The requirements for a quality system have been standardized – but many organizations like to consider themselves as unique. So how does ISO 9001:2008 allow the multiformity, on the one hand for a sole trader, and for a multinational manufacturing company with service components, or a public utility, or a government administration on the other hand?
The answer is that ISO 9001:2008 lays down the requirements a quality system must meet, but does not indicate how they should be met in a particular organization. This leaves great scope and flexibility for implementation in different business sectors and business cultures, as well as in different national cultures.

1. The standard requires the organization itself to audit its QMS according to ISO 9001:2008 – in order to verify that it is managing its processes effectively – or, in other words, to check that it is fully in control of its activities.
2. In addition, the organization may invite its clients to audit the quality system in order to give them confidence that the organization is capable of delivering products or services that will meet their requirements.
3. Lastly, the organization may engage the services of an independent quality system certification body to obtain an ISO 9001:2008 certificate of conformity. This last option has been proved extremely popular in the market due to the perceived credibility of an independent assessment.
   The organization may thus avoid multiple audits by its clients, or reduce the frequency or duration of client audits. The certificate can also serve as a business reference between the organization and potential clients, especially when supplier and client are new to each other, or far removed geographically, as in an export context.

ISO 9001:2008 introduces no new requirements. ISO 9001:2008 introduces just clarifications for the existing requirements of ISO 9001:2000 based on eight years of experience of implementing the standard world wide with about one million certificates issued in 170 countries up to date.
It also introduces changes intended to improve consistency with ISO14001:2004.

As the name “International Organization for Standardization” would have different acronyms in different languages (“IOS” in English, “OIN” in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), its founders decided to give it also a short, all-purpose name.
They chose “ISO”, derived from the Greek isos, meaning “equal”.
Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization’s name is always ISO.