A LEADING provider of REACH Management IT solutions has showcased the first ever online service for invoicing and contract formation for REACH SIEFs that meets legal guidelines.
Baytouch, a global leader in the provision of REACH Management IT solutions, has revealed new technology which enables contract development, billing and document and dossier distribution to SIEF members to take place electronically.
Other enhancements announced included improved taskforce management facilities for consortia, IUCLID integration and the secure handling of proprietary data.
The breakthrough was revealed by Baytouch last Thursday at the Royal Windsor Hotel Grand Place in Brussels, at a customer focus event highlighting the benefits of using the communication tool REACHsuite
The new Contracts and Billing module will allow thousands of SIEF members to sign online and download all the documents required for their registrations without needing to resort to lengthy paper processes.
This will be of considerable benefit to hard-pressed SIEF managers that find themselves with hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of contracts to manage.
Speaking after the event, Baytouch director Mr Penman said: “It’s great to demonstrate our leadership in the field with these new developments.
“We can now offer all our customers a reliable, cost efficient and paperless solution to the contract generation and document distribution process.”
REACH places responsibilities on all European manufacturers and those who import into the EU to identify and manage the risks that their substances may pose to human health.
The formation of the SIEF (Substance Information Exchange Forum) is central to the REACH process allowing SIEF members to share their toxicological data and prevent further animal testing.
The fact that shared studies have value and further research costs means that the exchange of contracts and the reconciliation of these costs occur when substance registration is due.
Effective IT solutions are needed to manage this to reduce the significant admin overhead.
Mike Neal, of Petkonsept Polymer Consulting Ltd, attended the event as a REACHsuite customer.
He said: “SIEF communication is about sharing and exchanging information and REACHsuite has been an excellent primary tool for communication between all the members of the SIEFs I manage.
“I have found that REACHsuite has flexibility and features that no other tool has, and because of this, it is the ideal medium for carrying out this important and complex role.”
He added: “Currently there are only 25% of lead registrants registered to ECHA and there is a real need to stimulate more lead registrants.
“REACHsuite is a drivable system that can help any new lead registrant and its SIEF members along the difficult path to successful Registration."
Mr Pollard, Baytouch managing director, said: “The feedback from our customers is that REACHsuite is the leader in REACH Consortia and SIEF Management.
“There is no doubt that they are glad that they bought into REACHsuite and will continue to reap the benefits as the first deadline in 2010 approaches.
“And for those who will have difficulty meeting the deadline, we are here to help with a comprehensive range of IT solutions and services.”
There is more information available about REACHsuite at www.REACHsuite.com and copies of the presentations given at the Customer Day can be found at www.REACHsuite.com/
ENDS
Note to editors:
For further information or interview opportunities with Malcolm Pollard or Mike Penman please call Caroline Innes at Active Profile on 0151 601 8688 or email caroline.innes@
Alternatively please visit www.REACHsuite.com or www.baytouch.com
Background
Baytouch Ltd is one of the European leaders in the provision of REACH Consortia and SIEF Management IT Solutions.
Based in Lancashire, England and Brussels, Baytouch has strong historical links with the chemical industry and now operates in a global context.
With important clients such as the Lower Olefins and Aromatics REACH Consortium, Euromines and Kimberley Clarke, REACHsuite is fast becoming the system of choice within chemical-using industries.
Baytouch enjoys a close working relationship with Brussels-based Penman Consulting bvba and together they have links with specialist IT companies such as DAI (UK / EU) and ICF International (US) providing a comprehensive service with optional integration for SAP and other enterprise resource planning-type (ERP) systems.
What is REACH?
REACH is a European Union regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation (and restriction)
REACH has several aims:
To provide a high level of protection of human health and the environment from the use of chemicals.
To make the people who place chemicals on the market (manufacturers[
To allow the free movement of substances on the EU market.
To enhance innovation in and the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry.
To promote the use of alternative methods for the assessment of the hazardous properties of substances e.g. quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) and read across.
A major part of REACH is the requirement for manufacturers or importers of substances to register them with a central European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)). A registration package will be supported by a standard set of data on that substance where the amount of data required is proportionate to the amount of substance manufactured or supplied.
If a substance is not registered, then the data on it will not be available and as a result, no one will be able to manufacture or supply them legally any longer, i.e. no data, no market!
What is a SIEF (Substance Information Exchange Forum)?
REACH places the responsibility on industry to provided hazard data to the EU Commission. Much of this data is generated from animal toxicology experiments. Concerned that this would result in an increased and unnecessary amount of new animal testing, procedures were promoted by the British and Hungarian governments for potential registrants of the same substances to come together and share their data and make only one proposal for any new animal data.
Under REACH Article 29, those who pre-register the same substance shall be in a SIEF
It is not a Legal Entity, not a Consortium, but could form basis of potential Consortia.
The aims of the SIEF are:
Facilitate data sharing
Agree classification and labelling
And the obligations of all SIEF participants:
React to information requests from other SIEF participants
Provide other participants with existing studies on request
Whilst there is an obligation to work with what may be one’s competitor in SIEFs, EU competition law still remains paramount in all dealings.
