If you’re considering purchasing a software platform to help you with 
your Safety Data Sheet (SDS) authoring or management, it means you’ve already realized the benefits in terms of accuracy, speed, and convenience for your compliance department. But getting your executives to sign off on purchasing this important software is a whole other challenge. For the C-suite, it usually just boils down to “How much is this going to cost?”, and the other benefits you’re excited about don’t seem to matter.
This short blog presents the top 5 benefits of using a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) Authoring software that you should put front and center when presenting your business case to your executive team. They will help you frame your case in terms of the bottom line: how much money does this solution save? How will it help generate more revenue? Why is it more profitable to invest in software?
1. Hours and Money Saved Using SDS Software
We’re starting with the most obvious but probably most impactful benefit here: upper management will see SDS software as a cost, and your job will be to reframe it into the number of paid work hours saved.
Creating SDSs for all the chemical materials in your product line can burn through weeks of valuable time. Even the most skilled chemist needs a few hours to author a single SDS (more if that material is a complex blend). All this time crunching numbers is wasted and could be better spent on real compliance tasks, like environmental reporting and sustainability initiatives.
When pitching the power of Safety Data Sheet software, make sure you speak to the EHS Manager to get an estimate as to the time it takes to author an SDS. Use this information to present the executives with a baseline time cost and the expected savings. Since time equals money, you can give your boss a quantifiable cost savings estimate as part of your pitch.
For example, ERA’s SDS authoring software can produce a complete 16-section SDS in about 30 minutes, meaning an entire product line can be converted into GHS-compliant SDSs in just a day or two. We estimate time savings to be 85% or more for the average user; use this as a general rule to show an 85% reduction in manhours paid out of the operating budget for the purpose of SDS Authoring.
2. Competitive Market Advantage of Digitizing SDSs
Not all SDSs are created equal. There’s a competitive advantage to being able to boast that your SDSs are more accurate, delivered faster, easier to read, and more carefully crafted than those of your competitors. Supply chains can be a dog-eat-dog affair and any edge you get yields a larger market share.
When you’re making your case to executives, it’s important to mention that online SDS software will give you a competitive advantage and a stronger foundation for customer service. This can be difficult to quantify in terms of concrete numbers and Return on Investment (ROI), but the best place to start is by looking at the supplier requirements of your most important clients—are they asking for extra information from their vendors? Are they taking on sustainability projects that might require them to look for different products? These are all useful hints to market opportunities.
3. Business Value from Workplace Safety
Executives understand that a safe workplace is a productive workplace. Having an SDS Management System that keeps SDSs organized, accessible, and up to date is the most effective way of reducing the misuse of materials and aiding in the proper response to emergencies and incidents stemming from hazardous chemicals.
To determine the ROI and cost savings of such a system, we recommend examining your Health & Safety records in search of incidents related to material misuse or to the side-effects of working with potentially hazardous material... even a few days on leave add up to significant, avoidable losses. If you have access to data on fines which could have been prevented, bring this up as part of your business case.
If you don’t have access to this information, the next best thing is to find out the maximum applicable fines from OSHA (or your relevant regulator) and present the worst case scenario that SDS management software would help avoid.
4. Protection from Noncompliance Penalties and Fines
The GHS transition represented a major shift in chemical hazard management regulations. With it, new risks of being fined for noncompliance—risks that should be on your business radar—have emerged (and will continue to do so).
Fines for failure to comply with GHS regulations can go up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, far more than any SDS Software will cost your business. Can your managers really afford to reject the purchase of SDS Software, considering it will actually be protecting them from steep penalties? Managers should understand that the investment in SDS Software is about protecting their business from enormous costs.
5. Staying Ahead of the Competition by Becoming a Preferred Supplier
Being ahead of the competition is key: the GHS represents an enormous opportunity to gain market share over your competitors by becoming a Preferred Supplier.
Fortune 100 and 500 companies are now increasingly only selecting suppliers that are 100% GHS-compliant and can provide a full 16-section SDS upon request. In fact, part of these top companies’ obligations to comply with the GHS requires them to actively locate alternative suppliers who meet GHS requirements in case their current suppliers stop being compliant.
Use the GHS requirements as an opportunity to claim a competitive advantage in your market. It can catapult your business into Preferred Supplier status and produce significant business growth.
NOTE: This blog post has been transcribed from an eBook originally published in 2017 (now taken down from our website).
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