Product Line or Service

IRDI will provide a unique blend of Internet software and services to slash the cost of compliance for companies that produce products containing hazardous materials (from paint to pharmaceuticals, lipstick to linoleum.) One side of our business is helping the chemical product company’s create new documents with our exclusive Data Sheet ASP tool (WebMSDS.com) that for the first time allows registered users true collaboration with hundreds of visiting contributors. 

We will then provide a free regulatory document Bank (msdsBank.com) for their customers (also registered with us) that will allow the companies to automatically distribute the legally required documents. Every end-user that signs up for our service will reduce the compliance costs of their vendor and themselves! 

For the business public the bank provides search engine capability for required documents and free storage of MSDS with registration called MYMSDSOnline. We have already collected 250,000 MSDS for common products for the Bank.

Technology/Proprietary Rights

The Internet side of this venture does not depend on any new computer technology. The special proprietary nature of the product is tied up in the specific combination of database/search engine with millions of data sheets, the proprietary approach to collaborative regulatory document creation mixed with the knowledge of our foreign language translation and consulting partners. Compliance is a complex field where one data sheet can contain more than 900 specific, legally important, statements. Our demonstrable mastery of the field will be very difficult to duplicate. 

Market Opportunities

The powerful trend in the chemical product industry is to do more business with fewer resources. There are over 50,000 organizations in the U.S. that create data sheets. And on the “collection” end (again U.S. businesses) are 10,000,000 of these product vendor’s customers. This is a very targeted market and our current database has over 10,000 names/companies/addresses of people who create MSDS sheets. The worldwide market is 10 times larger. (The Chemical Manufacturer’s association estimates that each of them spend $6/MSDS/ customer/year to stay in compliance. Over 2 billion pages of these sheets are mailed annually. We will slash costs by 75%.)

Our web sites will be linking the creators of the mandated regulatory document with their customers that purchase their products. We will open a data pipeline between the product manufacturers and their customers when their customers periodically visit the site to get legally required regulatory updates. We will charge for any other message than an MSDS to be added to the pipeline (such as advertisements, notifications and technical or sales data sheets).

Marketing/Sales and Distribution

This is a plan for a web centric company. All of our products and services will be delivered via the web except one (MSDS-CD is web linked but the regulatory documents are delivered on CD).

Our marketing strategies are based on selective free products and try before you buy fee-based products. Our primary customers are conservative. We have built-in adequate customer acquisition costs and timings (this works in our favor when facing competition). Once customers try the service - they will be hooked. After a year on the service their infrastructure to handle these MSDS will be disbanded making it much more difficult to leave. 

We will advertise both on and off the Internet but focus on direct marketing including small space ads in trade publications (average cost $700), banner exchanges, and trade shows (we will give them a sample MSDS management system tied to our web site). We have already arranged a banner exchange with AFE (an end user plant engineering association). We have also arranged a speaking engagement about Internet based MSDS management for the Instrument Society of America in August in New Orleans. Smaller trainings have been booked for various cities in the fall.

The business model calls for seven revenue streams so that the company will make a profit in a variety of markets: 

• ASP subscriptions (50,000 potentials in US $9.95-$49.95 month fees, 500,000 globally)
• Software sales from the web site (10,000,000 potentials in US: $29.95-lite, $99-professional, LAN $695, $995 and $1995)
• Addressable advertisements can be targeted extremely accurately since everyone on the site is registered –ZIP code, SIC code, products used
• MSDS Translation links enable us to make a commission from a global market 10 times larger than the US market while saving our customers’ money. 
• Consulting partner links will allow us to take a commission from small producers who need help in making up the data sheets. They will save money by using our services
• E-commerce data mining. The MSDS are full of data to be mined including who needs what chemicals 
• Rental of MSDS engine. This will be of significant interest to trade associations, magazine publishers, and industrial distributors.

Competition

• Widely fragmented with no vendor holding more than 3% of the market.
• Only a few of which are in direct competition (all of which have less than $1M in sales
• For most MSDS is a small part of another business (environmental clean-up, etc.)
• We project that most competitors will choose to partner with us rather than compete.
• We are in a new business that is much larger than the old stand-alone MSDS software business.