Adding structure to online chemical sales

The company lends them a hand through a nifty option that lets the chemists draw a chemical structure, then search for the Sigma-Aldrich compounds either matching or containing that structure. For example, upon drawing and searching on a structure that has a benzene ring containing both a chlorine and bromine group, a chemist would learn that Sigma-Aldrich offers several products that match or contain that structure, says John Custer, electronic marketing product manager at the St. Louis company.

Using other site resources, the chemist could then research how to handle the compounds safely, study the exact composition of the product lots and, of course, buy the chemical — provided it isn’t part of Sigma-Aldrich’s Library of Rare Chemicals.

If that’s the case, the research chemist would have to request custom packaging. “We sell rare chemicals only on a case-by-case basis,” Custer says.

“In fact, chemical ordering is complicated. In addition to special handling situations, we are governed by regulatory bodies and legal constraints. One challenge was to ensure that our Web systems followed all the business rules we employ in the manual process,” adds Brad Johnson, director of electronic marketing at Sigma-Aldrich.

If the research chemist has never ordered from Sigma-Aldrich before, he must first register and await verification. This process can take 24 to 48 hours, Johnson says. “We need to be sure we meet all compliance, regulatory and ethical issues surrounding chemical sales,” he adds, noting the process is no different for Web sales than it is for phone orders.

Once a research chemist is verified and set up in Sigma-Aldrich’s SAP AG enterprise resource planning system database, the verification process is streamlined and orders are processed in real time, says Larry Blazevich, vice president and chief information officer at the company. The search and drawing tool are customized versions of products made by a company called Oxford Molecular Group.

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