What it means
An integrated management system (IMS) builds the shared elements of several standards once and links them to each. Built separately, an organisation ends up carrying four policies, four document lists, four audit programmes and four review meetings.
The real gain is not a single audit
Most accounts summarise integration as "one audit instead of several". The real gain is different: one question gets one answer. In separate systems a contractor's competence record sits one way in the OH&S folder and another way in the quality folder, and nobody knows which is current. In an integrated system the record is one and the standards looking at it are many.
How the link is made
Optifora's data layer defines 53 links between document types and standards. A document type marked shared belongs to the harmonised structure and serves several standards; one that is not is specific to a single law or standard. The distinction matters: treating a document that arises from one regulation — a major-accident prevention policy, say — as if every organisation had it would invent an obligation that does not exist.
Where to start
The order is: scope first, then the shared elements (policy, roles, document control, competence), and standard-specific items last. Starting from the other end — filling each standard's own checklist separately — stacks systems on top of each other instead of integrating them.
Its limit
Not everything integrates. A requirement peculiar to one standard (energy performance indicators, for instance) does not behave like a shared element. Forcing it weakens both systems.