arpadveress 
All service providers shall be with Ex personnel competency we used to say. Sure, that is true.
What about the inhouse personnel of the site itself? What level of Ex personnel competencies they shall be able to deliver? None or full, or just an average…?!
To be able to give a right answer or even an indication of it, we shall answer one very and simple question: who has the responsibility of Ex compliance at the end of the day?
ENDUSER!
So any service provider with high level of Ex personnel competency might be the best ever, BUT still the duty of Ex compliance engineering remains with the ENDUSER. It shall never change.
Certainly responsibility of Ex compliance engineering can be later on delegated and distributed, but the frontline shall be covered by the ENDUSER.
So it is life. So to maintain an ECOsystem inHouse is a good way of dealing with all Ex compliance engineering issues. It means you shall have a system. A procedure how to handle it for your best interest. One point is sure it cannot only be covered by external workforces.
Keep up the good work!
Arpad
