Understanding the Standards Access Crisis
The IFAN – International Federation of Standards Users bi-annual survey identifies critical challenges facing organizations that rely on standards: accessibility barriers, usability concerns, integration difficulties, and the need for emerging technologies like SMART standards. The survey’s executive summary reveals six key pain points plaguing standards users worldwide.
The Six Critical Gaps:
- Accessibility & Searchability – Users struggle to find and access the right standards
- Cost Barriers – High costs create obstacles, particularly for SMEs
- Usability – Standards need to be easier to understand and apply
- Real-Time Relevance – Confusion about which edition applies and risks of outdated information
- Data-Driven Insights – Limited analytics prevent optimization based on actual user behavior
- DRM Frustrations – Restrictive digital rights management hinders collaboration
These aren’t abstract problems. For organizations in technical fields like electrical engineering, where standards compliance is literally a matter of life and death, these gaps represent daily operational friction, compliance risks, and competitive disadvantages.
When the Platform Died: Electrosuisse’s Catalyst Moment
Electrosuisse, Switzerland’s leading association for electrical engineering and installation standards, found themselves at this exact crossroads three years ago. As Silvan, their Project Leader for Continuing Education, recalls: “We had already been thinking about it for about three years… then the existing provider said they were withdrawing from the business area. The decision was clear – we had to switch.”
But this wasn’t just about replacing a vendor. Electrosuisse publishes the NIN (Niederspannungsinstallationsnorm) – the low-voltage installation standard that Silvan describes as “the Bible for electrical installers, service technicians, everyone who comes into contact with electricity.” With over 1,000 pages of technical specifications that professionals consult daily, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Their previous platform, while familiar, was hitting hard limits: “The main criticism of the old platform was that we couldn’t add new features anymore. They said programming features afterwards was relatively difficult due to this. At the beginning of a project, you usually don’t know the end goal yet.”
Sound familiar? This is precisely the innovation paralysis identified in the IFAN survey’s usability findings.
The Selection: Why Get More Brain Won
Silvan evaluated 4-5 potential providers, conducting interviews and comparing features, costs, and capabilities. But one factor made Get More Brain stand out immediately:
“The main reason we chose Get More Brain is that the platform already existed. We didn’t have to develop a new frontend from scratch. We had a real existing platform. We just had to fill it with content.”
The first demo with Thomas Gabathuler, CEO and founder of Get More Brain, sealed the deal: “He took content from our existing platform, copied it live, and showed us immediately how it would look on the new Get More Brain platform. That was certainly very positive and decisive. You see the platform works, you see the results immediately.”
This wasn’t vaporware or promises – it was proof.
Addressing the Six Gaps: Solution by Solution
1. Accessibility & Searchability: From Frustration to Instant Discovery
The IFAN survey highlights search as a critical pain point. At Electrosuisse, this became the most-used feature overnight.
“The search function is really the most frequently used by customers,” Silvan explains. “They search for a term or want to look up something in a panel, then they enter the search term. That’s certainly the most frequent and used, but also the most important function.”
But it goes deeper. Get More Brain’s advanced filtering turns a simple search into precision navigation: “When I enter ‘socket,’ I can filter and say, ‘Hey, show me only the excerpts from Chapter 3 or Chapter 4 where the word socket appears.’ That’s certainly something where I can really benefit.”
For a 1,000+ page technical document, this transforms hours of manual searching into seconds of targeted results.
2. Cost Barriers: Flexible Models Beyond Traditional Licensing
While digital licensing models enable more flexible pricing structures than traditional print, the real cost advantage comes from efficiency gains. When technicians can find answers in seconds rather than minutes, when they can access standards on mobile devices at job sites, when they can collaborate without printing multiple copies – the ROI becomes measurable in saved time and reduced errors.
3. Usability: Mobile-First for the Field
“A further important point was the mobile first approach,” Silvan emphasizes. “When I logged in for the first time, about a year and a half ago, with my smartphone – that was certainly also an important positive experience right at the beginning.”
This isn’t a nice-to-have feature. Electrical installers work on job sites, in industrial facilities, in conditions where lugging around printed manuals is impractical. Mobile-first means standards at the point of need.
The Bitmark® structure adds another layer of usability: “You have these bits, then you can do various things with the content – send via chat or save in the notebook, whatever. That’s certainly also a great function.”
4. Real-Time Relevance: Streaming the Latest Version
With standards that update every five years and interim amendments, knowing you’re working with the current version is critical. Get More Brain’s streaming-based delivery ensures users always access the most current information – eliminating the dangerous gap between publication and outdated local copies.
5. Data-Driven Insights: Understanding Actual Usage
Silvan is eager for the next phase: “What would be interesting for us – we currently haven’t installed user tracking yet – would be to know how many use it mobile, how many via phone, how many on screen. These changes would certainly be measurable now.”
This analytical capability, identified as crucial in the IFAN survey, enables Electrosuisse to optimize content based on actual behavior rather than assumptions – completing the feedback loop that drives continuous improvement.
6. DRM That Enables, Not Restricts: The Collaboration Breakthrough
The My Workspace feature addresses the DRM frustration head-on: “My Workspace, where customers can upload documents they can edit themselves – that’s really a noticeable benefit we’ve had from the beginning.”
Rather than locking down content with restrictive DRM, Get More Brain enables collaborative functionality while preventing illegal sharing. Engineers can annotate, share interpretations via chat, and build their own reference libraries – transforming static documents into living, team-accessible resources.
The Integration Challenge: APIs That Actually Work
The IFAN survey identifies integration as a critical challenge. For Electrosuisse, with complex ERP systems and multiple customer onboarding pathways, this was their biggest concern.
“Where we had the greatest respect was the interfaces to ERP, to licensing, customer connection, onboarding and so on. We were very concerned there,” Silvan admits. “But it really worked very well… The connections are very stable. We hadn’t expected that.”
SSO integrations with major corporate customers – potentially the most complex technical challenge – proved remarkably smooth: “We wanted to build an additional interface. With very few exceptions, it works very well and smoothly.”
The Human Element: Change Management in Action
Not every transformation is purely technical. Electrosuisse faced the human challenge identified in every digital transformation: resistance to change.
“At the beginning, the interface wasn’t quite as user-friendly yet,” Silvan notes honestly. “We had relatively many negative customer feedbacks. But you have to consider that in the electrical industry, many people are less IT-savvy. And the second factor is human – humans are creatures of habit.”
His perspective, gained from his supervisor who lived through decades of format changes – diskette, USB stick, CD, platform switches – is illuminating: “It was actually always the same. At the beginning there was incomprehension… In the meantime, people have gotten used to it. By the end of the year, I’m convinced it will be very well accepted.”
This honest acknowledgment of adoption friction – and confidence in eventual success – reflects mature change management thinking.
The Verdict: From 8/10 to 10/10
When asked to rate Get More Brain on a scale of 1-10, Silvan gives it an 8 currently, with a clear path to 10: “If the pending items are resolved by autumn or year-end, it will be a 10.”
His adjectives to describe Get More Brain? “Modern, visionary, innovative, reliable.”
Most tellingly, he notes the right decision feeling: “Right from the beginning, actually. Because of the platform that already existed. I never doubted that this was the right decision… The development is guaranteed. That’s the point.”
The Broader Lesson: Solving Standards Access at Scale
Electrosuisse’s story validates what the IFAN survey reveals: the standards access challenge is solvable, but only with purpose-built technology that addresses all six gap areas simultaneously.
Their success demonstrates that:
- Search must be intelligent, not just keyword matching
- Mobile isn’t optional for field professionals
- Integration challenges are real but surmountable with proper APIs
- User adoption requires patience and good change management
- Platforms must evolve – lock-in to static solutions is a death sentence
- Collaboration features matter more than restrictive DRM
As Silvan summarizes: “Get More Brain is a learning platform or learning environment where various contents can be presented and combined, and perhaps importantly, interactively – that the interactivity is promoted.”
From Bible-thick printed manuals to interactive, searchable, collaborative digital platforms – this is how standards access evolves to meet 21st-century needs.
The IFAN survey identified the problems. Electrosuisse’s journey demonstrates the solutions work.
For organizations evaluating standards delivery platforms, the Electrosuisse case study provides a roadmap: prioritize existing platforms over custom development, demand robust integration capabilities, insist on mobile-first design, and partner with vendors who demonstrate continuous innovation. The alternative – platform obsolescence and vendor lock-in – is too costly to accept.
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