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What do you use a management system for?
Management systems can be used for various purposes and in various fields. Some examples include:
ISMS: information security management systems
Consider the ISO 27001 standard or the NEN 7510 standard, both of which focus on managing information security risks.
PMS: Privacy management systems
Consider the ISO 27701 standard, which focuses on the management and assurance of personal data within organizations.
KMS: quality management systems
Consider the ISO 9001 standard, which focuses on assuring quality in business processes.
So just as organizations use a CRM system to manage customer relationships, the management system is used to manage the ISO standard. It is therefore crucial that this be a user-friendly and easy-to-maintain system.
The right software for your management system
To set up a user-friendly management system, at least the following functionalities are required:
The pros and cons of management systems
Because of the requirements for the above functionalities, in practice one of the three options below is usually chosen. In this white paper, we explain these solutions in more detail, explain the advantages and disadvantages and our view of the best practices.
A. Work management system
So are you already working with Monday, ClickUp, JIRA or Notion?
Then we can easily transfer our management system template to your workspace. This saves a lot of time during setup and makes maintaining the management system after implementation easier
and cheaper. On the following pages we provide a preview of our templates in the various workspace management systems.
Work management systems are flexible and (usually) have all the required functionalities for a user-friendly management system. Therefore, for organizations already working with a Work Management System, it is a no-brainer to also manage the management system within it. Still, many organizations see it as a major challenge to set up a Work Management System properly. Especially for a complex standard such as ISO 27001. This is why we at Fendix have set up fully template management systems for the
most commonly used work management systems. These systems are already running at dozens of clients and are often considered best practice by independent auditors.
Monday
Monday is one of the best known task and project management systems in the Netherlands. Thanks to the flexibility and user-friendliness of this tool, it can also be used very effectively as a management system.
JIRA + Confluence
JIRA is a task management tool. Combined with Confluence for documentation, it can create a robust ISMS. JIRA Work Management can be used for annual operational planning, while Confluence hosts policy documentation and procedures.
ClickUp
ClickUp is Fendix's task management system. We use ClickUp for managing clients, projects, routine tasks and as a knowledge base. ClickUp is also our favorite tool for implementing a management system in organizations that are not yet working with a task manager.
Notion
Notion is a knowledge base tool that has become wildly popular among private users in recent years. However, the tool is increasingly being used by organizations as well. The flexibility Notion offers to manage documents and tasks also makes it very suitable as a management system.
B. ISO software
ISO software is designed to assist companies in complying with complex ISO standards. This software provides specific tools and functions for compliance, risk assessment, document management and reporting. It also integrates the requirements and guidelines of the ISO. Because of this, organizations often think that by purchasing this software they can implement an ISO standard on their own. However, our experience has shown that this is very disappointing in practice.
ISO software doesn't give you flexibility
While templates can get you started, the challenge of an implementation is in interpreting the standard and applying it to your business processes. This is always different and requires flexibility, even in your system. And this is what ISO software does not provide.
The result is that after purchasing this expensive software, organizations often still need to hire a consultant to help write policies and set up the management system.
Why we don't work with ISO software implementation partners
Unlike many other ISO implementation parties, we have chosen not to partner with software developers. This is because we do not believe that after an implementation process, you should also be stuck with sky-high subscription costs. To illustrate, where you pay a few tens of euros per month for work management software, you can easily spend hundreds of euros per month for ISO software.
C. Word, Excel and Google
Managing a management system with Word, Excel and Google Workspace is popular because of their general accessibility and familiarity. They offer flexibility and can be cost effective. An advantage for organizations with limited budgets. However, these tools just do not provide the functionality needed to easily maintain and audit the management system. For example, Word, Excel and Google Workspace make it difficult to create links between policies,
risks and maintenance tasks, and they do not offer a standard ability to assign tasks and send notifications when deadlines have passed. Consequently, organizations that choose this solution find that maintaining the management system is a complicated and time-intensive task. Therefore, we only recommend this solution if a work management system is not suitable for any reason.
Would you rather choose this solution?
Then this is no problem at all. We have already helped dozens of organizations efficiently set up the management system in Word & Excel.
Request a free demo
Choosing the right software for your management system requires a consideration of needs, available budget and how you want to maintain the management system. At Fendix, we have done dozens of successful implementations using each of the aforementioned ways. In addition, we have management system templates that can be used in popular task management systems as well as Word and Excel.
Still in doubt or want to know if your system is suitable as a management system?
Then request your demo below.
