In this article the use of asset information standards for collaboration in the process industry is reviewed based on a survey of the literature and two case studies. The investigation shows that the process industry appears to have had only limited success in introducing such standards so far, despite significant efforts. Since information hand-over between asset life cycle phases is important, lack of information standardization suggests that collaboration costs are higher than necessary. Reported causes can be grouped into standard related causes (slow development of standards, stability, complexity, cost, quality/ontological problems), organization related causes (lack of direct financial incentives, organizational readiness, resistance to change) and business environment related causes (legal aspects, level of adoption, limited governmental enforcement and a lack of dominant actors in the process industry). It is also shown that initial local configuration of a standard may lead to successful acceptance of the standards, but may hinder later external use. The contribution of this article is insight into the use of asset information standards and the causes for lack of pervasiveness. This is necessary for improving the use of standards in collaboration in the process industry. The article concludes by suggesting future research directions.