See Your ESG Data Like Never Before
Todd Pierce explains in this short video how Locus Technologies data portability can be available for all your data needs.
Access your environmental data wherever you need it
Todd Pierce explains in this short video how Locus Technologies data portability can be available for all your data needs.
Getting the most out of configurable EHS and ESG software
Director of Sales Engineering, Steve Paff, highlights Locus Software’s configurable hierarchy and how versatile it can be.
No-Code Application Development
Locus delivers capabilities that enterprises need to achieve true digital transformation in a unified low-code or no-code automation platform. Locus provides out-of-the-box tools and services to automate business processes, integrate with external applications, and provide a rich user experience.
No-Code EHS Application Development
Locus offers low-code app building, rich multi-experience capabilities, business process orchestration, automated decision making, and easy integration with other databases. Locus makes it easy to modify existing seeded apps or build entirely new apps in a few clicks and provides easy ways to write business logic to solve challenging EHS or ESG problems. We let you blend “off the shelf” apps and unique requirements with exceptional ease.
Who is a User-Developer?
If you know how to layout slides, if you can draw a flow chart, build a spreadsheet using formulae, sorting, with tables and charts, then you are a User Developer. We empower domain experts to build applications within the Locus Platform using the platform’s drag and drop functionality.
What is No-Code Development Platform Software?
No-code development platforms provide drag-and-drop tools that enable end-users with proper access privileges to develop software quickly without coding. Locus Platform provides WYSIWYG editors and drag-and-drop components to rapidly assemble and design EHS, ESG, or any other application applications. Both developers and non-developers can use these tools to practice rapid application development with customized workflows and functionality. Locus Platform provides tools for enterprise-sized businesses that need to quickly design business processes and workflow applications at a large scale, such as ESG reporting or EHS compliance management. The software tools provide templates for workflow, element libraries, and interface customization to create fully functioning applications without any coding.
With Locus, your organization can:
- Drag-and-drop entities to assemble applications.
- Allow non-developers and non-technical users to build applications.
- Build ESG, EHS, or any other apps fast using visual tools that empower IT and business lines alike.
- Leverage no-code integration to connect and act upon data across databases, cloud services, and legacy systems without data migration or use APIs to tie in data.
- Deliver enterprise-grade security, scalability, and reliability to support mission-critical business apps.
- Easily build complex workflows to suit your organizations needs.
Q&A with the Locus Support Team
The biggest differentiator between Locus and other EHS software providers is our support team. Not only do we pride ourselves on the quickest and most efficient resolutions in the industry, but on our human approach to support. Get to know our support team as we recently sat down (virtually) with them to talk about the ins and outs of their field, how it is working for Locus, and more.
What is your most common support case?
Our most common support case is user management related. Many times, our customers need assistance adding new users or updating their user lists. We receive a lot of requests for resetting passwords.
What is the most unique case you’ve seen?
Almost ten years ago, there was a bug within SQL itself! It was quite a mystery. We would venture to say that we have at least one unique case every week. No single case is the same! It certainly keeps us on our toes. We also had a case once where an organization was acquired by another organization. Due to this, we had to rename the users and organizations which ended up resulting in over 300 user changes which impacted historic records.
What is your average response time?
It is our policy to respond to all cases within two hours of receiving them (given that they come in between the hours of 5am and 3pm Pacific Time). If they come in outside of those hours, we respond within 2 hours of beginning our normal hours. We get many compliments on how speedy our response times are! It is the policy of the team for Tier 1 staff members to check new cases every thirty minutes or so. Critical issues typically receive almost immediate responses! Quick response times are one of our proudest achievements.
Can you name a case that made a great impact on the user?
We have had many cases where we have received numerous thank yous from the customer. There has been a time or two when a customer did a widespread data update without meaning to. Our quick response and ability to revert their changes was much appreciated. We have also been known to help our customers with some very interesting issues that require quite a bit of troubleshooting on our end. The Support Team is incredibly patient and willing to dive deep into questions that customer’s come to us with.
What is something people may not know about the support team?
The Locus Support Team consists of many individuals from a variety of backgrounds ranging from Environmental Engineering, Biology, Environmental Science, Environmental Health and Safety, Mathematics, Data Management, GIS, and much more! The Tier 1 team consists of three outstanding individuals who work across the Support Team, Engineering Team, and Configuration team. The Tier 2 team consists of a wide variety of developers, configurators, and specialists in the field. Together, the Locus Support team has over 75 years of combined experience in the Environmental field. We have a few folks on the team that have outward appearances outside of the norm ranging from long hair, piercings, tattoos, and even purple hair.
How has working more hours remotely affected your team?
Because our team is spread across the United States, with team members working out of the Asheville and Mountain View offices, as well as remote employees, we haven’t been impacted as much by the stay at home COVID-19 orders. Our team has always excelled at communication through email and other online chat services. The ability to talk through tools such as Teams and Skype, has given us the advantage edge during this pandemic. In addition, a large number of our Support Team are remote employees ranging across California, Tennessee, Indiana, Utah, and many other states.
What is your favorite part about working on the Locus support team?
The first answer that came to the team was that we are all a family! We are incredibly supportive and encouraging of one another and we have FUN while working! One of the fun things that we all have in common is our deep–rooted love for animals. One of our favorite pastimes is sharing pictures of our animals, as well as their silly antics! We also like to share about our parenting concerns, particularly during COVID-19 times! Locus is an amazing place to work, in part because of the educated, experienced and awesome personalities we have working as a WHOLE team, rather than just a support team. When asked, the number one response was the friendly and family-like atmosphere.
What certificates/degrees does the support team hold?
Master of Applied Science
- Environmental Policy and Management
- Environmental Engineering
- Biology
Associate’s
- Crisis, Emergency and Disaster Management
- Emergency Management
Bachelor of Science
- Environmental Science
- Environmental Chemistry
- Civil Engineering
- Physical Geography
- Mathematics
- Integrated Science and Technology
Certifications
- FEMA Certifications
- ISO 9001, 9000 and 14000 Internal and Lead Auditor Certification
- Accredited GHG Verififier
- 40-hr HazWoper
- Graduate certificate in GIS
5 Ways To Save With Locus
For over 20 years, Locus environmental software customers have saved enormously on their setup and and data entry costs. This infographic highlights the aggregate savings of all users based on conservative estimates of time and cost for different aspects related to our software.
An EHS&S Look Into the Tech Used in the Iowa Caucuses
The Importance of User Implementation and Quality Assurance from an EHS&S Software Provider
After reading about the IowaReporterApp used during the 2020 Iowa caucuses, it struck me how remarkably similar it is in intended function to the EHS&S software developed by my employer, Locus Technologies. Both their application and Locus’ mobile technology collect large quantities of sensitive data from several remote users at multiple facilities, allowing for instant calculation and reporting. What surprised me though, is just how vastly different their user implementation and data management methodology was from what is standard operating procedure at Locus.
In this blog, I will highlight some of the pitfalls of the IowaReporterApp, and compare it to Locus’ EHS&S software. Note, this article is not a political critique, but is an examination of data collection and data quality methods used during the caucuses.
Implementation
Users were introduced to the IowaReporterApp just days before the caucuses and received no app-specific training. Many users were downloading the application on the night of the caucuses.
The Iowa caucuses have been held biennially for almost a half-century as the first major contest of the primaries. The date of the caucuses was a surprise to no one. As a result, app development deadlines should have given enough time for user implementation, through one-on-one training or presentations with appropriate support staff. If app deadlines were not met, there should have been a fallback to redundant reporting systems, like in the case of Nevada, who were also planning to use the app but have opted out after the debacle in Iowa.
When Locus introduces new users to our software, we take implementation seriously. Our customer support team is composed of domain experts who have actively built and used Locus software. We know the deadlines and the problems users typically face during the implementation process. From one-on-one and on-site training to quick turnaround, our support team does everything they can to ensure that users are comfortable with our product as soon as possible.
Untested Software/Quality Assurance
User implementation deadlines are all the more important given that the software had no real-world use to this point. While it is not advisable to go live with untested software, at the very least, having users stress test a product before field-use could have staved off a few issues.
This is something we see frequently with newer products and newer companies. Locus has over 20 years of experience creating EHS&S software used by U.S. government organizations and Fortune 500 companies. Our quality assurance team rigorously tests any update we bring to customers and doesn’t rush changes to sell a platform update, since every user is always on the same version of Locus software.
Data Redundancy
No one can question that Excel or Google Spreadsheets can perform math correctly, but what is frequently overlooked or not even considered, are the macros, custom functions, and calculations that are often added to spreadsheets when deployed for managing data and other tasks. If one fails, there need to be backups for reporting and storing data.
When the untested application predictably failed, users flocked to the phone lines as a redundancy. Manual data collection on such a scale created confusion and could not carry the load, and had no way of accounting for errors in data entry. At Locus, we understand the importance of EHS&S data, and maintain backups and full audit trails for all critical data, with quick restoration available so you can keep going if anything should happen.
Security
The IowaReporterApp was not released in time to get approval in Apple’s app store, and it was sent out through beta testing platforms which required suspension of smartphone security settings.
ProPublica, a nonprofit organization who produces public interest investigative journalism, did a report on the security of the IowaReporterApp after the Iowa Caucuses. Shockingly, they found security problems to be “elementary” and that the app was so insecure that vote totals, passwords, and other sensitive information could have been intercepted or changed. Luckily, there seems to be no evidence of hacking or tampering with results.
Locus understands the need for security with sensitive data, and hosts our entire infrastructure in the most secure and reliable cloud, Amazon Web Services. AWS has an unmatched portfolio of cloud services that Locus fully utilizes to the benefit of their customers.
Summary
Overall, I think that the mishaps related to the IowaReporterApp show just how easy it is for a data collection and management application to fail if not properly implemented and ran by those with years of practical expertise. Subverted data quality will always be extremely costly to your organization, both financially and otherwise, and should be avoided unequivocally.
Locus Technologies was founded in 1997. Locus’ environmental data management software currently handles over a half billion sensitive records taken from over one million unique locations and is used hundreds of organizations including the government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. Aaron Edwards received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UNC Asheville and is Marketing Associate for Locus Technologies. He is an active voter, and is unaffiliated with any political party.
Infographic: 6 Benefits of EHS on AWS
In this infographic, we have outlined a few of the ways EHS programs benefit from having an AWS-hosted solution. Locus customers recently received these benefits as a result of moving our entire infrastructure to Amazon Web Services—the world’s leading cloud. Learn more about the move to AWS.
Can your EHS software vendor share SaaS system performance statistics in real time? Across all customers?
EHS SaaS Multitenancy explained and why it matters.
There is a considerable degree of (intended) confusion in the EHS software space when it comes to cloud computing and multitenancy. If your software vendor cannot share statistics in real time like shown in the figure nearby, most likely they do not run on a multitenant SaaS platform.
The real-time information on system performance and security of SaaS cloud platform is the most important element that frequently gets overlooked during EHS software selection process. Success in the cloud is built on trust. Trust starts with transparency.
Our real time status monitoring (ran by an independent provider of web monitoring services) provide transparency around service availability and performance for Locus’ EHS SaaS products.
Just as with airlines that fly through clouds, our entire business is built on trust and security of our cloud offerings. Over 700,000 locations around the globe trust Locus to safeguard their data in the cloud.
Cloud Computing
Since the turn of the millennium, cloud computing has revolutionized the landscape of the computing world because it provides enterprise-grade computing resources that are affordable and instantly available. Clouds provide straightforward access to IT resources—you just access as many resources as you need when you need them, and never have to deal with the complexities of managing all of the underlying infrastructures that provide those resources. EHS manager job is suddenly a lot simpler and easier with cloud computing. You don’t even need help from IT department (if you don’t want it).
Multitenancy
Multitenancy is the fundamental technology that clouds use to share computing resources cost-efficiently and securely. Just like a bank—in which many tenants cost-efficiently share a hidden, common infrastructure, yet utilize a defined set of highly secure services, with complete privacy from other tenants—a cloud uses multitenancy technology to share IT resources securely among multiple applications and tenants (businesses, organizations, etc.) that use the cloud. Some clouds use virtualization-based architectures to isolate tenants; others use custom software architectures to get the job done. The multitenant design of a cloud service can have a dramatic impact on the application delivery and productivity of an IT organization, yet most CIOs, CTOs, system architects, and developers who use clouds don’t give it a second thought because it’s all magic that transparently happens behind the scenes.
Locus Platform is the proven cloud application development platform that powers popular Locus cloud EHS and Sustainability applications as well as custom applications that customers build to satisfy their specific EHS+S requirements.
EHS SaaS explained: Multi-tenancy is a difference that makes a difference
There is a considerable degree of (intended) confusion in the EHS software space when it comes to multi-tenancy. Companies that are considering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) hear all sorts of things from EHS software vendors hoping to tap into the momentum of cloud computing. Among the most common is that multi-tenancy is a “techie” thing that doesn’t need to be part of the conversation. Many go as far as saying “sure, we can do multi-tenant, single-tenant, whatever you need!”— anything to win the job.
Unfortunately, those vendors simply do not understand what they are talking about. Multi-tenancy is a major shift in computing and requires all new approach to software architecture and delivery model. It is transformational, and customers who intend to buy the next generation of EHS software should spend the time to understand differences.
Multi-tenancy is the core foundation of modern SaaS and shouldn’t be taken lightly, generalized, or massaged into something that suits a vendor’s self-serving interpretation of SaaS. Having experienced first-hand the true benefits of multi-tenant SaaS, I can’t conceptualize how SaaS would have delivered those benefits if it wasn’t multi-tenant. Can anyone imagine companies like Salesforce, NetSuite, Google, or Amazon offering a “single-tenant” solution side by side to their multi-tenant clouds? I will go as far as say that any company offering a single-tenant solution cannot be a serious contender in offering multi-tenant SaaS.
I would also add that single-tenant (hybrid) cloud applications are worse than on-premise installment. Why? Because they are fake clouds. In these instances, a customer is, in fact, outsourcing maintenance of their application to a vendor that is not equipped for that maintenance. No single vendor in the EHS software industry is large enough to undertake maintenance of the single-tenant infrastructure on behalf of their customers, regardless how inexpensive hardware may be.
There are many ways to take the functions of on-premise installed software model of the 1980s and package them as services. Some of these service delivery modes– such as ASP, single-tenant hosting, and hybrid clouds– merely relocate and reassign long-standing problems and potentially make them worse. In a single-tenant model, user customizations may infiltrate throughout the stack, in a way that makes it difficult to upgrade the performance of the stack. The true SaaS models confront and mitigate– or even eliminate– some of the most vexing elements of software installation and maintenance: configurability on the fly, software maintenance, and upgrades. It is “a tyranny of software upgrades” that kills the single-tenant model.
Let me offer a simple analogy to drive home the point as to why multi-tenancy matters: Tesla vs. Edison– War of Currents.
The War of Currents was a series of events surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems in the late 1880s and early 1890s that pitted companies against one another and involved a debate over cost and convenience of electricity generation and distribution systems, electrical safety, and a media/propaganda campaign, with the main players being the direct current (DC) based on the Thomas Edison Electric Light Company and the supporters of alternating current (AC) based on Nikola Tesla’s inventions backed by Westinghouse.
With electricity supplies in their infancy, much depended on choosing the right technology to power homes and businesses across the country. The Edison-led group argued for DC current that required a power generating station every few city blocks (single-tenant model), whereas the AC group advocated for a centralized generation with transmission lines that could move electricity great distances with minimal loss (multi-tenant model).
The lower cost of AC power distribution and fewer generating stations eventually prevailed. Multi-tenancy is equivalent of AC when it comes to cost, convenience, and network effect. You can read more about how this analogy relates to SaaS in the book by Nicholas Carr, “Big Switch,” a Wall Street Journal bestseller. It’s “the best read so far about the significance of the shift to cloud computing,” said Financial Times. The EHS software industry has been a laggard in adopting multi-tenancy.
Given these fundamental differences between different modes of delivering software as a service, it is clear that the future lies with the multi-tenant model.
Whether all customer data is put onto one database or onto multiple databases is of no consequence to the customer. For those arguing against it, it is like an assertion that companies “do not want to put all their money into the same bank account as their competitors,” when what those companies are doing is putting their money into different accounts at the same bank.
When customers of a financial institution share what does not need to be partitioned—for example, the transactional logic and the database maintenance tools, security, and physical infrastructure and insurance offered by a major financial institution—then they enjoy advantages of security, capacity, consistency, and reliability that would not be affordably deliverable in isolated parallel systems.
In enterprise cloud applications and cloud application platforms, multi-tenancy yields a compelling the combination of efficiency and capability without sacrificing flexibility or governance.
When a software provider seeks to blur the distinctions between one technology and another, there’s usually just one reason: because they are unable to offer the superior technology to their customers, and hope to persuade their customers that real differences are not relevant to their needs. Multi-tenant platforms for enterprise on-demand applications represent genuine opportunities for customer advantage. The reality of multi-tenant differentiation is acknowledged by authoritative industry analysts such as Gartner, whose March 2007 announcement1 of its Outsourcing Summit that month included this definition of Software as a Service:
“Hosted software based on a single set of common code and data definitions that are consumed in a one-to-many model.”
In other words, hosting models that do not offer the leverage of multi-tenancy don’t belong in the same discussion as the value proposition implied by the term, “SaaS”. Multi-tenancy is a difference that makes a difference.
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References
1Gartner Inc., “SaaS will have significant impact on IT services and outsourcing providers,” Tekrati, 7 March 2007