| | February 20168CIOReviewBi-Modal IT has grabbed the IT headlines urging CIOs to drive up the business value proposition and promote digital innovation to accelerate business growth. Traditionally, the chemical industry has been a slow adopter of computing technology but that landscape is rapidly changing, driven by margin erosion.Specialty Chemical companies are challenged to remain competitive in a market whereby supply chain complexity, reduced raw material supply and global trade compliance continue to consume resources while driving operational costs up.Governments, environmental bodies and consumers demand transparency in chemical formulations, production and transportation networks to monitor the impact these activities might have on human health and the environment. In the last decade, governments have taken a leading role in this journey to transparency introducing legislations to drive substance registration. The most publicized legislation is the European initiative known as REACH. REACH is the acronym for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals. Described as one of the European Union's major pieces of legislation in the last 20 years, REACH was adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry. China, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea have since adopted similar programs and we expect Brazil, India and Mexico to implement REACH-like regulations in the coming years. The EU REACH initiative is a long-term roadmap taking place over the course of a decade incorporating different registration thresholds for substance registration which will culminate in 2018 with the registration of chemicals in excess of 1 metric tonne per year. The initial two phases necessitated Specialty Chemical companies registering moderate numbers of substances relying on manual document filling, spreadsheet and email-based tools. Typically, each substance registration involved multiple complex spreadsheets containing dozens of worksheets and demanding the cooperation of numerous stakeholders from various departments within a company. Such manual approaches result in labor-intensive and disparate processes generating higher margin for error and greater risks for missed activities throughout the registration process. This approach also affects the quality and availability of data, hampering future audit obligations. The lack of traceability, automation and monitoring can lead to incomplete and unsuccessful registrations which put companies at risk in securing their position within international markets. Businesses cannot afford poor registration management resulting in registration dossier rejections signifying a direct business loss. The European Chemical Agency (ECHA) has a mantra "No Data ­ No Market", meaning that companies failing to properly register by 2018 will lose or delay their access into the EU market. The scope of REACH 2018 is significantly larger than the previous two phases (2010 and 2013) combined. ECHA expects that up to 70,000 registration dossiers will be prepared, covering up to 25,000 substances . This represents three to seven times more dossiers than the amount registered in 2010 and 2013 . In addition, the proportion of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) DIGITAL INNOVATIONENERGIZES GLOBALCOMPLIANCE MANAGEMENTBy Daniel Hughes, CIO, ELEMENTIS GLOBAL LLCIn My Opinion
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