Choosing the right software for your EHS requirements

Dear Friends,

Now that majority of companies are seeing for expanding their EHS portfolio by implementing additional software components – it needs some research and understanding which software fits to the company. Even companies are not without any software processes– they have been operating with some internal tools and other application components to meet their day to day regulatory requirement. Now that they want to move out of the legacy tools and migrate to enterprise levels – they have some solutions in mind –either develop own tool, use software as a service or use the established tool from the ERP vendors on premise. The development of custom tools may seem attractive initially but the quality depends on the ability of the resource guiding its development and has a long term liability of support and maintenance – should only be driven by a strategic requirements.

When it comes to external software components there are many of products available in the market today each one promising its own ROI. So before a product is purchased some of the questions which needs to be assessed include – 1) what I am seeing for the product to do? Like GHS reporting, GHS management in Supply Chain, Product portfolio management using the Environmental information. So on depending on the module of interest? Like when it comes to REACh am I want the system to carry out Exposure Assessment for me? Want to generate eSDS? Capture plant to plant substance management? Like that creating a list of requirements would be a good starting point. 2) Once the requirement are understood – then start prioritizing the needs like which one the company needs to manage and which are nice to have / good to have features 3) Once you prioritize the requirements then assess the software in the market by reading their product brochures and also customer demo packages 4) Once their information is understood then start working on the infrastructural requirement in terms of Hardware / Software package their availability in the market etc. 5) Besides the above there many other questions which needs to be assessed from integration, custom enhancements, performance factors, learning curve, availability of best practices etc.

Thanks

canplastics.com - Canadian Plastics - Bayer starts pilot plant for plastic manufacturing with CO2

canplastics.com - Canadian Plastics - Bayer starts pilot plant for plastic manufacturing with CO2

SAP EHS Reflections for Year 2011

Dear Friends,

I came to India for a week, I want to ensure I dont miss scribling down my thoughts on Whats in Store for SAP EHS in the Year 2011. The Year 2010 - was bit quick as far as EHS is concenred - "The Clock Really Ticked Too Fast", all the companies worked towards a commmon goal - to meet the 2010 - REACh deadline. During this period also there were some Property Tree enhancements released by SAP to support the eSDS creation and also a properietary tool from TechniData CLEO - SAP Bulk Notification Tool / Exper Rules for meeting CLP requirements - though these are not offical part of SAP release pack. SAP also released Component Extension 1.0 for SAP EHS Management - for Incident Management, SAP Carbon Impact SAP CI 5.0 version and SAP Product and REACh Compliance - enhanced version which includes Material Assessment, Business Partner, Supply Chain and Other key functionality enhancements.

There are some 3.1 Million Classification and Labelling notifications received by ECHA and around 24,675 registration dossiers are submitted. One notifceable thing is Companies made a significant effort in submitting the dossiers only few companies missed the deadlines,  - showing whatver the current practices in Industry to prepare the dossiders / CLP notifications are effective to some extent for the Dossier preparation and Dossier Submission and Classification and Notification. But these very howegrown Software Solutions will give a good opportunity for EHS Consultants in the Year 2011. Majority of the companies would have realized that its too risky to bank upon the homegrown solutions and they need to migrate that to an enterprise platform - not only to streamline their processes but also to meet other Regulations similiar to REACh. So would see more of data conversion projects, new process optimization works.

This very exercise of preparation and submission of dossiers would have shown the companies how difficult it is to meet such regulatory requirements - would like to hire / outsource some of the processes outside the Industry to manage it for a long terms -

The other opportunity is the dissemination and storage of eSDS and email confirmation of the inforamtion is received for a long term solution, Other Opportunity would come from the Labelling perspective - Companies would be making significant work on the label creation

Companies would have also recognized that meeting the Operational Compaliance for tracking the REACh Volume movements - is also not easy given the current implementation scope - would see more in this sphere too - more of plant to plant utilization and portfolio management !

Exposure management is another reuqirement for a long term solution - not many Companies utilizied the curent SAP Solution for Exposure Management - given the tight schedule to achive them - would see some more Product Safety like works been taken up by companies.

Besides above the silver lining is - Companies are advised to retain their current REACh Project Team for some more time ! Given these and also new Regulations are being enforced in other Countries - I personally see a good scope for EHS for the Year 2011. So Here's the Chance - which Favors the Prepared Mind - Be Prepared !!!

Thanks