As head of metrology at Testo Industrial Services GmbH, Dr. Christian Sander is both head of the accredited calibration laboratory and the accredited provider of proficiency tests. He is a DAkkS member of the Accreditation Advisory Board’s Technical Advisory Board 5: Metrology and Chairman of the Technical Committee “Length“ at DKD (German Calibration Service).
The most important thing: Just make a start, give it a try and take one step forward at a time
Dr. Sander, your laboratory is currently preparing for the introduction of the digital accreditation symbol. Can you tell us a little about what the digital accreditation symbol means for your company?
We currently provide our customers with results reports in PDF format. In the pharmaceutical sector in particular, many of our clients want an electronic signature. Our process therefore already includes an integrated electronic seal that confirms the issuer – a so-called company seal, which is provided to us by D-Trust. The digital accreditation symbol can replace Testo’s own company seal, because it provides the same functions and the relevant accreditation information. This is a crucial element for the cost-effective and secure issue of digital certificates and reports. The digital accreditation symbol now is indispensable tool for closing security gaps and ensuring a trustworthy digital chain of evidence for accreditation and conformity assessment.
Demand for digital test reports and certificates will increase on the client side, and calibration laboratories must be ready for it.
That’s right. For us, the demand came primarily from the pharmaceutical sector, where the authenticity of certificates must always be proven. In the past, our pharmaceutical clients used to receive paper certificates that they had to sign by hand and then scan. These printouts had to be filed as raw data reports to ensure that the electronic document was available in the original. This process involved a considerable amount of work, especially in a sector like the pharmaceutical industry, where ensuring that documents cannot be altered is a top priority. The introduction of our own company seal fundamentally changed this process: our clients can now archive their documents securely and fully electronically. The seal not only guarantees the authenticity of documents and ensures that they cannot be altered, it also clearly identifies the issuer. This helps to optimise processes and meet the stringent requirements of the pharmaceutical industry.
What advantages do you expect from using the digital accreditation symbol?
The approach that DAkkS has developed in cooperation with D-Trust will have a significant cost advantage for us. Until, we have had to pay for each electronic signature and for our own company seal, even if included in a package price – but additional signatures incur additional costs. Replacing our previous signatures and company seal with the digital accreditation symbol will enable us to reduce these costs. The agreements concluded provide for a licence fee of less than 500 euros, collected by the DAkkS and passed on to D-Trust. That is significantly less expensive than our current costs. The digital accreditation symbol therefore offers an additional persuasive argument for large laboratories that may be considering switching anyway – regardless of the format of the results report, whether XML or PDF. It is an attractively priced solution that in addition to the functional advantages also creates economic incentives.
Can you tell us a little more again about the internal preparations that are required to implement the digital accreditation symbol?
The first step is always to analyse the process for creating certificates or results reports within the company. There are various approaches here, which can vary in complexity depending on the initial situation. In our case, the switch will be relatively easy, because we already use a company seal. It is simply a matter of replacing it with the new seal, the digital accreditation symbol. For other companies, however, it may be necessary to take a closer look at the technical requirements. In our company, our IT department provides support with this process. Things get particularly interesting when you consider the next step: the introduction of digital calibration certificates based on XML, which offer enormous potential for the standardisation and digitisation of processes.
What tips would you give to other accredited bodies that are considering applying for the digital accreditation symbol?
Digitisation is a real challenge for many laboratories – especially smaller ones. The digital accreditation symbol is by no means exclusively intended for the DCC. In fact, it offers a versatile solution that in the coming years will enable electronic signing of many documents in PDF format. The PDF format continues to be an important standard. The digital accreditation symbol is very well suited to supporting this form of documentation securely and reliably and is an important step towards trustworthy digital chains of evidence. But the digital accreditation symbol is not only for PDFs. It can also be easily applied to machine-readable reports. In the calibration world, this is primarily of interest in combination with the DCC (digital calibration certificate). While the DCC in XML format sounds complex at first, it is not rocket science. The initial hurdles often seem bigger than they actually are. The important thing is not to be put off, but to make a start.
Many calibration laboratories recognise the advantages of the DCC, but still have a wait-and-see attitude. What do you think that might be?
I think an important point here is that many people are waiting for a “finished product” – but the DCC is not a product in the traditional sense. You could now wait another two years, until there is more harmonisation and additional examples for different measurands. But what is really needed to work with the DCC is entirely independent of this. It is important to understand that the DCC is not a piece of software develops from beta to alpha at some point and is then ready for use. The DCC is more of a tool, a kind of open source technology that needs to be tailored individually to your own processes. It is first and foremost a carrier of information. How I fill the DCC, how I transfer it to clients and which specific challenges I resolve for my customers by doing so – all of that depends on my own requirements and goals. At the same time, it opens up the opportunity to create customer loyalty for the future. These strategic aspects are often given too little consideration.
Where there are opportunities, there are also risks. How do you see that?
The DCC does of course present both opportunities and risks. The risk is in investing time and money without achieving any real added value in the end. But the opportunities outweigh the risks, especially when you consider that demand on the market has changed significantly. Within a year, the DCC has become much more prevalent in industry and more and more clients are actively asking for it. Anyone who develops a service for it any time soon will have the opportunity to secure a clear lead in a growing market.
Thank you very much for the interview, Dr. Sander.
More information
Susanne Kuch, M.A.
Digitisation Policy in Quality Infrastructure | Staff Unit Accreditation Governance, Research and Innovation