CROW: Smart Standards
At a glance
Together with CROW, we freed critical industry standards from static PDFs, ended manual copy-pasting, and reduced errors across the sector, so teams can work faster, with greater confidence, and with less manual effort.
Challenge
Critical industry standards were locked inside static PDFs and text files, making them hard for the software that needed them to access.
Solution
We built a Linked Data specifications library so requirements can be found, applied, and reused across applications, saving time, reducing friction, and helping teams work more consistently.
Results
Faster project startups, fewer errors, and software-independent knowledge sharing helped teams work more efficiently across the sector, saving time and making collaboration easier.
The challenge
When your best knowledge is trapped in a PDF
CROW provides the standards the entire Dutch infrastructure sector relies on, but static PDFs and text files make that knowledge hard to unlock.
Requirements end up trapped inside documents, where they cannot be applied directly in the software people actually work in, slowing access, use, and progress, and making everyday work less efficient.
This friction slows projects down and increases the risk of mistakes. CROW’s greatest asset, its knowledge, becomes a hurdle instead of a foundation. We recognize this pattern across the infrastructure sector and the wider asset-related industries, and we know it can be turned around to make knowledge easier to use and more valuable for the people who depend on it.
Our approach
We did not just digitize the text, we made it intelligent
We turned CROW’s documents into a living specifications library, making the standards easier to find, apply, and reuse, so teams can work with them faster, with less friction, and with more confidence. Here is how we did it together, step by step.
AI extraction
First, we processed the existing PDFs and XML files using Natural Language Processing. This saved thousands of hours of manual work and created a clean foundation for faster use, so teams could move ahead more quickly and spend less time on repetitive tasks.
Creating Smart Standards
Next, we converted the requirements into Linked Data, connecting each one directly to the concepts it relates to, so they can be applied more precisely and with less risk of misuse. Think of linking a requirement for asphalt quality straight to the specific type of road it applies to, making decisions easier and more reliable.
Software independence
Then we made sure the library works across any application. CROW’s knowledge remains accessible, consistent, and future-proof, making it easier for users to work with any tool they prefer and keep moving without disruption or changes to their workflow.
Sustained control
Finally, we handed over the methodology and the training. CROW now maintains its libraries independently, in full control of its own standards and able to continue using them without relying on outside support, so it can continue working with confidence.
Smart Standards that changed how a whole sector works
By turning static specifications into Smart Standards, CROW changed how the infrastructure sector operates, giving teams a faster, more reliable way to apply their knowledge and get value from it.
Accelerated projects
Teams spend far less time searching for and copying specifications, so they can focus more on project work, move faster with fewer distractions, and make better use of their time.
Built-in accuracy
Linked standards reduce errors and make sure every specification is applied correctly, every time, helping teams work with more confidence and fewer rework cycles.
Reusable knowledge
The library can be applied across projects and systems, making CROW’s knowledge more accessible and more valuable than ever for the people who use it and the work they do.
Ad van Leest
”For the storage and information-exchange we intend to use state-of-the-art technology which has proven its use. Because such activities belong outside of CROW’s core-responsibilities, we fully enjoy the services Semmtech provides us with. They help us in both the development and the implementation of a software-independent data storage system. Thanks to this method we are confident that we will be fully ‘up-to-date’ in years to come when it comes to the matter of data storage.”
