Dear Friends,
It’s almost two years back when I first started working on SAP REACh Compliance. My first exercise understood the development of eSDS based on existing SAP EH&S Classes and characteristics and creation of Extended SDS Template using WWI report tool. By the time it completed we ventured into mapping and interfacing with IUCLID – after a thoughtful discussions we finally concluded it should be based on XI technology with the support of MDM.
At that time the company where I was working (Satyam) participated in SAP REACh Compliance Ramp Up initiative. After a brief stint of one to two days- it becomes SAP REACh Compliance 1.1. When SRC 1.1 is released it has basic functionalities like i) Organizational Data management ii) Material Management iii) Substance Management iv) Legal Process Management v) Supply Chain Communication and vi) Document Management Integration. With the release came two very exciting WebEx presentations on SRC 1.1 with accessibility to wonderful configuration documents. I believe it’s the first time in the history of SAP EH&S product landscape that – literature of that sort was made available publicly. I believe Dr. Marko together Kieran are trendsetters for the availability of literature, which is now carried to almost all new releases of SAP EH&S and Sustainability products.
When SAP REACh Compliance 1.1 is released there were definite missing segments like missing bulk material assessment functionality, SIEF integration segments and IUCLID5 interface. Even at that time was not clear how SAP intended to support Use and Exposure Assessment – as SRC released only Use Descriptors for carrying out Risk Assessment. Even by that time REACh Pre-Registration activity was completed, then it is also realized that there is a missing a Registration Projects integration– Pre-Registration activity – by which all the non available legal entities to be created automatically with a indication about nature of data that should be shared with them.
Then after a span of about 4 months – SAP released SP02 with a useful set of functionalities like integration of Phrases into Material Master and Bulk Material Assessment functionality, Campaign management functionality and Portfolio Reporting capability.
After a span of almost 1 year SAP released major extension of SAP REACh Compliance 1.1 –called SAP Product & REACh Compliance 2.0. This new product encompasses almost all the functionalities of legacy Compliance for Product software. The major features like supporting IMDS, AIAG/IEEE, RoHS, China RoHS and IPCPDMC Conversion Services. Registration Project Management and IUCLID5 Integration for meeting the Product Compliance Management, Component Management, Supply Chain Collaboration Management including Supplier Self Service and Reporting.
The release of SAP PRC supports and matures the REACh Compliance 1.0 to a full fledged module supporting– Cost Monitoring, Volume Monitoring, Endpoint Management, Registration Project Management, SIEF project and Data Export and Reporting as per the original SAP REACh Sales Presentation. One thing which I noticed is this product evolved almost in parallel to REACh Regulation and it has also given me an insight into Product Maturation cycle and how a product evolves into complete offering based on regulatory requirements. Though I have seen the functionality of CfP very closely, would like to work on SPRC sooner or later.
Now what I look forward to is a definite "Best Practices scenario demonstrating the requirements of REACH using SAP EH&S, SAP Product and REACh Compliance and 3rd Party Tools" - which reminds me of very beautiful quote “ Miles to Go before I sleep” in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – there is so much to learn and accomplish in one's life !
Thanks
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Lessons from Toyota - Extending to REACh !!!!
Dear Friends,
Recently Toyota recalled some 2.3 million vehicles to correct an unintended acceleration caused by a software failure while switching between different means of break mechanism. To those who are not aware of it – In electric brand Toyota applies two types of breaks – while switching from mode of break mechanism to another system breaks hold for less than second, making the passenger feel momentarily that his engine breaks are failed.
Assume the similar challenge for REACh Compliance, when a SuperPaint manufacturer produces products, using substances which are not registered or for those there is not Use and Exposure is recorded? The historic recall of toys or recall of cell phones few years back is just a tip of the iceberg, as far as exceeding levels of restricted substances can do damage to the business. The recent extension of SAP REACh Compliance 1.1 to SAP Product and REACh Compliance 2.0 (called SPRC 2.0) will be of immense use for regulatory requirements like RoHS, China RoHA, AIAG, IMDS and REACh.
SPRC helps in automatically identify all substances that fall under the regulations using logistical, production and purchasing processes and continuous tracking for substance complianceOverview of Capabilities of SAP Product and REACh Compliance 2:
- Managing the specification Data
- Worklist based management of specification data
- Automatic / Manual Compliance checks against varous check processes
- Supply Chain communication for additional data - using Supplier portal and Campaigan management
- Compliance analysis and compliance reporting including electronic data exchange by means of various exchange formats, for example AIAG and IMDG.
Thanks
Recently Toyota recalled some 2.3 million vehicles to correct an unintended acceleration caused by a software failure while switching between different means of break mechanism. To those who are not aware of it – In electric brand Toyota applies two types of breaks – while switching from mode of break mechanism to another system breaks hold for less than second, making the passenger feel momentarily that his engine breaks are failed.
Assume the similar challenge for REACh Compliance, when a SuperPaint manufacturer produces products, using substances which are not registered or for those there is not Use and Exposure is recorded? The historic recall of toys or recall of cell phones few years back is just a tip of the iceberg, as far as exceeding levels of restricted substances can do damage to the business. The recent extension of SAP REACh Compliance 1.1 to SAP Product and REACh Compliance 2.0 (called SPRC 2.0) will be of immense use for regulatory requirements like RoHS, China RoHA, AIAG, IMDS and REACh.
SPRC helps in automatically identify all substances that fall under the regulations using logistical, production and purchasing processes and continuous tracking for substance complianceOverview of Capabilities of SAP Product and REACh Compliance 2:
- Managing the specification Data
- Worklist based management of specification data
- Automatic / Manual Compliance checks against varous check processes
- Supply Chain communication for additional data - using Supplier portal and Campaigan management
- Compliance analysis and compliance reporting including electronic data exchange by means of various exchange formats, for example AIAG and IMDG.
Thanks
Friday, January 22, 2010
GRI software certification program what it is?
Hello Friends,
Recently we hear a lot on GRI - Software and Tools program and SAP SuPM is the first software to be certified for it. What is this certifiation all about? What is the advantage in getting certified for Software and Tools program ? Here it goes.
The GRI software and Tools program is certifying “tools and softwares” that contain GRI copyrighted content like - GRI Reporting Framework, GRI Learning Publications, Sector Supplements or any other publication data protected by GRI copyright law. GRI certifications does not endorse or recommend software, it only certifies the GRI content is correctly used and further, does not carry any responsibility for the quality or use of the overall tool or software that contains GRI Content
Since SAP BO Sustainability Performance Management provides a predefined core and additional KPIs content and associated protocols based on Global Reporting Initiative G3 Framework, this certification provides a level of assurance that the software contains correct usage of GRI content and reference to GRI, completeness of content, appropriate division of elements, clear demarcation between GRI and other reporting frameworks.
The major elements for which GRI checks the software include i) Complete GRI Guidelines ii) Defining Report content, quality and boundary, iii) Complete standard disclosures iv) Sector supplements v) Learning publications or vi) Other GRI copy righted content. GRI holds right to certify parts of elements instead of complete GRI elements; the applying authority needs to inform GRI prior to entering into MoU, what GRI elements they want to be certified for.
GRI software certification process involves i) processing of application form ii) signing of MoU iii) agreement of non disclosure iv) content check v) issuing certificate vi) Announcement in GRI Website and vii) Finally annual update.
This level of assurance will be a major welcome in the Industry, as the recent one paragraph of wrong information in 900+ pages of report put IPCC their reputation in stake.
Thanks
Recently we hear a lot on GRI - Software and Tools program and SAP SuPM is the first software to be certified for it. What is this certifiation all about? What is the advantage in getting certified for Software and Tools program ? Here it goes.
The GRI software and Tools program is certifying “tools and softwares” that contain GRI copyrighted content like - GRI Reporting Framework, GRI Learning Publications, Sector Supplements or any other publication data protected by GRI copyright law. GRI certifications does not endorse or recommend software, it only certifies the GRI content is correctly used and further, does not carry any responsibility for the quality or use of the overall tool or software that contains GRI Content
Since SAP BO Sustainability Performance Management provides a predefined core and additional KPIs content and associated protocols based on Global Reporting Initiative G3 Framework, this certification provides a level of assurance that the software contains correct usage of GRI content and reference to GRI, completeness of content, appropriate division of elements, clear demarcation between GRI and other reporting frameworks.
The major elements for which GRI checks the software include i) Complete GRI Guidelines ii) Defining Report content, quality and boundary, iii) Complete standard disclosures iv) Sector supplements v) Learning publications or vi) Other GRI copy righted content. GRI holds right to certify parts of elements instead of complete GRI elements; the applying authority needs to inform GRI prior to entering into MoU, what GRI elements they want to be certified for.
GRI software certification process involves i) processing of application form ii) signing of MoU iii) agreement of non disclosure iv) content check v) issuing certificate vi) Announcement in GRI Website and vii) Finally annual update.
This level of assurance will be a major welcome in the Industry, as the recent one paragraph of wrong information in 900+ pages of report put IPCC their reputation in stake.
Thanks
Monday, January 11, 2010
Regulatory Compliance - the SaaS way !
Hello Friends,
Today morning when I woke up to the music of my 2 year old daugther - Lasya, and checked my email – I saw a mail from SAP Flash on “SAP Solution Stragey for Year 2010” – It immediately made me recollect all the thoughts which were running in my mind for past few months on “Managing Regulatory Compliance in a SaaS way”. Even in my earlier post – I wrote SAP might start supporting the EH&S / Sustainability in a SaaS way”. I think it would be interesting to post my views (literally my own views – Disclaimer here !) on Regulatory Compliance using SaaS. Here it goes ….
Regulatory Compliance is slowly moving towards the SaaS mode of delivery Model, slowly but surely towards SaaS base !. SaaS has the potential to shape a new era in the life of Regulatory Compliance and Sustainabiity Management and serve as a core structure – and style – that defines corporate sustainability in the long run. Key point would be the the ability to support many variations in regulatory requirements, processes, rules and data without custom code. Definitely there are not many customers in world – who are buidling their own codes to manage their business processes, however this happening in some major players and in some functional areas of new regulatory spaces like REACh. Throughout the world – regulations are evolving rapidly and it takes some more time for these to settle down – name it REACh, GHG Management, Cap & Trade. It takes more for developing world to do business in a SaaS way, again it’s a business opportunity and a threat !. I anticiapte it will take couple of years if not decades to fully realize the benefit of SaaS offering for Regulatory compliance.
But company’s can start investing in this sphere to assess the initial data security. For example, investigating in the deployment of use non-sensitive data, such as MSDS, TremCards and DG Documents, Over time, as familiarity and security in the SaaS grow, complete regulatory compliance including disaster recovery can move to the SaaS. Ultimately the SaaS and the data center will switch roles, with the local data center being the disaster recovery site and the SaaS becoming the production site. The major benefits include massive cost shifts, on demand access, disposal infrastructure and new levels of collaboration - support of the regulatory experts to tackle regulatory requirements right the word go, and opportunity to concentrate on core business needs !.
The major benefit and constraints however is the threat of vanishing Base of Pyramid – Customers– who might vanish in short period of time. Another constraint is data migration in SaaS for geographical roll outs for geographically separate data centers (Need to completely understand the Reservoir Project - Intercloud worlload mobility)! And many companies still need legacy Systems to feed their day to day ERP components – making access to these systems in the SaaS is a necessacity. As it should not be a problem as all major databases still focus on relational data storage, all major relational database products now provide native support for storing, accessing and even querying data in XML format.
Finally, there are already quite a number of EH&S Vendors supporting SaaS model, however the major benefit SAP provides is "Access to an emerging generation of software applications that simply never could have been implemented in the traditional, internally managed model"
I would like to study a bit more on this and share my detailed views from multiple data sharinng, security, and other deployment issues in future post.But it will be an exciting journey ahead for industries to go for a SaaS way
Thanks
Today morning when I woke up to the music of my 2 year old daugther - Lasya, and checked my email – I saw a mail from SAP Flash on “SAP Solution Stragey for Year 2010” – It immediately made me recollect all the thoughts which were running in my mind for past few months on “Managing Regulatory Compliance in a SaaS way”. Even in my earlier post – I wrote SAP might start supporting the EH&S / Sustainability in a SaaS way”. I think it would be interesting to post my views (literally my own views – Disclaimer here !) on Regulatory Compliance using SaaS. Here it goes ….
Regulatory Compliance is slowly moving towards the SaaS mode of delivery Model, slowly but surely towards SaaS base !. SaaS has the potential to shape a new era in the life of Regulatory Compliance and Sustainabiity Management and serve as a core structure – and style – that defines corporate sustainability in the long run. Key point would be the the ability to support many variations in regulatory requirements, processes, rules and data without custom code. Definitely there are not many customers in world – who are buidling their own codes to manage their business processes, however this happening in some major players and in some functional areas of new regulatory spaces like REACh. Throughout the world – regulations are evolving rapidly and it takes some more time for these to settle down – name it REACh, GHG Management, Cap & Trade. It takes more for developing world to do business in a SaaS way, again it’s a business opportunity and a threat !. I anticiapte it will take couple of years if not decades to fully realize the benefit of SaaS offering for Regulatory compliance.
But company’s can start investing in this sphere to assess the initial data security. For example, investigating in the deployment of use non-sensitive data, such as MSDS, TremCards and DG Documents, Over time, as familiarity and security in the SaaS grow, complete regulatory compliance including disaster recovery can move to the SaaS. Ultimately the SaaS and the data center will switch roles, with the local data center being the disaster recovery site and the SaaS becoming the production site. The major benefits include massive cost shifts, on demand access, disposal infrastructure and new levels of collaboration - support of the regulatory experts to tackle regulatory requirements right the word go, and opportunity to concentrate on core business needs !.
The major benefit and constraints however is the threat of vanishing Base of Pyramid – Customers– who might vanish in short period of time. Another constraint is data migration in SaaS for geographical roll outs for geographically separate data centers (Need to completely understand the Reservoir Project - Intercloud worlload mobility)! And many companies still need legacy Systems to feed their day to day ERP components – making access to these systems in the SaaS is a necessacity. As it should not be a problem as all major databases still focus on relational data storage, all major relational database products now provide native support for storing, accessing and even querying data in XML format.
Finally, there are already quite a number of EH&S Vendors supporting SaaS model, however the major benefit SAP provides is "Access to an emerging generation of software applications that simply never could have been implemented in the traditional, internally managed model"
I would like to study a bit more on this and share my detailed views from multiple data sharinng, security, and other deployment issues in future post.But it will be an exciting journey ahead for industries to go for a SaaS way
Thanks
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Reflections in Mirror - Whats in store for SAP EHS Consultants in year 2010
Hello Friends,
Its almost exciting begining for EH&S Consultants, when world leaders meet at Coperhangen, all the consultants crossed their fingers hoping some accord would be reached. There was so much dicussions on "BASIC" countries, finally it was just a handful countries, which stalled the historic meet into a non-binding accord similiar to a bus ticket,as mentioned by a Green peace activist.
Well this very outcome should not stop EHS consultants from feeling excited for year 2010. There are so many doors which were open in the year 2009, hoping for Coperhangen success, are now at the door step of opening major market. Whether they are in GHG management, Sustainabilty Reporting or even REACh COmpliance. Market is now in perfect stage for these projects to roll out. SAP also released couple of exciting products during late December like - Sustainability Performance Management, Best Practices for Analytical Reporting Dashboards usign BusinessObjects and SAP Carbon Impact with enhanced features like Facility Dahsboard, XML flashcards. SAP EHS Management with Specialized Incident handling usign Adobe Smart forms. Even Product Compliance - REACH COmpliance 2.0 is on Ramp Up stage. Overall its a exciting stage for EHS consultants to begin the year 2010 - aiming high.
We could also see couple of initiatives later part of 2010, from SAP to enhance the existing SAP EH&S & Sustainability protfolio to cover " Operational and Decision Supporting" - with lot of Analytics now in place with SAP SPM and SAP BP for Analytics Reporting - how best to adapt to requirements to comply with sustainability requirements. The support / extending, SAP Carbon Impact with ECOInvent Database for Lifecycle Assessment for detailed Product Carbon Accounting or SAP Supporting the EH&S / Sustainability in SaaS way !.
Again wishing you all Happy journey in this exciting phase and those who wish to be in EHS field, definately good time to get into SAP, make yourself ready by learning GHG Lead Auditors course or Certificate on Sustainability Assurance Practioners or BusinessObjects with EHS knowledge.
Thanks
Its almost exciting begining for EH&S Consultants, when world leaders meet at Coperhangen, all the consultants crossed their fingers hoping some accord would be reached. There was so much dicussions on "BASIC" countries, finally it was just a handful countries, which stalled the historic meet into a non-binding accord similiar to a bus ticket,as mentioned by a Green peace activist.
Well this very outcome should not stop EHS consultants from feeling excited for year 2010. There are so many doors which were open in the year 2009, hoping for Coperhangen success, are now at the door step of opening major market. Whether they are in GHG management, Sustainabilty Reporting or even REACh COmpliance. Market is now in perfect stage for these projects to roll out. SAP also released couple of exciting products during late December like - Sustainability Performance Management, Best Practices for Analytical Reporting Dashboards usign BusinessObjects and SAP Carbon Impact with enhanced features like Facility Dahsboard, XML flashcards. SAP EHS Management with Specialized Incident handling usign Adobe Smart forms. Even Product Compliance - REACH COmpliance 2.0 is on Ramp Up stage. Overall its a exciting stage for EHS consultants to begin the year 2010 - aiming high.
We could also see couple of initiatives later part of 2010, from SAP to enhance the existing SAP EH&S & Sustainability protfolio to cover " Operational and Decision Supporting" - with lot of Analytics now in place with SAP SPM and SAP BP for Analytics Reporting - how best to adapt to requirements to comply with sustainability requirements. The support / extending, SAP Carbon Impact with ECOInvent Database for Lifecycle Assessment for detailed Product Carbon Accounting or SAP Supporting the EH&S / Sustainability in SaaS way !.
Again wishing you all Happy journey in this exciting phase and those who wish to be in EHS field, definately good time to get into SAP, make yourself ready by learning GHG Lead Auditors course or Certificate on Sustainability Assurance Practioners or BusinessObjects with EHS knowledge.
Thanks
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Copenhagen 2009 : An Accord with no legal binding - Over to Mexico !
Hello All,
It was so close yet a historic disappointment at Copenhagen. An Accord was reached but that is not legally binding. The key points of the accord include the objective
1) to keep the maximum temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius - as required by science;
2) the commitment to list developed country emission reduction targets and mitigation action by developing countries for 2020;
3) USD 30 billion short-term funding for immediate action till 2012 and USD 100 billion annually by 2020 in long-term financing,
4) as well as mechanisms to support technology transfer and forestry
However i) its not a legally binding, ii) its not a accord which pins downs industrialized countries to individual targets, iii) not a accord which Specifies what developing countries will do and iv) finally not a accord which specifies how 30 billion divided to indidivual contributors.
In about one year from now again the challenge will be to convert this accord to something which is legally binding.
Thanks
jak
It was so close yet a historic disappointment at Copenhagen. An Accord was reached but that is not legally binding. The key points of the accord include the objective
1) to keep the maximum temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius - as required by science;
2) the commitment to list developed country emission reduction targets and mitigation action by developing countries for 2020;
3) USD 30 billion short-term funding for immediate action till 2012 and USD 100 billion annually by 2020 in long-term financing,
4) as well as mechanisms to support technology transfer and forestry
However i) its not a legally binding, ii) its not a accord which pins downs industrialized countries to individual targets, iii) not a accord which Specifies what developing countries will do and iv) finally not a accord which specifies how 30 billion divided to indidivual contributors.
In about one year from now again the challenge will be to convert this accord to something which is legally binding.
Thanks
jak
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