We’re working through certification at the moment for some ISO standards and some computer security standards, in order to prove to ourselves and our service management software clients that we’re doing everything correctly and by the book. At first, we were exasperated at the need for these things, but there are really important reasons why certifications are necessary, as I’m sure you are already aware!
It’s not good enough us saying “your data is safe with us”. Anyone could say that. But if you are to use our service, you would be much happier to hear that a third-party who has no reason to lie has assessed our business and pronounced it safe.
A lot of our risk assessment software clients are risk assessors for the fire industry, or inspectors for pest control. In those industries, it is important for their customers to be able to point to their certificates and say “We were inspected by independent experts, and pronounced up to standard”. This is especially important when you watch the news and realise what can go wrong if you’re not up to standard. The recent fire in London’s Grenfell Tower is an example. An example certification in the fire risk assessment industry is the PAS 79 2016, which we do as standard in our fire risk assessment software.
Our own industry involves data management and data security, so we spend a lot of time working on security. We use vulnerability checkers such as Nessus and Metasploit in order to find issues in our workflow management software that might already be known about elsewhere, and we use penetration testers to find the issues that software can’t find.
Of course, it’s not enough to simply say “I tested my software and it is secure”, which is why we deliberately hired penetration testers (good hackers) to try break into our systems. So far, not a single crack in our wall has been found.
Our fire safety and pest control software clients provide certification of a different and probably more vital importance – if you go to a restaurant, you want to know that the restaurant has been inspected by a pest control company and does not have bugs or rodents walking all over the food. And if you live in a house or work in a building (which you probably do), then you would like to know that the building has been inspected by a reputable third-party fire and risk assessment company and found to be safe.
There are advantages to choosing certification companies that use FieldMotion. We have proven over and over that we can cut down on the time it takes for an inspector to finish their inspection and write up their documentation. And, because everything done through FieldMotion is recorded digitally, there is an easy-to-search history of everything that your inspection company has ever done relating to your property.
Also, because we provide our job management software clients with “customer portals”, which allow their customers to click in and see all work relating to them, it is possible that you’ll have your certification printed and placed on your wall within minutes of the engineer finishing the inspection.