iParenting Media Awards Earns Highly-Respected ISO 9001:2000 Certification

iParenting Media Awards Earns Highly-Respected ISO 9001:2000 Certification

EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- iParenting Media, the premier media company for parents, announces that its iParenting Media Awards (IPMA) program has attained ISO 9001:2000 Certification. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world's largest developer of standardization regulations and ISO 9001:2000 is an internationally recognized standard for quality assurance. Only a fraction of the companies that attempt ISO certification succeed. The IPMA program is the only product evaluation service with an awards program of its kind to earn this prestigious status.

"We are proud to be part of a select community of companies that have achieved this certification and are committed to meeting the highest standards of quality," says Alvin All, iParenting Media's CEO. "ISO certification lets manufacturers and consumers know that we take the evaluation process seriously. We have a responsibility to our customers to consider all aspects of a product before we can recommend it through our awards system. When we declare a product a winner, it means we believe it's a quality product."

In order to achieve ISO 9001 status, the IPMA program went through a rigorous evaluation whereby all of the program's business practices, documents and systems were scrutinized and appraised by Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL). Upon determination of satisfaction of all ISO 9000 standards, UL then registered the program to the ISO 9000 Series Standards for Quality.

"ISO 9001 is considered the most difficult standard to pass because it is the most comprehensive. The fact that iParenting is now ISO 9001:2000 certified attests to their commitment to excellence," says Chuck Berndt, Executive Board member of the Institute of Environmental Scientists and Technology (IEST), which helps author ISO standards.

To participate in the iParenting Media Awards program, a company must submit four samples of each product, which are then matched within iParenting's database of hundreds of experienced reviewers using iParenting's state-of-the-art technology. An expert, a group setting and a family review the products and submit a thorough evaluation. Results are compiled and submitted to the iParenting Media Executive Committee for approval.

iParenting operates one of the Internet's most popular communities for parents/parents-to-be at http://www.iparenting.com/ . They publish Family Energy: Your Guide to Raising Healthy Kids ( http://www.familyenergy.com/ ), a national newsstand magazine. IPMA winners are featured in each issue. The company has produced the content for several other national magazines. iParenting's Editor-in-Chief, Elisa Ast All, MSJ, writes a syndicated monthly newspaper column and co-hosts an A.I.R.-nominated radio show, Points on Parenting.

The IPMA program ( http://www.iparentingmediaawards.com/ ) promotes the best children's media/juvenile products in the marketplace to consumers. The 2005 Excellent Products Call for Entry deadline is March 4, 2005, with products due in iParenting's corporate office by March 11, 2005.

The International Organization for Standardization ( http://www.iso.org/ ), founded in 1946, is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies and today there are more than 90 countries that are members.


Source: iParenting Media

CONTACT: Shannan Bunting for iParenting Media, +1-847-295-4235,
shan@salmonborre.com

Web site: http://www.iparenting.com/
http://www.iparentingmediaawards.com/
http://www.iso.org/
http://www.familyenergy.com/


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