ISO 27001 benefits for your business

ISO 27001:2022 sets out how an information security management system (ISMS) is built. The benefit comes from two places: the certificate you show to others, and the work you do to earn it.

Customer trust

Your security claims come with a certificate number that a buyer can check.

Tenders

A security certificate is a common requirement or award criterion, and you can attach it.

Internal efficiency

Roles, rules and incident handling are written down once instead of being explained again in every project.

Risk reduction

The risk assessment decides which Annex A controls you implement, so effort goes where the risk is.

Marketing

The PDF, the QR code and the verification page can be used on your website, in quotes and in e-mails.

• ISO 27001 standard page

Larger customers send supplier questionnaires with dozens of security questions. Every answer costs your team an hour, and every answer is a claim without proof. A certificate gives your contact in the purchasing department a document for the supplier file.

The same applies to a customer audit. Without a management system you explain your setup in conversation and hope it convinces. With one, you point to the security policy, the risk assessment and the Statement of Applicability (SoA), and the discussion starts from documents.

The effect is strongest where customers hand you sensitive data: IT service providers, software companies, cloud providers, financial service providers, healthcare and e-commerce.

Many tenders and framework agreements ask for proof of information security. The certificate is that proof in a form the evaluator recognises. It does not win the tender, but without it you may not get through the first screening.

• Compare certification routes
• Certification without an on-site audit

The standard asks for a few things that many small companies have never put in writing. Doing so is where the internal gain lies. A certificate does not promise that no incident will happen. It makes sure you have decided in advance what to protect and what to do when something goes wrong.

1. 01

   Assess the risks

   You list what could go wrong with your information and rate it. The result tells you which controls are worth the effort and which are not.

2. 02

   Define policy and objectives

   Management states what security means for the company. Decisions on access, devices and suppliers can refer to it.

3. 03

   Document the controls

   The Statement of Applicability records which Annex A controls apply and why. New colleagues and auditors find the answer in one place.

4. 04

   Train employees

   Staff learn what is expected of them, for example with phishing, passwords and customer data.

5. 05

   Handle incidents and learn from them

   Incidents are reported, assessed and followed up. The same mistake is less likely to happen twice.

The certificate comes as a PDF with a QR code. Put it on your website next to the services it covers, attach it to quotes, and link it in your e-mail signature or in the security section of your sales documents.

Every Zertify certificate can be verified publicly by its number or by scanning the QR code. A prospect does not have to take your word for it: the verification page confirms that the certificate exists and is valid.

State accurately what the certificate is. It is based on an online self-assessment, not on an on-site audit, and it is confirmed every year by a short online re-audit. Buyers who check will find the same facts, and that keeps the claim credible.

You answer 48 yes/no questions online. Thirteen of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and must all be answered yes. Of the other 35, at least 24 must be yes. If you pass and pay, the certificate follows within 4 hours. SICE reviews every assessment, and the certificate is issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE.

The price is CHF 849 (€849) in the first year, then CHF 569 (€569) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years. You can cancel at any time to the end of the current year in your customer account, and the certificate then ends with the paid year. Companies certifying to several standards get 20% off for two standards and 30% off for three or more, also on the yearly fee.

• Start the free self-assessment
• See pricing
• ISO 27001 at Zertify