Integrated Management Systems: A statistical analysis

Designing a maturity model is a multi-methodological task. Maturity modelling had been reported in several research areas, namely, software development and inspection, e-Governance, knowledge management, networkability, health and safety enterprise culture, supplier relationship, project management, communicational levels on collaborative activities and management systems assessment. The present paper aims to report the efforts being made focusing the development of an integrated management system (IMS) maturity and efficiency assessment tool. It presents a survey statistical analysis, which is a methodology emphasized by several authors when developing a maturity model. The most appealing statistical conclusions, based on a survey focusing Portuguese IMS ruled companies, are now reported answering several questions, such as: Do initial IMS implementation motivation relates with the final achieved benefits? Do sub-systems standards integration relates to the integration level achieved? Which are the success factors to consider in order achieving a successful and high-level integration?