Many chemical and drug companies are using systems they've pieced together from varied sources or have created in-house. Some modify or adapt common office software packages, such as Lotus Notes, consultants say. Company legacy systems--even poorly performing ones, but those on which users have come to depend--present the biggest source of competition, developers of newer software say.

Despite being one of the toughest information technology (IT) spending environments for at least a decade, says analyst Kevin O'Marah of AMR Research, the nearly $800 million product life-cycle management (PLM) software market has been the fastest growing IT segment. Although they have not yet been big buyers of software for managing product development or collaborating in R&D, chemical and pharmaceutical companies are nevertheless on a rapid growth curve.

The electronics and automotive industries have embraced collaborative design, product data management, and PLM systems. In contrast to usage levels for supply-chain or procurement software, manufacturers can have 50% or more of their employees in positions where they'd use PLM systems. And while many software providers are offering applications for manufacturers of discrete items, the process industries and drug R&D present some specific needs and challenges.

For example, process manufacturing often allows for acceptable products to fall within a range of specifications versus simple "it works or it doesn't" standards for discrete items. "Some principles are the same, but the data are different," O'Marah explains. "In discrete manufacturing, much of the data is actually geometric, such as drawings. In process manufacturing, it's essentially all alphanumeric data--specifications, formulas, recipes, and ingredients."

Data already reside in manufacturing execution, company enterprise resource planning (ERP), and document management systems. Tailored software applications that target the process and pharmaceutical industries are being developed to allow companies to create, find, organize, share, and analyze these data in real time. The tools span from initial product ideas or needs, increasingly coming from external customers, through development to production and delivery.

GE Plastics is considered a leader in developing and offering collaborative tools for its customers, having started doing so about two years ago. "We've defined collaboration as the ability to interact through the Web and in person," explains Beth Pearson, global e-business manager for GE Plastics. A selection of tools is "how we help a customer from 'art to part' on the Web," she adds.

The tools range from basic educational features to project management and more complex collaborative capabilities. Educational tools include product information, material selection and engineering calculators, and real-time or prerecorded interactive seminars. GE provides online project work spaces using software from Framework Technologies. And through GE Plastics Live, customers and other collaborators can exchange and discuss documents and drawings with a real GE technologist, dubbed an "e-engineer."

In the next 30 to 45 days, GE Plastics plans on launching a new customer tool called "Virtual Lab." Pearson explains, "Through the Web, we're creating a virtual environment where customers anywhere, anytime can participate in a lab session from the comfort of their own desk." Without having to spend the money or time on travel, they can test materials at any of the company's technical centers around the world.

THE COMPANY has started another future-looking initiative intended to take vast amounts of internal data and "turn it into knowledge," says Bill England, digitization leader for global technology at GE Plastics. The information initially would be available to product development engineers helping customers who need new, rather than existing, product solutions. England envisions a software tool that takes a customer's specifications and, based on an analysis of GE's collective knowledge, yields the right answer.

Although the plastics industry has been slower than others in adopting the Internet, "customers now are definitely using the tools and incorporating them into their application and product development processes," Pearson says. GE Plastics' e-engineers conduct 300 interactions or chats per week with global customers. Overall, the business has 240,000 registered users and receives 20,000 hits weekly on its website, 5,000 of which are return visits. So far this year, 9,000 to 10,000 people have attended electronic seminars.

"We find we have the ability to touch many, many more customers in a much quicker fashion," Pearson says. This includes a broader reach by customer size and by industry segment. Responding to customers, fostering relationships, and closer partnering are important aspects of using online collaborative tools.

The collaborative tools also help increase productivity, decrease costs, and bring in new business, Pearson says. The typical time from an initial inquiry about a plastics application to an order being placed has been reduced by about 30%, she says. "And we were anticipating 100 million lb of growth for the Americas through e-tools this year, but we've far exceeded that."

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Copyright © 2002 American Chemical Society