Source: Supplied.
Not everyone is familiar with Standards Australia, but its influence surrounds us.
For over 100 years, it’s been the nation’s peak standards development body. Its vast range of standards has provided invaluable measures and guidance for almost every industry.
But now, the organisation seeks to revolutionise how professionals and businesses access its trusted information.
What is a standard?
Standards are voluntary documents that set out specifications, procedures and guidelines that aim to ensure products, services, and systems are safe, consistent, and reliable. They cover a variety of subjects, including consumer products and services, the environment, construction, energy, water utilities, and more.
“We bring together experts in a particular sector to establish guidelines that then become agreed industry standards, which often become an accepted route to satisfy regulatory and contractual requirements,” says Standards Australia head of commercial partnerships Daniel Chidgey.
“When the market requires new guidance and measures, we form a technical committee of industry bodies, manufacturers, government, businesses, and academics to facilitate discussions around the area. Standards are then drafted and edited until the parties involved approve the requirements in the standard.”
To find out more about partnering with Standards Australia, click here.
Why are standards so important for businesses?
Daniel has an analogy to explain the value of standards.
“Think of making a birthday cake,” he says. “It needs to look great, taste delicious and be able to be eaten and enjoyed by a large group of people.”
“That’s where a tried and tested recipe — or standard — comes in. To prepare the cake, you must know the ingredients, temperatures, and steps to culinary success. You can be one missing ingredient away from disaster. The same applies to an engineer or builder. They must follow a standard to predict the outcome, achieve consistent results, and avoid costly mistakes. One mistake on a project could cost them millions.”
A game-changing opportunity
To help provide more value to businesses, Standards Australia is looking for new partners who can deliver innovative solutions to transform the delivery of standards and information to companies and their employees.
“Until now, standards have mostly existed as static PDFs or hard copy documents,” Chidgey says, “but there is a belief that there are other, more innovative ways to deliver the information to users.”
The first digital venture — in fire protection — has already successfully gone live.
When former fire safety contractor Rob Thomas approached Standards Australia in 2021, he had a proposal to modernise how fire protection systems are inspected and maintained.
Rob wanted to integrate Australian Standards into his cloud-based software application, FireMate. This meant contractors would have easy access to all the relevant fire safety standards at their fingertips instead of browsing PDFs or printed sheets.
Software companies like FireMate, who provide the necessary steps or other requirements from the standards through apps, are proving extremely popular and have blazed a trail for others to follow. This is why Standards Australia is looking for similar partnerships to serve industries.
“There are massive opportunities for innovative companies to utilise our knowledge bank to bring a platform like FireMate to market. It has the potential to revolutionise compliance workflows across multiple industries,” says Chidgey.
For Thomas, his partnership with Standards Australia has been essential to FireMate’s success.
“It’s very exciting — a real shot in the arm for us that’s opened doors and brought genuine credibility,” he says. “It’s been a fantastic experience.”
If you are a startup or business that can improve access to standards and the use of standards information, now is the time to contact Standards Australia.
Read now: The fire protection software setting new standards
Standards Australia is the nation's peak non-government, not-for-profit standards organisation. For more than a century, Standards Australia has set the benchmarks for building a nation, developing over 9,000 standards that cover almost every aspect of our lives. Standards Australia wants to partner with Australia’s most innovative companies to help their customers work smarter, manage risk, and gain insights by transforming how they use standards. Be a part of the change.
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