Harlequin Solutions

Organisation Overview

The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) provides a national accreditation service for laboratories offering measuring and testing services. To obtain UKAS accreditation the laboratories have to undergo a vigorous site survey. On the basis of this survey, UKAS issue a Schedule of Accreditation for each laboratory, which lists each laboratory's accredited equipment and measurement categories. The Schedule of Accreditation document has legal status. All schedules have the same document layout and include Greek characters, mathematical symbols and nomenclature.

"We can also get through a lot more calls more quickly by pulling the information off the web site. Dealing with a call can now take us two minutes instead of twenty,"

Caroline Finch, Operations Manager, UKAS

The Brief

UKAS wished to distribute the Schedules of Accreditation using their website. Web users would be able to search on measurement category, product or instrument, location or laboratory name. Search results provide a summary of a laboratory's accreditation and the option to download a PDF of the schedule that displays any Greek characters, mathematical symbols and nomenclature correctly.  

The schedules are updated on a regular basis and each update is required to go through a rigorous approval process. It was an absolute requirement that the maintenance of the site fitted into the existing management systems and was easy to maintain by good computer users but with little or no web experience.

The Harlequin Solution

Punch CMS saves money and pleases clients

UKAS customers have heaped praise on the accreditations body for a web site redesign that makes its services more accessible. The overhaul performed by Harlequin Solutions has also saved UKAS money. Customers reported to UKAS in a survey that the new site, www.ukas.com, was easier to use, better looking and helped them do their jobs better. UKAS has subsequently decided to port its other main web site, www.ukas.org, to the same Punch content management system that underpinned its successful transformation.

"We had a web site before but it was so impenetrable that we couldn't get the information off ourselves and neither could anyone in the outside world," says Caroline Finch, operations manager at UKAS. "Our customers moaned about it."

Moving to Harlequin's Punch content management system not only endeared UKAS to its customers, but it transformed the accreditations body's own operations. It is internationally recognised for its work in accrediting organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. ISO9000 certifiers are accredited by UKAS, for example.

Time saved

UKAS staff used to handle all enquiries by telephone. If a company wanted to find out, say, all the possible places it could get a particular sort of chemical certified, a call would go through to UKAS, whose staff would have to find the information, manually draw up a list of accredited laboratories from paper directories and post or fax the results. It was a laborious, time consuming process.

"We have an information desk, but the people who man the desk have other jobs so the more time we can free up the more work they can do," says Finch. "The web site has cut down the number of calls we get because people can get information for themselves." 

"We can also get through a lot more calls more quickly by pulling the information off the web site. Dealing with a call can now take us two minutes instead of twenty," she says.