Quality professionals in the mid-1990’s recognized the need for a management system standard to establish consistency among tier 1 telephone network operators.  To address this, representatives from the US, Asia and Europe established the Quality Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications Leadership Forum, known as QuEST.  One of the primary outputs of this forum was TL9000, a management system standard largely based on ISO 9001.  Through subsequent changes to the standard, it now applies and has been adopted throughout the telecommunications supply chain.

Aside from establishing industry specific requirements, TL9000 is focused on measurement systems and performance statistics, particularly establishing consistent measures across organizations.  The adoption of TL9000 across the worldwide telecommunications industry is mixed, with some parts of the world welcoming its adoption with others continuing to question its value.

What has not been questioned in the industry is the importance of business process management and process-based management systems.  Telecommunications organizations conform to TL9000 by developing effective process-based management systems.  To tackle issues related to overall quality, many telecommunication organizations have focused on their processes directly interfacing with customers and making the changes within the management system to ensure customer needs are determined, understood, converted to management system requirements and realized through the natural course of business.  Successfully meeting the requirements of TL9000 has also meant that management systems include the development and deployment of measurable objectives throughout the organization to ensure performance is monitored and the system is continually improved.

At QMII, we pride ourselves on our >15 year history of helping clients develop process-based quality management systems in the telecommunications industry, long before conformity and compliance through continual process improvement became popular.  Additionally, QMII has never separated service quality from product quality, understanding that from the perspective of the customer, there is no difference.  This history and approach is integrated into our training.

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