Tec4U

THE GOAL

Manufacturers must meet regulatory standards regarding the composition of substances and materials in their products – a process known as material compliance. Tracking this is complicated, so tec4U Solutions advises manufacturers on all aspects and supports them in meeting legal and customer-specific requirements. This includes everything from REACH, the European Union’s chemicals regulations, to Prop 65, a law in California, USA, that protects drinking water from toxic substances.

Finding the right measures for implementing operational processes that meet regulatory requirements, producing legally compliant documentation and keeping up with changing rules can be a burden on companies, so tech4U helps by providing software solutions, training and data services. The company wanted to deliver the flexibility and quality its customers demand while also diversifying into technical communication and the validation of technical products, such as IT products.

This would require a new software platform, so tech4U turned to low-code and no-code specialist CLEVR for help.

THE APPROACH

Working in partnership, CLEVR and tech4U developed DataCross, a centralised platform for information about the components making up a supplier product, which regulated substances it contains and other data that cannot be queried in typical company processes. The system needed a high level of security, to protect commercially sensitive data, as well as the ability to fully automate complex processes. It also needed to allow users to work on the entire material compliance process, configure data, store work, request and send information, and gain an overview of compliance across the entire portfolio.

The team decided to build DataCross on the low-code Mendix platform because of the advantages it offers in flexibility and agility. As well as being secure, it is very easy to plug in extra components and services as needed. The complexity of the task meant that DataCross took two years to develop. The end result is the combination of tech4U’s material compliance expertise and CLEVR’s experience of application development.

THE RESULTS

After the introduction of DataCross, tech4U doubled its customer base. Companies using DataCross can save up to 40 per cent of costs compared to handling material compliance manually. It offers them a fully automated and entirely digitalised material compliance process, with a high level of legal security and reduced liability risk.

Hosted in the cloud, DataCross can be easily configured by customers, adding only those regulatory and legal modules that are relevant. As rules and regulations change, new modules can be added. tech4U’s development cycles for new features and changes have dropped by 85 per cent and deployment is virtually instant. The application also maps historical material compliance data to ensure conformity with machine directives and CE markings in terms of their material-related requirements.

The company’s goal is to become a market leader in technical communication and technical product validation. tech4U plans to continue working with CLEVR to develop the applications it needs to meet this goal.

CUSTOMER QUOTE

“State of the art is very demanding and tec4U is the only company that can implement state of the art material compliance to the IEC 63000 standard. Companies that want to work in absolute compliance with the regulations cannot do without DataCross”