Locus Technologies Receives Vendor Rating

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Locus Rated by Leading Analyst Firm

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 11 May 2009 — Locus Technologies (Locus) today announced that Gartner, Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, has rated the company “Promising” in a recent report.

“Locus is very pleased to have received a Gartner Vendor Rating. Our current customers already know the value our Cloud Computing solutions bring to their environmental information management challenges” said Locus President and CEO, Neno Duplancic. “We believe Gartner’s coverage of our firm confirms our position in the market and our commitment to providing customers with cost-effective and innovative SaaS software solutions that meet their current and emerging environmental data and information management needs, including addressing upcoming GHG and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting.”

Locus’ flagship environmental data management system EIM is used worldwide to manage and report environmental data and information and is managing over 100 million environmental data records for some of the world’s largest companies. Locus’ ePortal provides the platform to bring together Locus’ modular applications into a single integrated solution that can be tailored for environmental compliance, greenhouse gas tracking, or environmental health and safety (EHS) tracking depending on a company’s individual need. Locus’ EHS module also provides GRI indicator tracking and reporting capabilities. All of Locus’ solutions are on-demand providing customers with cost-effective and timely implementation options to meet their business requirements.

 

VENDOR RATING DISCLAIMER
The Vendor Rating is copyrighted 21 April 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Vendor Rating is an evaluation of a vendor as a whole and is based on Gartner’s assessment of the vendor’s vision and execution for a product or service, relative to Gartner’s analysis of clients’ requirements. It is not intended as a comparison relative to competitors in the market. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Vendor Rating, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner “Vendor Rating: Locus Technologies” by Dan Miklovic, 21 April 2009
The complete report is available to Gartner clients at www.gartner.com.

For more information, visit www.locustec.com or contact Ms. Marian Carr at (650) 960-1640.

Locus to Present Cloud Computing for EHS Management at EUEC 2009 in Phonenix, AZ

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Join Locus at the EUEC 2009 Annual Conference & Expo in Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix, AZ., 1-4 February 2009 |Booth #827 —Locus will present a paper on Cloud Computing solutions for the EHS industry and display our newest cloud computing products (eEHS and eTask) as well as our flagship product EIM.  Please visit us at Booth 827 and see the systems that are changing how environmental professionals manage, analyze, and report environmental data and information.

Is a large portion of your environmental data sitting in spreadsheets and home-built databases?

Robust enterprise databases are standard tools in other industries, but, for whatever reason, the environmental business has failed to fully embrace them. What happens to the sampling and analytical data generated from the investigations, cleanups, air emissions monitoring, or operation and maintenance of a company’s sites? For many, it is entered into spreadsheets, a commercial client/server database, or a home-grown database—with spreadsheets often being the most popular of these alternatives.

Let’s suppose a company has 10-million analytical records stored in spreadsheets and databases dispersed across multiple offices. Our research shows that the average cost to organize, manage, and report this data through independent systems over a 3-year period would be more than $2 million. Stop by Locus’ Booth #827 and let us demonstrate how using our Locus EIM on-demand data management system can drop your number by 85%—or more than a staggering $1.7 million.

 

Locus Presents | Cloud Computing Solutions for Global Environmental Sustainability Reporting, by Marian Carr and Robert Albo | Session G5: EMIS and EHS | Tuesday, 3 February 2009 1:40 pm

Locus’ Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) SaaS Module Offers Expanded Greenhouse Gas Tracking

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Locus’ Enhanced eEHS Moves Corporate Sustainability Reporting Higher into the Cloud

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., December 22, 2008 — Locus Technologies, the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, announced today the roll out of its updated eEHS on-demand environmental health and safety software, specifically designed to serve the multi-national marketplace.

The updated eEHS module enables enterprises to collect compliance information from any location at any time via a native Web 2.0 platform, using a simple, intuitive interface. eEHS enables customers to easily review and evaluate data, spot issues or trends, and create reports and roll ups on corporate EHS status. With eEHS, companies centrally manage and report in real time all governance, risk and compliance (GRC) data, including greenhouse gas (GHG), Sarbanes-Oxley, energy consumption and water and waste usage information.

In response to an increased focus on greenhouse gas reporting, environmental sustainability and GRC reporting, Locus revamped its eEHS application, enhancing environmental and sustainability indicator tracking and reporting. Key new features include the addition of a robust ad hoc query capability that produces boardroom quality reports with a single mouse click—all delivered through Cloud computing or SaaS. eEHS’s new multi-language capability significantly enhances the user experience and reduces training. Because eEHS is offered via the Internet, there is no software to install and no hardware to purchase, streamlining global roll outs and reducing costs.

One of Locus’ long term customers, Alstom, an international leader in equipment and services for power generation and rail transport solutions, recently deployed the enhanced Locus eEHS worldwide. Operating in more than 70 countries and employing some 76,000 people, Alstom is enjoying the improved work flow and ease of data collection offered by eEHS. Sustainable development is central to the Alstom strategy and Locus software is helping Alstom meet its strategic goals.

“Locus eEHS is elegant in its simplicity,” said Locus President and CEO Neno Duplancic. “Collecting and reporting KPI information from hundreds of global locations is a challenge faced by every company operating internationally. Locus’ eEHS solves this problem by offering a very targeted software application via the Web, making data collection painless.”

“Our web-based eEHS provides businesses instant access to global information at a fraction of the cost of any installed on premises system,” continued Duplancic. “With the new regulations dealing with global warming issues just around the corner, companies must manage EHS issues carefully to avoid the risk of non-compliance. Now Locus’ customers have an on-demand software tool that consolidates all reporting activities into a single platform and that carries no implementation risk.”

Locus Introduces eTask for Real-Time Messaging and Notification, Simplifying Compliance Management

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Retooled and revamped, notification and messaging layer, rounds out Locus’ environmental solutions suite

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., October 6, 2008 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, announced the release today of eTask, a comprehensive task management module, rounding out Locus’ award-winning on-demand environmental compliance software portal suite.

Armed with eTask, executives in companies responsible for Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), now have a powerful tool to support Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) regulatory compliance. eTask provides automated notifications of task initiation, management and completion, spanning all of Locus’ portal suite applications. Locus’ eTask streamlines and automates daily environmental compliance activities through key features such as asset level tracking and compliance activity reminders.

With the proliferation of new regulations such as greenhouse gas requirements, managers must track EH&S carefully and on time. eTask simplifies the job by graphically monitoring key performance indicators (KPI) through dashboard reporting. eTask employs a graphical interface based on Web 2.0 technology that immediately notifies appropriate personnel of critical actions, ensuring the company stays in compliance, potentially saving both dollars and reputation.

eTask tracks a permit’s status relative to regulatory requirements and generates associated task assignments. It provides automated graphical ticklers and e-mail notification, logs when tasks have been completed and sends alerts when tasks are pending or overdue. These requirements can be linked to corporate assets or entities, or to any other vertical application such as EIM or even third party applications. Compliance status management reports can be rolled up to any level within the organization and are fully auditable and verifiable by eTask.

While many businesses analyze corporate performance by looking in a rear view mirror—crunching historical data to link results with causes and resolving problems after the fact, Locus software enables its users to proactively manage environmental compliance. Because Locus’ software suite helps analyze EH&S performance and operations in real time, organizations can more effectively capitalize on opportunities and reduce cost.

eTask features a robust database and reporting engine along with a high degree of user customization. Users can create assets, place assets in groups, assign single or grouped assets to tasks, and assign tasks to multiple staff with configurable notifications based on customer specific workflow.

As with other Locus solutions, eTask is offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), so customers do not need to install any software, or buy and maintain specialized servers to run the application. When purchased with ePortal and eSite modules, eTask includes the compliance dashboard for user-profile based views of actionable compliance tasks and status. eTask can be used for single sites or over an entire portfolio of sites.

“Locus eTask is the ‘action engine’ of our ePortal,” said Locus President and CEO Neno Duplancic. “eTask software aggregates information from distributed assets or permit submittal requirements and keeps responsible parties informed of necessary actions. It gives businesses insight into which compliance events will have the greatest operational impact so they can focus their resources to seize opportunities and mitigate risks” added Duplancic.

Locus CEO presents environmental data challenges at Carnegie Mellon West

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Environmental Industry Software: A Growing Data Management Challenge

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, SILICON VALLEY, Calif., 9 April 2008 — Bay Area based Locus Technologies is in large part responsible for the creation of an emerging technical sector— the storage and management of environmental industry data. Even conservative estimates project rapid growth in the environmental information arena, with an increasing need for software tools to store, manage and manipulate data. Such data includes the massive amount of complex information collected during environmental cleanup projects, air emissions, greenhouse gasses monitoring, and other activities, which in past practice was stored in various distributed locations from spreadsheets to PDAs to field notebooks. Locus stores environmental industry data in an online central database, making it accessible via the Web and available for analysis, visualization, and reporting, leveraging Web 2.0 technologies such as Service Oriented Architecture, mashups, and vertical searches.

 

ABOUT DR. DUPLAN
Carnegie Melon alumnus Dr. Neno Duplan is the founder and CEO of Locus Technologies where he has
pioneered the application of an Internet based on-demand computing model for data management in the
environmental industry.

Dr. Duplan is the author of more than 30 technical papers on the use of technologies in the environmental
industry. As a research associate at Carnegie Mellon in the early eighties, he developed the first prototype system
for environmental and geological data management and display using microcomputers. This early work led to the
development of numerous database management systems at some of the nation’s largest contaminated sites, and
ultimately to the formation of Locus Technologies in 1997.

Dr. Duplan earned a Master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon, Master’s and
Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil
Engineering from the University of Split, Croatia. He attended Stanford University’s Advance Project Management
program, and has taught classes at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin.

New Locus Web Module Organizes Geological Information: Organize, Display and Report Geo-Data with eGeo

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Organize, Display and Report Geo-Data with eGeo

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 24, 2008 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental data and information management services, announced today the expansion of its award winning ePortal software with a new module, eGeo, which organizes geological and geotechnical data on the web.

eGeo is available to Locus’ existing Environmental Information Management (EIM) customers immediately and free of charge.

eGeo eliminates the need for third-party borehole log applications, fence diagrams, or CAD drawings and for yet another disconnected database application, login and software license. eGeo is fully integrated with Locus’ award winning EIM Web 2.0 analytical data management system and with the Locus ePortal, providing users with single sign-on access to a powerful set of geo-data management tools.

Geological site investigation processes generate tremendous amounts of data, including geological quality and geotechnical properties. Field investigation results such as borehole drilling, geophysical testing, Cone Penetrometer Testing (CPT) and Standard Penetration Testing (SPT) all must be collected and analyzed. This information needs to be validated, managed, reported and preserved. Ironically, while companies invest millions of dollars to collect their data, rarely is it well-organized or readily accessible.

Previously, geo-data, such as borehole logs, were entered into expensive stand-alone software applications, spreadsheets or CAD systems that had little or no data analysis capability. Users could not easily retrieve this content or correlate it with similar geological and analytical chemistry data. Data had to be downloaded, merged and analyzed as precious time was lost and consulting hours piled up.

Locus’ eGeo, an integrated module in Locus’ ePortal, is a web-based application that instantly delivers, sorts, and assembles geo-data into highly nuanced reports, boring logs, CPT logs, SPT Logs, cross sections, charts, and maps—including raster image overlays, and mashups with Google Maps and pictures. As a result, geological information can be quickly visualized and analyzed.

“eGeo and our other software tools meet a huge need in the field of geotechnical and geological data management,” said Locus President and CEO, Dr. Neno Duplancic. “By offering up graphical, mapping, and other applications in our portal, users are able to view, download, and print information from each application in a uniform manner,” continued Duplancic. “This exciting new functionality comes without the need to store large image files on the server end, minimizing storage and Internet traffic requirements.” said Duplancic.

“Our tools give corporate managers something new, a means to quickly view and click through any aspect of the environmental status of their sites from within a single application. Geologists, geotechnical and environmental engineers, and site owners can use eGeo to look at their data with the same ease that oil companies use multi-million software applications to visualize and map underground oil reserves,” said Duplancic.

“Information management technologies based on Web 2.0 technology can help businesses and governments characterize environmental problems faster and more easily so that valuable resources can be spent designing solutions instead of searching for information or synchronizing disconnected applications, spreadsheets or databases.” Duplancic said.

Santa Clara Valley Water District selects Locus Technologies for recycled water study

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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., August 25, 2007 — The Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) selected Locus Technologies to perform a study of potential groundwater impacts from expanded use of recycled water for irrigation in the Santa Clara and Llagas Groundwater Sub-basins, California.

For this project, Locus will be using several investigative techniques to assess the potential impact to groundwater from use of recycled water. In addition to fate and transport evaluation of recycled water chemicals of concern, such as NDMA, HAA5, and trace metals, Locus will perform soil core bench tests and conduct a full-scale pilot test to monitor chemical concentrations as recycled water percolates through the vadose zone. From these tests, Locus will assess the soil aquifer treatment capacity, evaluate the potential of recharged recycled water to degrade the groundwater quality, and develop water quality standards for the recycled water to be used in the Llagas and Santa Clara Groundwater Sub-basins. To help the stakeholders in their practice, Locus will identify best management practices for irrigating with recycled water and identify necessary ongoing monitoring requirements to protect groundwater resources.

This award cements Locus’s reputation as a company on the forefront of the high-end environmental consulting business on complex groundwater problems.

“This is an important win for us at the time when companies and government are under pressure to achieve sustainability goals,” said Mr. Elie Haddad, Vice President of Locus’s Environmental Services Division. “On one hand, there is a push to reuse recycled water, and, on the other hand, this reuse should not degrade our precious groundwater resources. Our study will bring the balance between what seems to be competing goals. We are very pleased to be selected through a competitive bidding process by SCVWD for this important groundwater study. We look forward to continue partnering with industry and local governmental agencies to protect the precious Silicon Valley groundwater resources and provide long term stewardship for this most important resource.” added Haddad.

Project execution will come primarily from Locus’s office in Mountain View, California.

Locus to promote seminar on carbon trading and finance in San Francisco

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Greening of America Through On-Demand Software

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 2, 2007 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based environmental data and information management services, will join Global Change Associates and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP to promote a seminar on carbon trading and finance. The seminar will be held on July 17, 2007, at Pillsbury’s San Francisco office at 50 Fremont Street.

Led by carbon markets experts Peter C. Fusaro and Jay Gould, partner and co-leader of Pillsbury’s Investment Funds & Investment Management Team, the seminar, “Carbon Trading is the Missing Link in Clean Tech Investment,” will explore what role carbon trading plays in clean technology investment and how to establish a successful carbon hedge fund.

“This is the second in a series of clean technology investment seminars we are hosting with Pillsbury, which launched one of the first multidisciplinary climate change practices in the nation. We are very excited that Locus Technologies, the leader in environmental information management, will promote the seminar, as the information management component of carbon trading is an important factor to consider in implementing sound carbon strategy,” said Fusaro. “Our last seminar attracted more than 150 people as California continues to be the center of carbon market activity for the foreseeable future.”

“We see carbon emissions management as the next logical expansion of our highly successful LocusFocus environmental portal. Many of our Fortune 100 customers using LocusFocus for environmental data and information management will find it easy to expand in our on-demand portal to include management of greenhouse gases (GHG). Many of Locus’s customers are actively looking for the tools and advice to move forward and formulate real carbon strategies in advance of upcoming regulations. Once regulations are promulgated, companies could lose substantial dollars by not planning ahead for this change. Locus’s customers that are already engaged in this highly topical discussion and are prepared to adopt carbon management strategy at this time can leverage the LocusFocus environmental portal for GHG data management with minimal additional investment and provide their shareholders with transparency on this issue. This seminar is perfect forum to get up to speed and educated on this important matter, particularly for the companies with operations in California that will be subject to California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, Assembly Bill No. 32 (AB32) relating to air pollution,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies.

The seminar will cover the basics of environmental trading, carbon trading and finance, some clean tech solutions, information management, how to implement a carbon reduction under the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and the basics of how to build a carbon fund.

GHG management will impose additional burden for environmental information management. Establishing a comprehensive GHG inventory is the foundation for future GHG management and compliance strategy. However, performing the GHG inventory can be a challenging process for many organizations, particularly for data acquisition, validation, and real time reporting. To make intelligent decisions about GHG management, clean energy, and other factors affecting the quality and sustainability of life, businesses and government entities must have better tools to manage and interpret this information in real time. Robust environmental information management systems are needed to store and analyze this data, and the LocusFocus environmental portal is a solution.

“Carbon trading is a new asset class for hedge fund finance and investment,” said Gould. “Indeed a recent report by the National Venture Capital Association showed that while U.S. venture capital investments, as a whole, were down by 33 percent in 2006, compared to five years ago, investments in American clean tech companies were up 243 percent in that time–more than two and a half times the growth rate of the next strongest industry over that period.”

 

ABOUT GLOBAL CHANGE ASSOCIATES INC.
Global Change Associates Inc. is a leading edge consultancy on energy and environmental financial markets based in New York lead by Peter C. Fusaro. Peter is the best selling author of “What Went Wrong at Enron” and a leading proponent of market-based solutions for environmental remediation. He created the annual Wall Street Green Trading Summit in New York each spring, and is recognized as an international leader in clean technology and emissions trading. He co-founded the Energy Hedge Fund Center in 2004.

Achiever of the Week, Environmental Business Journal

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EBJ BUSINESS ACHIEVER OF THE WEEK: LOCUS TECHNOLOGIES.

14 June 2007 — This week we salute Locus Technologies, winner of a 2006 Business Achievement Award in the IT Merit category for continuing the development of its EIM software, a package that allows companies to upload and view environmental information pertaining to their sites and facilities—exclusively over the web—using an on-demand model (i.e., “Software as a Service”). During 2006, Locus added portal infrastructure through Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which allows users to integrate EIM’s web-based applications to any other application. In effect, the company says, this added capability makes EIM the “Yahoo” of the environmental world. Locus also expanded EIM to work with the popular Google maps. A user can now add overlays of environmental information to a Google map and display shadowed “info windows.” The result is a Google map mashup, a web application that seamlessly combines EIM content from more than one source into an integrated presentation. Using this mashup, EIM provides a data box listing the chemical concentration in groundwater, borehole information, and other relevant environmental information associated with location. Customers selecting the EIM package during 2006 included ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, Northrup Grumman and Texas Instruments.

For more information on the EBJ Business Achievement Awards please visit www.ebionline.org.

Locus introduces environmental Electronic Data Deliverable (EDD) standards

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A growing need exists for a standardized format for transmitting environmental electronic data. There are more than 15 different standards in use in the U.S. alone, most of which are antiquated. Locus leverages the latest XML technology to drive standard consolidation and ease of use.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 30 2007 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental data management software, announced today the release of a set of its first standard Electronic Data Deliverable (EDD) formats for the reporting of environmental laboratory analytical data. With the recent signings of several large Fortune 100 clients, and the upcoming tenfold increase in the number of sites with data in the company’s flagship product, EIM™, a growing need exists for a standardized format for transmitting electronic data. Several EDD formats already exist in the environmental industry—some promulgated by government agencies—and others by vendors of commercial software products. However, some of these format “standards” suffer from the requirement that data be submitted in multiple files, while other formats, have antiquated requirements related to field lengths or valid values that originated at a time when hard disk space was at a premium.

Locus’s Extensible Markup Language (XML) formatted single-file standard EDD allows for much more flexibility in file structure, because the data self-identifies each field using labels to bracket its contents. The content is similar and compliant with the (Staged Electronic Data Deliverable (SEDD) format. SEDD is an inter-agency effort spearheaded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to create a generic XML-based format for electronic delivery of analytical data for environmental industry.

To simplify the work of legacy systems, Locus is also releasing an EDD standard format, which consists of 53 explicitly defined fields maintained in a single file. Clients may request that additional custom fields be included to meet specific agency, the major state submission, or project requirements. The selection of the fields that are included in the Locus EIM EDD format was based on input from Locus’s user community and experts in analytical data management, as well as a review of the most popular currently used EDDs. The contents of the format permit data to be validated to EPA Level II, if a customer so desires. Locus envisions this format to be transitional for the companies and laboratories that are not yet ready to adopt XML-based technology, but are tired of dealing with multiple and antiquated file formats, which only serve to increase IT costs.

Since the release of EIM in 1999, Locus has allowed companies to design their own EDD formats, and Locus will continue to support this flexibility in its systems. However, Locus believes that the promulgation of a standardized format will allow laboratories to reduce the costs of creating EDDs, minimize errors in the reporting of data, and more quickly support new EIM clients.

“As the leader in environmental data management software, Locus strives to provide guidance, direction, and endorsement to the best ideas in an effort to standardize data management processes. Currently, there are more than 15 different standards for analytical data submittals, and this needs to change,” said Locus’s president and CEO, Neno Duplancic. “We believe that the standards we are releasing today, one transitional and one XML-based, will take steps toward achieving that goal and will help drive uniformity in the marketplace. With more than 35,000 sites reporting through LocusFocus EIM, Locus customers represent the largest users of environmental lab data, so this effort should help drive consolidation of the standards. Locus is committed to meeting all federal and state EDDs and leading the industry in reducing proliferation of incompatible formats by strongly endorsing XML-based SEDD standards,” added Duplancic.

Locus’s XML-based EDD accepts files in Stage 2a SEDD format, which contains the basic analytical results (including the sample ID, analyte, result, and qualifier) plus method quality control data. The EIM import module includes data verification and consistency checks outlined in the Document Type Definition (DTD) for Stage 2a, as well as forms for viewing the data in the imported SEDD file. Both formats can be downloaded for free from the Locus’s website at www.locustec.com.