Why ITAs?
The IEC has been advised by the representatives of several industries,
operating in fast-moving technologies, of their urgent need for
a facility where prime market players in a specific domain of technical
development may co-operate in the preparation of the essential understandings
and specifications required for launching new ventures.
The IEC is now able to offer a neutral platform, free of constraints,
for such an activity to proceed, at low cost and at high speed,
but supported by the expertise and infrastructure of a globally
recognized international standards organization.
This is the INDUSTRY TECHNICAL AGREEMENT (ITA) concept, a radically
new departure by the IEC which enables it to collaborate with business
interests in an operation conducted entirely outside the structures
and practices of the conventional standardization process.
Nature, initiation and production
An ITA is technical document that addresses technical specifications
for areas of rapidly-developing technology. Any group of interested
parties may create an ITA, whether this means a single, large company
or a consortium. The IEC will not determine who may or may not participate.
It is up to industry players to agree amongst themselves. An ITA
is developed in a workshop, forum or in a project team. They key
is simplicity: instead of requiring global consensus, it is up to
the participants themselves to decide what is and is not to be addressed
in the ITA as subject matter.
Time and status
While an international standard can take several years to produce,
an ITA is expected to be produced in a matter of months, since it
deals with fast-moving technologies which may have short life-cycles.
Once produced, it is like a de facto specification. An ITA is not
an international standard because it does not pass through the same
consensus procedure, nor is it produced within the same committee
structure that is used for developing standards.
Benefits
Since an ITA can be developed and published rapidly, it can help
industry to launch new products or start production once the ITA
specifications have been agreed. And, since the IEC is recognized
by the WTO as the authoritative body for international standardization
in electrotechnology, an ITA carries a kind of intrinsic "seal
of approval". So industry benefits by having a new tool available
to help it bring its products to market with the support of the
IEC. And customers benefit by enjoying high-quality goods and services
whose basis for production is an agreement between the principal
players in industry on what constitutes essential parameters.
ITA presentation
View
or Download (restricted
access - for IEC members only)
|
