Regan, > One pitfall though. The cost of the CD & it's updates on a quarterly > basis is approx. $20,000/year. (This includes all the CSA standards)
Actually, the initial purchase cost is only CDN$1,900 (approx US$1,375), including one year's worth of updates. Subsequent renewal is CDN$1,295/yr (approx US$950/yr). You could easily spend more than that on paper copies, if you need several standards. Yes, the CD includes all CSA standards, including Part I (Canadian Electrical Code), II and III, plus all related bulletins, notices, etc. A complete printed set would cost around $11,000. > I think just getting the paper copy of the ammendaments would be one of a > less financial strain. I guess this is a business decision, depending in part on how many standards you need to access. If you only use one or two standards, it may be difficult to justify the cost. Mind you, I personally REALLY like the search capabilities. As all these standards get bigger and bigger, it's very nice to be able to quickly zero in on key words. I'm so hooked now that I carry the CD with me everywhere. :-) If you're using several standards, you should also consider the hidden costs. It can take many hours of unproductive work to dig out standards, replace pages, attachments, etc. If the number of standards you use is large, it may require a full-time librarian to keep things up to date (we employ several, in order to keep up with all the CSA/UL/IEC/ISO and other publications). By the way, the above prices are for single user. A network version will be more expensive, of course, but nowhere near $20,000. I don't have exact prices here with me, but I believe a 2 - 5 user version is around CDN$4,200 and a 11 - 20 user version is around CDN$9,500. Plase note that by "5 user" we mean 5 people accessing the CD simultaneously. As I mentioned before, you should contact our Standards Sales department for exact prices. I've managed to dig up some numbers: Phone: 1-800-463-6727 Fax: (416) 747-2475 The CD expert is Mr. Steve Dove: (416) 747-2635 My apologies to the forum if I've exceeded propriety by blatant advertising, but this is a REALLY NEAT product, that can save product safety professionals a lot of time and costs. __________________________________________________________ Egon H. Varju, P.Eng. Thursday, 14 November 1996 @ 10:41 AM CSA Pacific Region Tel: 1-604-244-6640 HAVE MODEM - WILL TRAVEL Fax: 1-604-244-6600 E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] __________________________________________________________
