Gartner defines the market for packaging and product specification management solutions as software applications and services that govern data related to product and packaging from raw materials/ingredients through to bills of materials and finished goods across the enterprise. With these cloud-based and on-premises software applications, organizations can effectively address the challenges of capturing, analyzing, utilizing and sharing specification data internally and externally. Users include supply chain, R&D, procurement, compliance and quality functions. Regulatory requirements and EPR legislation are elevating the need to move from manual processes to digitized spec data solutions. Packaging and product specification management applications ensure that specification content is captured in a manner that enables the efficient use of the data to drive business activities across the enterprise. These activities include package and product development, purchasing, requests for pricing, quality management, regulatory compliance, taxes, extended producer responsibility (EPR) and sustainability tracking.