Benefits of Standards Participation

The purpose of this article is to briefly enumerate the benefits accruing to companies by joining organizations or consortia that create standards. The information should be of value to individuals interested in participating in standards organizations, so they are better prepared to justify their participation to their employers. Companies that are members of standards organizations can also use this information to explain to customers, business partners and shareholders why they participate. There is, of course, an assumption that the standards organization is developing standards in areas that are relevant and significant to the business of the company.

Companies accrue two kinds of benefits by participating in the development of standards: immediate and deferred.

The immediate benefits come about through access to technical resources, communication and networking with peers in the industry, the ability to influence the development of the standard and recognition for participation.

The deferred benefits come about when the standard is released and accepted by its user community. Although it is true that all users of the standard experience these benefits (whether they participated in the development or not), participation insures the standard is in fact developed, accelerates the development so benefits begin sooner, and of course, participants get a jump on the implementation of the standard.

Further explanation of the points listed below, as well as justification and examples can be found in the references from DIN [DIN] and Progress Software Corporation [Progress].

Immediate

Participants of organizations that develop standards typically gain the following immediate benefits:

Early access to specifications, prototypes and legislation.
Greater understanding of the standards and their underlying designs, tradeoffs and compromises made during their development, and the operating conditions and environments they are intended to serve.
Relationships and contacts are made that can become technical resources.
Commercial risks are reduced through lower development costs (due to knowledge and experience shared among participants, and due to the other benefits in this list).
Improved ability to identify future trends. (Due to research developed during the design of the standard.)
The capability to influence the resulting standard.
The development of personnel by giving them the opportunity to work with leaders in the field and to witness standards development processes that maximize cooperation and consensus building.
Corporate image as an industry leader is enhanced.
The credibility and image of the technical expertise of your staff and is enhanced.
The ability to participate in promotion of the standard. E.g. Mentions in press releases, including providing executive quotes and announcements of product dependencies, often comes with membership.
Membership often includes financial discounts for various events or materials sponsored by the standards organization (conferences, workshops, journals) etc.
Participation in exclusive (i.e. member-only) technical events, e.g. workshops, development meetings, conferences, etc.

Deferred

Standards can have a significant impact on the products that incorporate them and on the marketplace. For example, standards can provide assurances of performance, reliability, safety and interoperability that eliminate inhibitions to sales. Often, increased sales volume reduces production costs of commonly used components that support standards. Standards also provide guidance to designers, reducing research and development costs and eliminating costly errors.

In particular, companies that produce products that incorporate standards typically gain the following benefits:

Increased market access and acceptance.
Improved sales efficiency due to decreased trading costs, simplification of contractual agreements, and lowering of trade barriers.
Standards provide assurances that products are safe (or more safe) to use.
Risk reduction. The standards development process, through prototyping, and agreements by its proponents, insure standards are implementable and incorporate best practices.
Economies of scale. Employing standards in software components, increases the reusability of modules. Reuse increases sales and therefore the production of these components, making them cheaper to build. This further increases their usability and the competitiveness of products that use them.
Ease of data integration.
Investment protection. When it comes time to retire a standards-based product, it is likely that replacements will be available (from a variety of vendors) supporting the standards.
Product life extension. Products that use standards are less likely to require replacement in order to integrate with other, newer products.
Protection Against Obsolescence. Standards organizations are generally highly motivated to provide an orderly way to migrate to new versions of standards.
Reduced Development Time and Costs. Finding trained and experienced personnel for standardized technologies is easier than for proprietary technologies.

This article authored by Tex Texin.