Overview:
Actio’s “Material Disclosure” software automates chemical data gathering from suppliers and automates subsequent and parallel compliance processes for regulation adherence, CSR, quality, and safer products for consumers and children.
In recent years, the onus is increasingly on manufacturers to track, measure and report on chemicals like BPA, cadmium and conflict minerals in products and supply chains. Hundreds of chemicals most people have never heard of are regulated or will soon be, with still more coming to authorities’ attention each month. Looking for solutions for managing such granular supply chain data, Gartner peered under the hood of Actio's flagship product, "Material Disclosure." Analysts spoke with several Actio customers using "Material Disclosure" and participated in demonstrations themselves.
Then, after months of vetting possible products to feature as the next big thing in manufacturing operations, Gartner analysts settled on Actio's software. Now a subject of its own report, "Material Disclosure" is officially crowned important "disruptive" new technology in manufacturing operations.
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Gartner, Inc Awards Actio Distinction for Material Disclosure Software
Summary: Actio’s flagship software product, Material Disclosure, has been selected for an in-depth profile as a 2012 “Cool Vendor” by Gartner, the industry analyst firm based in Stamford, CT.
Boston, MA (PRWEB) April 17, 2012 -- Gartner has published a report distinguishing Actio as an emerging company “producing potentially disruptive innovations,” i.e., software that is revolutionary in some way and can bestow a measurable, lasting, positive impact on the marketplace.
"Material Disclosure" is Actio’s software product designed to make risk mitigation, product stewardship and implementing compliance best practices automatic, systematic, and lightning fast. The highly anticipated "compliance automation" revolution is here. And after months of research, speaking with customers and seeing the product first-hand, Gartner has produced a report announcing Actio "Material Disclosure" as the next big thing in manufacturing software tools.
The Gartner Cool Vendor reports serve as a great resource for business decision makers identifying tools and innovative products that solve the next great challenge in industry. The report also lends singular credibility to companies who win coverage. The selection and award process is fairly unique in many ways, particularly in that companies cannot nominate themselves. Here’s how up-and-coming firms like Actio Corporation were chosen this year.
The Cool Vendor distinction, how it works:
In early January 2012, Gartner launched their nominations process. The process starts with identifying candidates for this important annual report, which in this case hones in on “disruptive innovations” in manufacturing operations. Given that today’s supply chain funnels directly into manufacturing operations, the candidates were largely companies making technology for managing risk in the supply chain and the manufacturing processes. Actio stood out because of its advanced supplier communication tools plus its data warehouses of environmental regulatory content. These two elements are fused together to automate supplier data gathering and compliance – all securely tracked, housed and analyzed in a permission-access-only, central, Software as a Service (SaaS) data hub.
Companies cannot apply directly to be nominated for the distinction of “Cool Vendor.” Nominations come from analysts at Gartner who are familiar with the space and with the vendor landscape. After a month of knowledge sharing among analysts and teams behind closed doors at Gartner, nominations were carefully selected from a pool of over 400 vendor companies.
Then, a company wins the distinction only after analysts authoring the report have spoken with multiple companies actually using the technology, to make sure the product functions as advertised. After all the research, the summary report is produced and made available to the world.
Why "Material Disclosure," why CSR, why now:
As the centerpiece of Actio’s solution set, "Material Disclosure" CSR software continues to drive innovation for customers, serving as the tireless industry leader for building, updating and deploying automated regulatory compliance campaigns. These data-gathering campaigns extract the necessary information from suppliers in a tiered, “drip” manner that collects compositional and Bill Of Material or BOM data from both suppliers and different instances of ERP systems across an enterprise – and other permissioned data silos – then stores all the sensitive information in one, central, secure data hub where only carefully screened administrators can access the data or create reports.
Product stewardship, quality and risk management in today’s global manufacturing supply network require chemical software that compares supplier’s material disclosure data against centralized, updated regulatory chemical lists (including custom lists). It's necessary to collaborate with suppliers to make sure chemical-level ingredients in a product are known, communicated and up-to-date. Material Disclosure automates this necessary compliance piece, and gives businesses unprecedented data, analytics and business intelligence to leverage for increased Return on Investment or ROI.
With well over 100,000 named chemicals – not counting mixtures – whirling around industrial manufacturing and supply chain networks today, the only way to meaningfully track chemical-level ingredients is to use an automated supplier query system connected to a robust relational database that organizes and stores materials information for analysis, key strategic decisions, and selective environmental reporting. Innovation in software technology has made streamlining this process manageable.
About Cool Vendors:
Since 2004, the Gartner Cool Vendors process has benefitted many companies by increasing industry profile for:
1. enterprise customers trying to find vendors to work with
2. larger vendors looking for acquisition targets
3. investors seeking a new investment opportunity and
4. analysts and journalists looking for the next big story in the marketplace
For more information about Actio software, please visit http://www.actio.net.
About Actio Corporation:
Since 1996, Actio Corporation has been helping companies and their supply chain networks to cost-effectively manage the complexities surrounding environmental compliance and the exchange of parts, substances and chemicals along the global manufacturing supply chain. Actio’s supply chain materials information management solutions are delivered as SaaS and encourage a Six Sigma or “best practices” approach for analyzing and managing parts, substance and chemical information in today’s complex regulatory environment. Actio solutions track raw material and part composition for compliance with global regulations including: REACH, RoHS, WEEE. For more information about Actio software, please visit http://www.actio.net.
Contact:
Kathleen Hurley
Director, Corporate Communications
Actio Corporation
30 International Drive, Suites 201-203
Portsmouth, NH 03801 www.actio.net
Direct: 603-433-2300 ext. 350
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