Today, the chemicals industry is experiencing increasing instability. Industry consolidation, regulatory compliance, globalization and global volatility in feed stock prices threaten business us usual. Technological advancements (in both the industry and IT in general), health, safety and privacy issues, as well as an increasingly demanding customer base, add to the volatile mixture of market opportunities, challenges and threats chemical companies face. The very structure of the chemical industry has begun to reflect a turbulent environment of change. Some companies find that they are chained to an aging asset infrastructure that may not be providing expected returns. Those few that become adept at effective asset acquisition and management will have a distinct advantage over rivals. And since IT is radically changing the way companies compete and achieve success, chemical companies with sufficient IT sophistication will have a better opportunity to distinguish themselves. Recent initiatives to achieve incremental improvement have had much less impact in the chemical industry. Whether they focused on differentiation, staying attuned to markets, reducing costs, finding new ways to innovate or delivering reliable returns, smaller initiatives have resulted in smaller yields that are effective over increasingly abbreviated time periods. Looking ahead, many firms see increased volatility on the horizon -- but very few can view a clear course to increased value. Successful chemical firms will look much different in the near future than they do today. To continue to deliver value, chemical companies will have to adopt a new approach: integrating all business processes end-to-end to be able to sense and respond dynamically to customer demands, market opportunities and external threats. IBM calls this holistic approach the on demand business of chemistry. To read the complete study, download the PDF file at the top of this page. | 
