TL 9000

TL 9000 is an ISO 9001 based standard specific intended for use in the telecommunications sector. It incorporates the requirements of ISO 9001 with one additional element,4.21 Customer Satisfaction & Continuous Improvement and 83 "adders" comprising various industry requirements in hardware, software and services. TL 9000 defines the quality system requirements for the design, development, production, delivery, installation and maintenance of telecommunication products and services. It serves telecommunication service providers, their suppliers and subscribers in many ways. All registered companies should submit specific metrics on a quarterly basis to a repository managed by the University of Texas, Dallas. The metrics will be used to benchmark against the ' best in practice' in industry. Certification to this standard would improve the quality of service, enhance customer/supplier relationship, facilitate overall cost reduction, increase competitiveness, create a platform for improvement initiatives and standardize the quality system requirements, worldwide.

How does TL 9000 benefit you?

Origin and Development of TL 9000

TL 9000 was developed by the QuEST (Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications) Forum in1999, a unique partnership of telecommunications suppliers and service providers, established to foster continued improvements in the quality and reliability of telecommunications service. Presently, it has more than 150 members (telecommunications companies & service providers), who have developed and are actively involved in promoting this telecommunications specific standard. The Forum utilizes a pilot program approach which necessitates companies to partner with their registrars for training and eventually, the entire registration process. QuEST has always been committed to establishing a common set of quality system requirements for the telecommunications industry, including reportable cost and performance based metrics. All these norms can ensure that the efficiency of telecommunication products and services is always maintained. The standard was published in two volumes-TL 9000 Quality System Requirements and TL 9000 Quality System Metrics. It is intended for service providers and suppliers (both software & hardware manufacturers) in the telecommunications business. Though, till date TL 9000 had been mostly perceived as an American standard, the attitude is fast changing and more and more companies worldwide are demanding their suppliers to be registered to the standard.

Certification Procedure

It is not necessary for a company to be a member of the QuEST Forum in order to become TL 9000 registered. However, as a full-time member of the Forum, you will have voting rights and can be a part of the development team that creates and reviews TL 9000.You will also have special viewing privileges of the Telecom Industry Metrics Trend Reports(TIMTR). Conformance to TL 9000 will be determined by a third-party registration audit from an accredited TL 9000 registrar. The third party registrar can register companies to the following three schemes or combinations-TL 9000 Hardware, Software and Services. As mutually decided by both the parties (company & registrar), the registration may cover the entire organization, a single unit or product line. The number of days of audit are specified by the QuEST Forum with appropriate reductions for companies that are currently registered to ISO 9001 or other standards. Companies wanting to register for TL 9000 certification process can complete an online TL 9000 registration ID application. This is available at the QuEST Forum web-site at (www.questforum.org).