think it should matter how many accreditations the Registrar has, I think the company needs to assess the Registrar themselves through questioning the auditors, the office staff, and other companies that are registered by that particular registrar. If you want a good registrar I think you will have to do some leg work, not look at the accreditations they have. As I mentioned before the smaller Registrars cannot afford all the accreditations a larger Registrar can, but that does not mean they are not as good if not better than the larger ones.

While I agree with the fact that the RAB has some troubles I think you need to look at the auditors they are sending you, if you didn't feel the RAB assessors were very good you should have notified the RAB or how else will they know they have a problem on their hands. (I guess you could say well I am sure someone else reported them, if that is the case you have no reason to complain). As far as not accepting a registrar that carried RAB accerditation only that is your opinion and you are entitled to it. IMHO as I stated before look at the registrar as a complete company, not just how many accerditations they have. If you leave out registrars that carry just the RAB IMHO your are taking the chance of leaving out a large number of very good registrars.


Happy Thanks Giving!!

Energy,

If you consider UL for 14K, ask for biographical info on the auditors. UL informed me that they preferred engineers to environmental professionals as EMS auditors.

It may not mean anything in the long run, but it causes me to reconsider a few things.

What's that?

What the is 14K?) ISO first and foremost. One expensive step at a time. Happy Thanksgiving! Hey, going fishing Saturday!

Concerning Registrars being ISO 9001 certified. To the best of my knowledge, there is no Registrar ISO certified to the ISO 9000 Standards. Some names have been mentioned before, such as SGS, ABS and Moody, but I don't believe that the scope of certification for those companies cover the Registrar service line. Such organizations, such as the one that I work for, offer a variety of services. Some business units of DNV are also ISO 9001 certified, but not the Registrar business unit.

The primary reason is that we would have to make our most "sensitive" business processes and records accessible to a competitor. Who in their right mind set would pay for a competitor to scrutinize your most proprietary information and data?

Registrars are accredited and the accreditation process also includes audits by the Accreditation Agencies such as the ANSI-RAB to internationally accepted Standards such as ISO Guide 62 and ISO Guide 66.