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FAQs--> buying a standard

How to get the ISO 9001 Standard

Q: How & where do you get a copy of the Standard, and what does it cost?

A: The cheapest option is to buy an electronic version, not hardcopy. You get a single downloadable, *.pdf file, and can print it. You can only buy it from someone with a license to sell ISO publications, ie, you can't just get one from any bookshop.

Q: But is it the same price no matter where you buy it?

A: Because it's exactly the same Standard, you might think so. Because whether you buy it in Australia, the USA, Canada or the UK or another country, the content is exactly the same: the official text of the ISO standard, approved by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization).

But comparing prices is worthwhile. Following the release of the 2008 version, and using currency rate conversion from www.xe.com the result in Feb 09 was that
Singapore = cheapest by far.

ANSI (USA) $180
BSI (UK) $180
SAI (Australia) $135 for the Australian $169 for ISO one $194 for BSI version
ISO (Switzerland) $158
UNI (Italy) $114 (bilingual, Italian/English)
SS (Singapore) $34 (USD I think)

It seems only available in hardcopy at the sales counter in India (or I couldn't work out the website). I gave up on Malaysia (wanted registration before divulging price).

If you do buy online, check out the conditions of sale first, to make sure you can abide by them.

Finally, another reminder: don't buy ISO 9004 (Guidelines for Performance Improvement) under any circumstances. It's well out of date, under major revision and due for release this year (2009).

How to buy a Standard online:

Find the website address of a country’s ISO member. If you don’t know it, use the list of Member Stores on the ISO website to find yours. If there's no website, use someone else.
On the country’s ISO member website, look for their shop. Not all countries have one, and there’s no consistency: look for words like ‘Standards shop’ or ‘Standards online’, 'webstore', 'eStore' etc. Often there's a Search facility, or a clickable button.
Find the right publication - in this case, the ISO 9001 standard. You want these key words in the title: “ISO 9001:2009 Requirements”. You can ignore any letters before ISO, as they identify the country (member organisation).
Eg, in Britain, it’s listed as ‘BS EN ISO 9001:2009 Requirements’. In the USA it’s just listed as 'ISO 9001:2009 Requirements'‘.
Check prices carefully. Sometimes there are prices for hardcopy (more expensive) and softcopy (cheaper). Also, some offer discounts to members such as Australia. You are only a member of a Standards organisation if you pay them a subscription, and no, I'm afraid that applying for certification doesn't count.
Follow their process to purchase. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, download it free from the Adobe website.

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intelligent ISO 9001 quality management

FAQs--> buying a standard

How to get the ISO 9001 Standard