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Internal Audits Fuel New and Retained Sales for AvaLan Networks
With the help of: Alabama Technology Network (ATN)
About
AvaLAN is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, with remote offices in Arizona, Colorado and Canada. AvaLAN has a 17-year history of designing communications solutions including wireless EMV and ethernet to digital current loop specifically for the fueling industry. They solve data connectivity and PCI security challenges at the network's edge for SMB and large retail enterprise customers. AvaLAN’s retail fueling-centric focus is based on easy-to-use products with a simple dashboard allowing self-deployed networks and features like network segmentation, network access control and centralized VLAN synchronization. As a Verifone-certified MNSP, as well as the leading market solution for high-speed secure wired and wireless networking from the c-store to the dispenser, AvaLAN uniquely delivers PCI secure end-to-end networking for retailers.
The Challenge
AvaLAN is currently certified to the ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS) standard. They voluntarily maintain their certification for a couple of prominent reasons. First, since ISO 9001 is an internationally recognized standard, it is often a requirement to be considered as a vendor, and AvaLAN’s attainment gives them a competitive edge in competing against their competitors. Additionally, AvaLAN’s commitment to customer satisfaction allows them to use the ISO 9001 management system as a driving force to continuously improve their processes and meet the expectations of their customers. In order to maintain their certification the standard requires that AvaLAN perform internal audits to determine that their QMS conforms to specified requirements. To meet this need, AvaLAN requested the assistance of ATN, part of the MEP National Network™, to perform their internal audits.
AvaLAN partnered with ATN as a fledgling company in 2014 and has been growing steadily ever since. The implementation of the ISO 9001 quality management system has allowed AvaLAN to provide a quality product more smoothly and continuously to customers and it would not have been possible without the guidance of ATN. The processes we implemented for ISO 9001 made quality issues less severe and our certification secured us additional customers and more sales. The internal audits given by ATN have been extremely helpful in preparing for our surveillance and recertification audits and since ATN was with us since the implementation of our QMS they have played a large role in our success. We are very appreciative of the service they provide, and we would recommend them to anyone interested in acquiring ISO 9001 certification.
MEP's Role
ATN assisted AvaLAN by performing internal audits of the QMS in accordance with ISO 9001 requirements. These audits pointed out deficiencies and included opportunities to make AvaLAN’s processes better. Both quality and efficiency issues were discovered and discussed during the audits by ATN personnel. These internal audits helped AvaLAN retain existing sales and even increase sales as these improvements met or exceeded the expectations of their new and existing customers.
Created August 4, 2022, Updated February 13, 2024