Ibrahim Guiamadel, DTI Region 12 director, said the new office regulation was part of the agency's implementation of the standard quality management systems, which it started to adopt two years ago.
"We are adopting the business regulation corporate standard policy. The manner of receiving clients follows the bank or corporate standard," he said.
Guiamadel said the measure “intends to ensure client satisfaction and reduced processing turn-around time, as well as maintain the agency's image as an agency of choice”.
Dorecita Delima, DTI assistant regional director, said business name registrations and licensing services in all frontline offices of DTI in Region 12 “are now available to clients from 8 am to 5 pm without noon break”.
"We have clients that are coming from far towns in the provinces. As soon as they enter the office to transact, like apply for business name registration, they should be attended to immediately even during noon breaks," she said.
Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Cotabato and the cities of Koronadal, Cotabato, Tacurong, Kidapawan and General Santos.
DTI Region 12 started to align in 2006 with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2000 as the core of its quality management systems. ISO 9001:2000 measures an organization in terms of quality management, evaluating a broad spectrum of practices including procedure, documentation, policy, communications, personnel, and infrastructure.
The ISO 9001:2000 for quality management system is an improvement of the 1994 version, which has been adopted by more than half a million users in all sectors worldwide. The 1994 edition focuses on documentation while the latter deals on process and client or customer.
Guimadel said the pursuit of certifying their systems to the ISO standards was supported by the DTI central office, which approved their Quality Policy in mid-2006.
"We need to champion good governance. And we are committed to achieve total client satisfaction," Guiamadel said. (Allen Estabillo / MindaNews)