Cefic, representing the European Chemical Industry, and IBM developed a state-of-the-art solution which will facilitate and ease the exchange of information between companies with the final goal to submit the registration dossiers as foreseen by the REACH Regulation. SIEFreach is a reliable and performing collaboration tool incorporating IBM software, hardware and services. The system went live on August 21, 2008.
Under REACH, around 30,000 substances have to be registered by 2018 to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). All companies importing or manufacturing chemical substances with quantities above 1 ton have to submit registration dossiers.
Cefic offers, via the SIEFreach platform, the possibility for companies to exchange information in a user friendly manner. Through the Substance Information Exchange Forum (SIEF) companies will be able to exchange test and other data on their identical chemical substances, which means that these companies will gain time and cut costs by enhancing their communication through a structured channel. Another important outcome will be that animal testing can be minimized.
In the context of the REACH project, Cefic created a new company called ReachLink, who is the owner of the platform, together with the German, French, Italian, UK and Spanish national chemical federations. In cooperation with IBM, ReachLink will put a European SIEF management IT system at the disposal of all European chemical and related other companies impacted by REACH, as from August 21, 2008. SIEFreach, as the system is called, is an industry-wide shared IT platform.
The SIEFreach solution, consisting of the SIEFreach application and portal is designed, developed and maintained by a global IBM team. The IT platform is based on IBM WebSphere and Lotus collaboration software and is hosted by IBM. On top of the hosting, IBM will also provide the application helpdesk for the end user.