Navigating The Complex Chemicals Management Market With Innovative Software

Navigating The Complex Chemicals Management Market With Innovative Software

The chemicals regulatory sphere has undergone a period of significant change, with an influx of new legislation around chemical production and usage. Firms that fail to comply with these regulations are susceptible to hefty financial penalties, as well as damage to brand reputation and future business opportunities. To ensure that organizations steer clear of this, they must have accurate chemicals data at their disposal. According to the 2024 Verdantix Global Corporate Survey, tracking chemical and regulatory change and its applicability is a very significant or the most significant challenge for 49% of respondents.

There are sustainability concerns around the use of harmful chemicals – particularly per-polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are not automatically broken down in the natural environment and find their way into animals, humans, plants and water. Studies suggest the effects of these chemicals include increased cholesterol and risk of cancer. This has led to the prohibition of over 10,000 PFAS chemicals in Europe, forcing firms to reconsider the use of certain substances to comply with this new regulation. In order to monitor their chemicals data at a granular level, organizations require software tools that can standardize chemicals data collection and management processes.

To analyse the various available solutions in this market, the 2024 Verdantix Smart Innovators: Chemicals Management Software report provides a benchmark of 13 vendors across six core capability areas: SDS management; chemical approvals and inventory tracking; chemical substitution and toxicology analyses; chemical spill and incident management; chemicals management compliance reporting; and HazCom and HazMat labelling. The results of the benchmark underline the following areas of innovation:

• Configurable mapping tools to analyse chemical footprint.
  The sheer size and complexity of firms can make it difficult to track the movement, usage and storage of chemicals at a granular level. Software vendors can facilitate this, offering tracking down to specific shelves. Leading vendors have introduced mapping tools to create a visual representation of a workplace with its associated inventory data. This provides increased visibility into the flow of chemicals throughout the business.
  
  
• AI functionality to support data extraction.
  Regulatory bodies require firms to detail all information about chemicals in their inventory in safety data sheets (SDS), which highlight associated hazards, composition, safe handling and disposal. Software vendors house extensive databases of SDSs, available in various regulatory formats. However, these documents are in PDF format. Leading software vendors have introduced AI functionality to automatically extract relevant data from these PDFs and input them into the system, thereby reducing any previously required manual effort.
  
  
• QR codes to provide easy access to chemicals data.
  Mobile apps have become a fundamental aspect of EHS technology, providing users with the flexibility to complete processes and the communication channels to instantly notify colleagues when necessary. For chemicals data, users can get instant access to inventory information by scanning QR codes. This enables the instant retrieval of critical product information by employees when required.

In total, Verdantix benchmarked 13 vendors: Benchmark Gensuite, Chemical Safety, Cority, EcoOnline, ERA Environmental Software Solutions, HSI, Intersolia, Quentic, Sphera, UL Solutions, VelocityEHS, Wolters Kluwer Enablon and Yordas Group. To learn more about the innovations these providers offer, see Verdantix Smart Innovators: Chemicals Management Software.