General

Q: Will IAF CertSearch include product certification or the certification of persons?

Answer

No, the database covers accredited management systems certification. The focus is on delivering a successful database for management systems certifications. There is no intent or plan to cover other areas of certification at present such as product certification or certification of persons, this has been confirmed by the IAF Board and IAF Executive Committee.

Q: Who owns IAF CertSearch?

Answer

IAF CertSearch is owned by IAF Database LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of IAF. The IAF Database LLC is managed by the Database Management Committee (DMC), membership of which is drawn from ABs, CBs and end users.

Q: How is IAF CertSearch currently funded?

Answer

IAF CertSearch is free for ABs and CBs and also users who require low volume verification use. Users who require to verify larger volume of certificates and who require more technical features will be charged a small fee per verification which is necessary to support the sustainable funding of the database.

Q: What is the new IAF CertSearch funding model proposed by the DMC?

Answer

A key principle for IAF CertSearch is that it is self-financing and not-for-profit. As there is no requirement on IAF, ABs or CBs to fund IAF CertSearch; the most viable mechanism available is through voluntary user-pays services.

The proposed user pays model is funded through Verification Services (for supply chain verifiers) or non IAF members who require analytics services.

Analytical Services (CBs/ABs) – through a digital dashboard CBs and ABs can choose to access anonymized and aggregated data analysis on the management systems certification by market, standard, accreditation, industry sector and other key variables, free of charge

Analytical Services (Institutional Users) – Using the certification data and accreditation data, anonymized and aggregated analysis reports will be offered to 3rd party users as a paid service.

Verification Services – Through an account portal, users of accredited certification could verify information relating to their supply chains as well as adding suppliers onto a certification watch list. Small and medium sized enterprises will be able to validate up to 30 certificates per annum free of charge.Users requiring higher volume verificatin and access to more technical features will pay a small fee per verification.

The revenue received for these services will be split with IAF and QualityTrade in line with the agreed contractual terms compensating them for the development, hosting, security, maintenance, promotion, customer service and future development of IAF CertSearch. It is important to highlight that QualityTrade remains a financially viable partner for IAF Database LLC. As part of the new agreement, QualityTrade will financially underwrite the full costs for the development and maintenance of the system for the term of the contract and for a minimum of five years. QualityTrade has operated the database free of charge for IAF and its members since 2018.