Increase Compliance and Use – Take Your Standards Library to the Internet
Hundreds of regulatory and standards organizations exist worldwide. They issue hundreds of thousands of standards. Managing a standards library presents many challenges. Some are of minor significance while others present high risk. A thorough understanding of individual user needs, corporate and project needs, logistics, staffing requirements, and budget is needed to develop and implement an effective standards management approach. These characteristics are largely related and dependent on each other. Let’s look at some areas of concern when considering standards library management and how an Internet-based standards library provided by a third-party addresses each of them.
Support requirements for a paper library or company intranet library range from physical space to photocopying to sending out notices of updates and IT issues. When a central hardcopy library is used, the demands of multiple projects present multiple opportunities for compliance concerns. This raises the company’s overall risk and is a significant component in project risk. Access control and computing needs for an intranet library provide multiple areas for concern and problems including firewalls, software compatibility, and available bandwidth.
An Internet-based standards library provides access to standards without taking up physical space in a corporate or project facility. Access to standards only requires Internet access and a desktop computer without additional server space and usually without additional software requirements. Project personnel are able to access information when they need to from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Gatekeepers can be accommodating - sometimes too accommodating particularly if they are a service of the company and therefore are significantly motivated to satisfy the library users. Generally, this would be a good thing. The problem comes when the gatekeeper doesn’t know the project requirements regarding standards and offers an engineer the latest version of standard when the project is actually committed to compliance with the previous version. This may not cause a significant issue, but it will muddy the quality assurance and compliance waters.
Of course, gatekeepers that don’t feel loyalty or motivation to satisfy project requests can cause significant delays and high levels of frustration regarding standards use. Decisions including not having the library open during lunch hours or over the weekend or delaying the updating of standards sets have a significant negative impact on project use of standards.
A third-party provided standards library over the Internet can remove the gatekeeper and streamline project standards use and compliance. A flexible Internet-based library offers projects the convenience of using standard update notifications, initial specification of standard version for use, and access to standards whenever it is needed.
Copyright infringement for standards can result in significant monetary penalties. Managing the number of hardcopies in existence, controlling the number of people accessing electronic copies simultaneously, preventing printing of multiple copies or downloads to multiple computers is both difficult and time consuming. Add the complication of different restrictions and agreements with different standards developing organizations and the risk of violating copyright restrictions for both the project and company increases.
An Internet-based standards library with an experienced standards reseller reduces the risk posed by copyright infringement. Experienced resellers have multiple agreements in place with standards organizations. They implement sophisticated digital rights managements strategies. These strategies protect you as the user, assure that you have the access you need to be effective, and assure that the standards organizations are fairly compensated for the use of their materials.
From a corporate perspective, having an outside organization that is set up and committed to management of standards significantly reduces compliance risk and support costs. Working with an outside entity to manage a standards library using Internet access:
- gives you flexibility regarding version use
- provides access control
- assures copyright restriction compliance
- promotes standards compliance by making standards use fast and easy
When your project or company isn’t providing the standards library management, there isn’t a need for personnel to staff a library, resource management to handle peaks and not unnecessarily be staffed during low use times is not required, equipment and software for management of an intranet library is not necessary, computer security measures are not needed, and standards access is available whenever and wherever it is needed.
IHS provides access to more than 1 million standards and specifications from standards development organizations worldwide. Using digital rights management combined with a variety of licensing and user agreements with standards organizations, IHS offers access to critical technical information with an easy-to-use interface that meets copyright requirements.
For information on standards from a specific standards developing organization or to get more information about the standards applications and collections available from IHS that allow you to move your standards library to the Internet, visit Engineering Standards.
