Chemical Industry User Group (CISUG) meets in Newtown Square

I spent the past two days, along with several sponsoring partners and about 100 customers, at the Chemical Industry User Group fall meeting in Newtown Square. It was my third experience of this event, and I enjoy it more each time, probably because each year I see more familiar faces from chemical companies and partners who support them.

The first day’s activities were combined into several afternoon sessions in the auditorium, with keynote presentations by Don Mahoney, the head of SAP Chemical Industry Business Unit, and Dr. Saikat Chaudhuri from Wharton School of Business. Don discussed the top issues facing chemical company CEOs based on conversations with SAP’s Chemical Executive Advisory Council. Dr. Chaudhuri talked about his research with companies who outsource “core” functions like R&D. Finally, Kevin Kolley from Red Spot talked about experiences implementing SAP ERP from scratch — in 30 weeks.

The second day’s presentations were broken down into two simultaneous tracks, one around global trade and one around customer relationship topics. I can’t speak to the CRM sessions, as I spent the day in the global trade track. This track featured some really great presentations on export controls, global trade services, and EHS compliance — complete with free chocolate treats supplied by the presenters from Hershey (no, they aren’t a chemical company, but you’d be surprised how relevant their global trade compliance issues are to any process manufactuer). More on these sessions later……