Don’t just get membership - get accredited

Although ARCIA has been successfully influencing the industry year after year with scholarships, training and education, memberships and spectrum and technical work, few companies are applying for the additional industry accreditation status.

Accreditation is a set of standards established by and for the Australian Radio Communications Industry Association (ARCIA). It provides businesses with a benchmark to become recognised providers of a standardised level of service and business practice.

Currently, there are 20 or so companies fully accredited with the association. To be accredited, a business needs to apply directly to the association by completing an application form and checklist accompanied by payment and must be a corporate member of ARCIA.

“For the business getting the accreditation, it means that they are independently audited to ensure that they operate in a professional manner, have the requisite insurances in place, are financially sound and have OH&S and environment policies in place,” said Ian Miller, ARCIA Spectrum and Technical Committee member.

“To get accreditation, each company has to provide client references and supplier references, plus supply copies of the relevant documentation and they must follow the ‘Code of Practice’ as a professional business. For the industry in general, using an accredited supplier should give them the confidence that they are dealing with a respectable business with a proven track record of reliability and proper product recommendations backed up by good services.”

So, why are there such low numbers applying for accreditations?

Without a designated membership coordinator, the association doesn’t have a chance to follow up members on becoming accredited, said Miller. The other problem is that members believed by being an ARCIA member, accreditations are not needed or are assumed to have been received.

“It would be nice to be able to ‘influence’ the equipment purchasers to consider ARCIA accreditation as one of their decision criteria. Most times, tenders will have 20 pages about OH&S policy, environmental policy, equal opportunity policy, all the politically correct issues, but with absolutely no requirement to see whether the tender respondents actually know what they are offering or whether they can actually offer solutions that are fit for purpose,” said Miller.

“To concentrate on that area will be a big help. These past few months the NSW Telco Authority did get information and I believe they are going to put ‘industry accreditation’ as one of the ‘nice to have’ items in their tender requirements.”

ARCIA-accredited businesses are just starting to see the benefits of acquiring an industry accreditation, said Miller. He hopes that with more knowledge of the accreditation process, more companies will consider it in the future.

For more information on ARCIA accreditation, please visit the association’s website.