CINCINNATI — The ChemQuest Group announced the launch of Coatings TraQr™ (pronounced “tracker”), an interactive dashboard and forecasting tool that combines input data relative to key coatings market consumption, macroeconomic indicators and raw materials now available for subscription. TraQr will expand to other industry verticals in the near future. TraQr enables businesses throughout the specialty chemicals value chain to more easily identify, analyze and forecast market trends, to make better informed purchasing, pricing, expansion, cost saving, and development decisions. Initially, Coatings TraQr will be available for use within the paint and coatings industry, and co-marketed to those users through a partnership with the American Coatings Association (ACA).

Listening to clients throughout the specialty chemicals value chain, ChemQuest developed TraQr as a response to industry needs. ChemQuest publishes a five-year U.S. industry market overview and forecast with ACA and a global iteration with the World Coating Council. ChemQuest developed Coatings TraQr to offer current quantitative data that complements the qualitative and quantitative data in the published reports. TraQr is built on Microsoft’s Power BI platform, the industry leader for data analysis and visualization. 

In addition to the visualization tools, TraQr leverages Power BI’s “key influencers,” using machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms to quickly analyze data and rank factors based on their level of impact. TraQr’s ability to model and integrate combinations of factors that drive revenue and profit growth, including macroeconomic indicators, industry consumption data and raw materials pricing data, against an enterprise’s sales data to analyze its business-cycle phases, are what make it the first tool of its kind for the specialty chemicals industry. 

For example, if Commercial Construction Starts drives a business segment, TraQr can perform a real-time analysis of nearly 100 additional factors and combinations of factors that influence that metric and can be followed through the dashboard as leading indicators. TraQr centralizes data information for easy accessibility. All of the data is presented in a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, filter and customize, and can be saved and shared to make data-driven decision making smooth and effective. 

The ChemQuest Group, known for its specialty chemicals business strategy, market research and technology development assistance, tapped its experience to provide the industry with the data most crucial for driving business decisions for raw materials suppliers, formulators, distributors, end-users and investors. 

“TraQr will provide our industry with the information needed to better understand market drivers, optimize inventory planning, resource allocation, drive product development and grow their business,” said Dan Murad, CEO of The ChemQuest Group. “We are excited to introduce our first iteration, Coatings TraQr, with other industry verticals to follow in the future. We anticipate that TraQr will provide important insight for our clients. TraQr complements our ongoing work in market research and strategy development, where we uncover trends, drivers and unmet needs.”