Annual Report 2018 - Foreword

Managing Director and President of Austrian Standards  | © Copyright: Austrian Standards; Fotograf: Peter Tuma

For one year now, Austrian Standards has spelled out its orientation in its name: Austrian Standards International – Standardization and Innovation. A review of the projects we carried out in 2018 demonstrates that our name inspires our priorities and activities. They range from high-level expert congresses on the innovative themes of Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 to the first Annual Conference on Construction Law and Building Standards – a milestone in the debate on simple rules for building – and on to new international co-operation initiatives, for example with China. An international expert jury already rewarded the most exciting standardization projects with the Living Standards Award for the fourth time. Read more about further highlights, facts and trends from the world of standards in 2018 and browse our digital Annual Report.

o. Univ.Prof. DDr. Walter Barfuß
President

DDr. Elisabeth Stampfl-Blaha
Director

Highlights

New co-operation projects, new partners, new and successfully completed projects and numerous encounters — this is what characterized Austrian Standards and its environment in 2018.

Facts & Figures

Important and interesting information on Austrian Standards International

Member of

  • ISO – International Organization for Standardization

  • CEN – European Committee for Standardization

  • ETSI – European Telecommunications Standards Institute

Partner organizationsin 162 countries all over the world (ISO members)

Certified & accredited

  • Certified according to ISO 9001, ISO 29990 and Ö-Cert
  • Accredited certification body for products according to ISO/IEC 17065
  • Notified certification body for the EU - Construction Products Regulation
  • Assessment according to the CEN membership criteria

120+ employees at Austrian Standards International, Austrian Standards plus GmbH and Austrian Standards Operations GmbH

Education:
50% university graduates, 12,41% matriculation certificates with partially completed university courses, 17,05% matriculation certificates, 10,07% apprenticeships, 9,3% compulsory schooling — 18 languages, 7 nationalities

144 committees with 271 working groups at Austrian Standards

Austrian participation in

91% of ISO technical committees
100% of CEN technical committees

50 international committees and working groups are managed by Austrian Standards: 21 for ISO, 29 for CEN

Statistics

“Number is the within of all things,” said Pythagoras. Our numbers illustrate key facts of 2018: stakeholders, results, trends.

Organizations nominating participants – Totals

Nominating organizations (percentages)

Participants in committees and working groups in total (2015 – 2018)

New participants in committees and working groups

22,751 ÖNORM standards in total (2018)

New ÖNORM standards (2018)

New subjects — new committees

A total of 10 new technical committees were set up by CEN and ISO in 2018.

CEN:

  • ECISS - European Committee for Iron and Steel Standardization

ISO:

  • Indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services – land transport of parcels with intermediate transfer
  • Water efficient products – Banding
  • Consumer protection: privacy by design for consumer goods and services
  • Community scale resource oriented sanitation treatment systems
  • Karst
  • Tableware, giftware, jewellery, luminaries — Glass clarity — Classification and test method
  • Sustainable finance
  • Circular economy
  • Transaction assurance in E-commerce

Finances 2018

The profit and loss account 2018 of Austrian Standards International is mainly influenced by changes resulting from the establishment of Austrian Standards Operations GmbH. This new company primarily takes over infrastructure-related services from Austrian Standards International. This spin-off reduces personnel expenses as well as direct material costs, while operating expenditure rises owing to services purchased from Austrian Standards Operations GmbH.

In 2018, turnover was approximately 0.5 million euro less than in the previous year, in particular because of a decrease in services billed to Austrian Standards plus GmbH (due to the handover to Austrian Standards Operations GmbH).

Other operating income is essentially made up of membership fees (around 0.2 million euro) as well as financial contributions made by the federal government and the provinces (1.4 million euro) and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (0.2 million euro) and reimbursement of costs incurred for the Consumer Council by the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection.

Overall, expenditure fell in 2018 against 2017. That change was primarily owed to lower personnel expenditure resulting from the transfer of (infrastructure) departments to Austrian Standards Operations GmbH. “Other operating expenses” rose against 2017, which was mainly due to services purchased from Austrian Standards Operations GmbH in parallel to a reduction of direct expenditure.

The operating result amounted to around minus 0.5 million euro in 2018. Hence, it is more or less the same as in the previous year.

At around 0.5 million euro, the financial result was positive in 2018 and corresponds to the average achieved in previous years. Thus, the result before tax was slightly positive for 2018.