Rat-catching as a profession is not what it used to be. Gone are the days of using poisons like strychnine and smoking vermin out of their lairs. Now the focus is more on prevention and using environmentally friendly methods, says Mr Michael Loughlin, of the Wicklow-based Irish Pest Management, which has an ISO 9000 certificate since 1996 for an approved quality control system.

For companies in business, nothing is worse than a widespread belief that their products or services are no good or that they cannot be cheaply repaired or replaced. Having an approved quality control certificate is important for gaining customer confidence and competitive advantage.

"We wanted to give the best possible service that we could to our customers," says Mr Loughlin, a retired teacher who is moving his business towards company clients and away from providing a domestic service. He has customers in the food industry, such as Avonmore Waterford Group and pharmaceutical companies like Swords Laboratories in Dublin and Iropharm in Co Wicklow, who all need protection from rodents, birds and insects.

"Our training methods have to be correct and the best possible available.

"We are providing a maintenance service and we have to be sure that people are getting the calls regularly, that the quality of the service personnel is maintained, and that our record-keeping is a true reflection of what is happening out in the field," Mr Loughlin says.

However, his company is one of the first of its kind to get the ISO 14000, an approval certificate for having an environmentally friendly management system.

Awarded last September, it means that Mr Loughlin must focus on reducing pesticides, prevention and new control methods, and dispose safely of waste.

He must also minimise fuel emissions from the company vehicles and his use of heat and lighting. According to the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), the Government ISO accreditation body, there are over 1,400 1SO 9000 companies registered, and 53 ISO 14000 companies. This does not give the full picture as there are other accreditation companies operating in the State. Mr Sean Kelleher, an associate auditor with the National Quality Assurance organisation, helps companies reach the ISO standard and audits them after they have done so.

He believes the influx of multinational corporations has helped the scheme take off and become recognised in the public eye.

"Ireland has one of the highest number of credited companies per head of population in the world," he says.

The process helps companies identify shortfalls, as well as impressing customers and perhaps an important client like a government agency.

"Everything from helicopter companies, hospitals, accountants, solicitors are doing it. I do not think there is any company not considering it at the moment," he says.

The ISO 9000 and 14000 certificates are only a part of a worldwide "ISO" movement to make international trading easy and fair.

ISO points out that the name is taken from the Greek word "isos", meaning "equal" and is not a misspelt acronym for the Geneva-based organisation's full title, the International Organisation for Standardisation.

It is a 52-year-old federation of bodies from about 130 countries which has decided on, for example, the size of credit cards and telephone cards (they are 0.76 mm in thickness), the ISO speed code on the film you buy for your camera and the symbols used on car controls.

The organisation came about after the Second World War to renew efforts to co-ordinate standards.

In pre-standardisation days, what was once the mechanical equivalent of the Millennium Bug problem occurred when companies in difference countries manufactured nuts and bolts to different sizes.

Now an internationally-agreed code of screw thread sizes has been agreed, meaning that everything from your bicycle to a boat to a power station will not break down because mechanics are waiting for a screw to be imported from halfway around the world.

An industry-wide standard is "the language of trade", ISO says, and as the world becomes one global market, international standards make the passage of goods and services, from computer manufacturing to milk carton packaging, easier.

The process is market-driven and does not respect politics. Standard freight containers became the international norm after agreement was reached with the former Soviet Union in 1967, at the height of the Cold War.

Now the ISO 14000 certificate is gaining in popularity as chemical and heavy industry companies, in particular, seek to comply with strict environmental legislation. As part of a new certificate scheme, the ISO is now seeking to get a standard date accepted and is urging companies to adopt a Year-Month-Day format.

The ISO 8601 is now the international standard for date formats. So, you may soon be writing the date as 1999-02-01 instead of 1-2-'99.

Next week Business 2000 will look at the development of one-stop-money shops

Participating teachers are requested to return their completed Irish Times Business 2000 questionnaires to Woodgrange Consultants, 25 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, as soon as possible.