Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS)

Tag Archive for: EHS

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 Common Compliance Issues for EHS Managers

At Locus, we understand the unique requirements of EHS managers. More than many, EHS managers are dealing with a wide range of duties instead of a few pointed ones. With so many responsibilities, it can be hard at times to stay on top of your organization’s EHS needs. In this blog we highlight a few common compliance-related issues that should resonate with most EHS managers and the steps we’ve taken to help you with them.

The worry of missing a regulatory change

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to keep up with your organization’s regulations. If you are dealing with compliance, then chances are you’ve not been the first to know about a regulatory change, or you’ve found out about one later than you would have liked.

When you’re getting notifications from OSHA and the DOT and you’re checking specific permits and getting letters and emails about changes, sometimes it can all be too much. With Locus, you have the added benefit of an extra set of eyes, well… multiple sets of eyes. Our team keeps up with every rule and regulation used in our applications to further assist you with the breadth of information you have to manage. Locus EHS software is also integrated with RegScan, giving users seamless real-time access to current EHS regulations. This will allow Locus users to customize a watchlist in RegScan to quickly and readily view EHS regulations relevant to them.

Managing maintenance costs

When you have to worry about ever-changing costs that touch several parts of your business, the last thing you need is a gated product update from your EHS software vendor. With Locus’ SaaS model, you see reduced implementation costs and no costly upgrades – everyone is on the same version. And since everything is in one place, you have a reduced amount of wasted time finding information and making it actionable.

Being cognizant of your data security

EHS managers deal with sensitive data, ranging from social security numbers to workman’s comp issues. Not taking proper care of this information can be anything from a PR debacle to a legal battle. With Locus, you have the peace of mind in knowing that your data is stored in entirety on the most secure cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Not only that, but you have extensive security and admin access options, so you can have the relief in knowing only those with privileges can see certain information.

Quick access to stored information

Whether you’re looking for purchase documentation of PPEs or you need to reference yesterday’s GHG numbers, you need access to that data without having to wade through multiple applications. And with all of your data stored in one secure repository, not only can it be accessed quickly, but it can be incorporated with other tools like automated reporting.

Consolidation of compliance data

Are you still dealing with a different filing cabinet or file folder for each type of compliance? Not having your compliance data consolidated into one application means wasted time and time spent re-entering information (possibly incorrectly). Locus combines water, air, hazardous waste, DOT, PPE, workman’s comp, incidents, and more into one streamlined application to help with your organization and efficiency.

We are determined to support the needs of the user, you, first. By focusing on product development and customer service first, we feel that we have created a software as a service model that is both flexible and time-saving. If you are experiencing any of these issues with your current provider, we ask that you speak with a Locus representative today for a consultation or in-depth demo of what we can offer.

AI for EHS&S: Three Essential Steps to Get Started

Regardless of the size of your organization or the industry you’re in, chances are that right now artificial intelligence can benefit your EHS&S initiatives in one way or another. And whether you are ready for it or not, the age of artificial intelligence is coming. Forward-thinking and adaptive businesses are already using artificial intelligence in EHS&S as a competitive advantage in the marketplace to great success.

With modern EHS&S software, immense amounts of computing power, and seemingly endless cloud storage, you now have the tools to achieve fully-realized AI for your EHS&S program. And while you may not be ready to take the plunge into AI just yet, there are some steps you can take to implement artificial intelligence into your EHS&S program in the future.

Perhaps the best aspect of preparing for AI implementation is that all of the steps you take to properly bring about an AI system will benefit your program even before the deployment phase. Accurate sources, validated data, and one system of record are all important factors for any EHS&S team.

Accurate Sources

Used alongside big data, AI can quickly draw inferences and conclusions about many aspects of life more efficiently than with human analysis, but only if your sources pull accurate data. Accurate sources data will help your organization regardless of your current AI usage level. That’s why the first step to implementing artificial intelligence is auditing your data sources.

Sources pulling accurate data can be achieved with some common best practices. First, separate your data repository from the process that analyzes the data. This allows you to repeat the same analysis on different sets of data without the fear of not being able to replicate the process of analysis. AI requires taking a step away from an Excel-based or in-house software, and moving to a modern EHS&S software, like Locus Platform that will audit your data as it is entered. This means that anything from SCADA to historical outputs, samples, and calculations can be entered and vetted. Further, consider checking your data against other sources and doing exploratory analysis to greater legitimize your data.

Validated Data

AI requires data, and a lot of it—aggregated from multiple sources. But no amount of predictive analysis or machine learning is going to be worth anything without proper data validation processes.

Collected data must be relevant to the problem you are trying to solve. Therefore, you need validated data, which is a truly difficult ask with Excel, in-house platforms, and other EHS&S software. Appropriate inputs, appropriate ranges, data consistency, range checks (to name a few)—are all aspects of data that is validated in a modern EHS&S software like Locus Platform. Without these checks inherent to a platform, you cannot be sure that your data, or your analyses are producing useful or accurate results.

Possibly the best reason to get started with AI is the waterfall effect. As your data uncovers hidden insights and starts to learn on its own, the more accurate your new data will be and the better your predictions will become.

One System of Record

A unified system of record and a central repository for all data means that you see an immediate increase in data quality. Starting with AI means the end of disconnected EHS&S systems. No more transferring data from one platform to another or from pen and paper, just fully-digitized and mobile-enabled data in one platform backed up in the cloud. You also gain the added benefit of being able to access your data in real-time, incorporate compliance/reporting on the fly, and save time and resources using a scalable solution instead of a web of spreadsheets and ad-hoc databases.

Whether you are ready for AI or not, investing in these otherwise useful steps are necessary for any program looking to harness the power of artificial intelligence. When you are ready to take that next step, you will be well on the path to AI implementation, with a solid data infrastructure in place for your efforts.

To learn more about artificial intelligence, view this NAEM-hosted webinar led by Locus experts, or read our study on predicting water quality using machine learning.

When it comes to EHS&S, the “&S” shouldn’t be an afterthought

Locus Technologies is proud to have attended this year’s NAEM EHS&S Forum in Toronto. We were represented by Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus, and forum first-timer, Aaron Edwards, Marketing Associate at Locus.

The forum gave us the opportunity to learn, both from our peers in discussions about EHS&S goals, and from the diverse lineup of respected speakers and presenters. You spoke and we listened. This year, the prevailing topic of discussion was the growth of expectation surrounding sustainability in organizations.

Sustainability initiatives are rapidly moving to the forefront of institutional policy at leading organizations. As consumers, investors, and shareholders are increasingly supporting more sustainable organizations, executives are expecting more impactful sustainability initiatives from their EHS&S departments. Not only that, but executives inherently expect sustainability initiatives to positively affect the bottom line. This means that today’s EHS&S professionals have to manage sustainability initiatives that are vital to company success as well as regulatory management and reporting, often with limited resources.

Our conversations at the NAEM Forum often revolved around the time-consuming nature of regulatory compliance interfering with the escalated focus on sustainability. Many of the professionals we spoke with are dealing with multiple EHS&S platforms, each used for a specific function. Time management is increasingly more essential to EHS&S managers, and juggling between uni-tasked platforms is detrimental to effective sustainability efforts.

Locus developers have designed our software to reduce the labor-intensiveness of regulatory compliance. We offer a configurable single-platform solution for decreasing the amount of time you spend managing KPIs. From available modules in waste management, audit tracking, GHG reporting, and more⁠—our configurable software allows more time to improve your company’s sustainability initiatives.

Sustainability is no longer an afterthought in the eyes of executives, consumers, investors, or shareholders. Having one robust software platform can greatly help EHS professionals integrate that “&S” seamlessly with their other responsibilities.

Does your EHS software have a version number?

Freedom from product release tyranny

I love the article by Geoffrey Moore on the power of software as a service (SaaS) business model published on LinkedIn. In SaaS’s Real Triumph he writes: “by far the greatest contribution of SaaS is to free the enterprise from the tyranny of the product release model.”

He cites the operational burden, enterprise-wide distraction and associated cost to roll out an enterprise software and then the subsequent hesitation to repeat that when a new release of that software becomes available as that deployment model is not sustainable nor affordable. Companies spend big dollars buying and then deploying EHS software that they know will be outdated in just a few years. Only IT personnel benefits from that model as it may extend their employment for a few years before IT department goes out of business for good. Moore points out the painful truth, stating: “you have paid maintenance of 18 to 20% per year for anywhere from five to ten years for the express purpose of not availing yourself of the innovation created during that time period.”

Probably the main benefit of SaaS multi-tenancy (that is frequently overlooked during the software selection process) is no software versioning. This is because multi-tenant software typically provides a rolling upgrade program: incremental and continuous improvements. It is an entirely new architectural approach to software delivery and maintenance model. Companies have to develop applications from the ground up for multi-tenancy. Legacy client-server or single-tenant software cannot qualify for multi-tenancy. Let’s take a look at definitions:

Single-Tenant – A single instance of the software and supporting infrastructure serves a single customer. With single-tenancy, each customer has his or her own independent database and instance of the software. Essentially, there is no sharing happening with this option.

Multi-Tenant – Multi-tenancy means that a single instance of the software and its supporting infrastructure serves multiple customers. Each customer shares the software application and also shares a single database. Each tenant’s data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants.

Benefits of SaaS Multi-Tenant Architecture

The multi-tenant architecture provides lower costs through economies of scale: With multi-tenancy, scaling has far fewer infrastructure implications than with a single-tenancy-hosted solution because new customers get access to the same software.

Shared infrastructure leads to lower costs: SaaS allows companies of all sizes to share infrastructure costs. Not having to provision or manage any infrastructure or software above and beyond internal resources enables businesses to focus on everyday tasks.

Ongoing maintenance and updates: Customers don’t need to pay costly upgrades to get new features or functionality.

Configuration can be done while leaving the underlying codebase unchanged: Single-tenant-hosted solutions are often customized, requiring changes to an application’s code. This customization can be costly and can make upgrades expensive and time-consuming because the upgrade might not be compatible with customers changes to the earlier software version.

Multi-tenant solutions are designed to be highly configurable so that businesses can make the application perform the way they want. There is no changing the code or data structure, making the upgrade process easy.

Multi-tenancy ensures that every customer is on the same version of the software. As a result, no customer is left behind when the software is updated to include new features and innovations. A single software version also creates a unique sense of community where customers and partners share knowledge, resources, and learning. Smart managers work with their peers and learn from them and what they are doing. A multi-tenant SaaS provider’s resources are focused on maintaining a single, current (and only) version of the application, rather than spread out in an attempt to support multiple software versions for customers. If a provider isn’t using multi-tenancy, it may be hosting thousands of single-tenant customer implementations. Trying to maintain that is too costly for the vendor, and those costs, sooner or later, become the customers’ costs.

A vendor who is invested in on-premise, hosted, and hybrid models cannot commit to providing all the benefits of a true SaaS model due to conflicting revenue models. Their resources are going to be spread thin, supporting multiple versions rather than driving innovation. Additionally, if the vendor makes the majority of their revenue selling on-premise software, it is difficult for them to fully commit to a true SaaS solution since the majority of their resources are allocated to supporting the on-premise software.

Before you engage future vendors for your enterprise EHS software, assuming you already decided to go with SaaS solution, ask these questions:

Does your software have version numbers?
Do you charge for upgrades and how often do you upgrade?

If the answer is yes to any of these two questions, you should not consider that vendor as they are not true multi-tenant SaaS. You should not select that vendor if they answer “we are in the process of switching to multi-tenancy.” Multi-tenancy train departed a long time ago, and no EHS vendor who is single-tenant is not going to make that switch in time to make it work.

And if they suddenly introduce a “multi-tenant” model (after selling an on-premises version for 10+ years) who in the world would want to migrate to that experimental cloud without putting the contract out to bid to explore a switch to well established and market-tested true multi-tenant providers? The first-mover advantage when it comes to multi-tenancy is a huge advantage for any vendor.

The importance of multitenancy in EHS software buying decisions

In 2025, there’s been a considerable increase in inquiries related to multitenancy and why it matters for EHS software, ESG Reporting, sustainability metrics, and more. Locus Technologies has been leading the market for two decades as the original multitenant EHS platform. During that time, we’ve watched countless single-tenant or on-prem competitors try to deflect when asked if they can deliver a multitenant solution. Considering the surge in interest in recent months, we are dusting off some of our earlier posts on the topic. This is one of those posts.

The announcements by several EHS software vendors this fall caught my attention. After offering their software on-premises for over a decade, suddenly many are discovering and planning to introduce multitenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) while promising to continue to maintain their current on-premises or single tenant offerings. In essence, they are introducing multitenancy as if it were a new version of their software. Anyone familiar with multitenancy knows this won’t work. Here’s why.

Most public announcements begin something like this: “In the next several years we plan to expand our software offerings to give customers the option to move from their current on-premises solution to the cloud.” However, is this even possible? What they consider the “cloud” may not be a true multitenant cloud. That train departed years ago, and most of the current EHS software vendors missed it. While multitenancy has been a game changer in the tech industry, many are uncertain of exactly what makes an application “multitenant” or why it matters.

Locus Multi-Tenant Software

There is a considerable degree of (intended) confusion in the EHS software space when it comes to the definition of a real cloud or better said, multitenancy. Companies that are considering SaaS solutions for EHS software hear all sorts of things from EHS software vendors hoping to tap into the momentum of cloud computing. Many go as far as saying “sure; we can do multitenant, single-tenant, whatever tenant you need!” –anything to win the job. These vendors do not understand the real cloud.

Multitenancy is a significant shift in computing and requires an all-new approach to the software architecture and the delivery model from the ground up. It is transformational, and customers who intend to buy the next generation of EHS software should spend the time to understand the differences. More importantly, multitenancy is a principle, not a software version or an upgrade. It is not an evolutionary step; instead, it is a revolution in the software delivery model, and it matters in the long run for the customer.

Figure 1: The single-tenant model cannot easily be switched or “upgraded” to multitenant. The software architecture does not allow for an easy switch the same way as a single-family home cannot be “remodeled” to become a multitenant high-rise. What differentiates a multitenant application architecture is its effectiveness in achieving the same goal in a scalable and sustainable fashion.

Can you imagine companies like eBay, Salesforce, Google, Workday, or Amazon supporting a “single-tenant” version of their offering side-by-side with their multi-tenant clouds? No, of course not. That would mean they had failed to decide on the fundamental strategy that would define their business, fuel their growth, and give customers the experience they’ve promised. I argue that any EHS software vendor who offers a single-tenant solution of any type, cannot be a serious contender in multitenant SaaS. Pick one; not both.

EHS software vendors with on-premise software applications or single-tenant web-enabled offerings are seduced by the seemingly low barriers to entry into the SaaS market with an architecture that leverages virtualization. This approach allows a software company to quickly offer subscription-based services of their legacy product to their initial customers. In the long run, however, this approach just won’t scale economically. A recent wave of ownership change of EHS software companies is the best indicator that sold companies became victims of their initial success. A SaaS provider who leverages virtualization puts the long-term viability of the business at risk as more efficient, true SaaS competitors come to dominate the market.

Multi-tenant architecture

Figure 2: Single tenant requires many more vendor resources. The resource costs are eventually passed to customers. Each upgrade of the application will require each customer to upgrade independently and the ability to implement tenant management tools and tenant-specific customizations is significantly limited. The benefit of multitenancy is that instead of 100 copies of the operating system, 100 copies of the database, and 100 copies of apps, it has 1 OS, 1 database, and 1 app on the server with significantly less vendor resources required to manage it. And it is those savings that are passed to customers.

Figure 3: A multitenant model requires less resources and easier (and rolling) upgrades (i.e. no version numbers). Only one software instance and hardware stack for multiple tenants. All customers are always on the latest version of software. Locus Technologies figured this out in 1999, and it has become a key differentiator for us in the years since. Locus can scale up infinitely without adding proportional cost. Others cannot.

Figure 4: “Can’t we create a separate stack for just this one customer? I promise it’s just this one…” Even a single installation for one “special” customer breaks the multitenant model. Don’t do it.

I would also add that single-tenant (hybrid) cloud applications are worse than on-premises installments because they are fake clouds. In single tenancy, each customer has his or her independent database and instance of the software. These instances may reside on the same or different servers. In this model, a customer is, in fact, outsourcing maintenance of their application (software and hardware) to a vendor (or their consultant) that is not likely equipped to perform these tasks. 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 of how inexpensive hardware or software virtualization may be. Even if they offer their hosting on Microsoft Azure Cloud or Amazon Web Services (AWS), they still cannot guarantee multitenancy as these solutions address only hardware challenges.

The Economist magazine described it as: “Those forerunners also promised a software revolution by hosting the software applications of companies. But they failed because they simply recreated each client’s complex and unwieldy data centre in their own basements, and never overcame the old problems of installation and integration with other software. With each new customer, the old ASPs had, in effect, to build another datacenter; there were few economies of scale.”

To improve their position in a shifting marketplace, on-premises EHS vendors have found a way to market their solutions as “cloud-based” when they are not backed by the fundamental principle of what that means. Considering the large investment that is associated with the purchase or licensing of EHS software, it is critical for customers to be able to discern a true cloud product from a fake one. But how can you spot a fake?

Just ask the EHS software vendor these four questions:

Do you support both single-tenant and multi-tenant deployments of your software?
Does your software have version numbers?
Do you charge for upgrades?
Can we install your software on our infrastructure?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, the vendor is not committed to multitenant architecture, and you should not move to their “cloud.”

Multitenancy is the only proven SaaS delivery architecture that eliminates many of the problems created by the traditional software licensing and upgrade model where software is installed as a single-tenant application on a customer’s premises or at a customer’s or vendor’s data center. In contrast, in multitenancy, all customers access the same software on one or a set of linked servers.

Multitenancy requires a new architectural approach. Companies have to develop applications from the ground up for multitenancy. Once companies commit their limited financial resources to one architecture, it becomes nearly impossible for them to switch to the multitenancy model, no matter how many resources they have available. Moreover, for this reason, I am skeptical that many current vendors will be able to make a switch to multitenancy.

A vendor who is invested in on-premise, hosted, and hybrid models cannot commit to providing all the benefits of a true SaaS model due to conflicting revenue models. Their resources are going to be spread thin supporting multiple versions rather than driving innovation. Additionally, if the vendor makes the majority of their revenue selling on-premise software, it will be very difficult for them to fully commit to a true SaaS solution since the majority of their resources will be allocated to supporting the on-premise software.

And if they suddenly introduce a “multitenant” model (after selling an on-premises version for 10+ years) who in the world would want to migrate to that experimental cloud without putting the contract out to bid to explore a switch to a well-established and market-tested true multitenant provider? Even Google and Microsoft are playing a catch-up game with Amazon’s AWS when it comes to cloud hosting businesses. The first mover advantage when it comes to multitenancy is a huge advantage for any vendor.

In summary, an EHS software vendor can be either truly multitenant or not. If a vendor has installed their software on somebody’s else hardware and runs multiple instances of that software (even if the code base is the same) they are not and will never be true multitenant.

Figure 5: Where do you want your software to reside? In multitenant or single-tenant infrastructure? If multitenancy is attempted on old infrastructure or legacy application upgrade, watch out. After a vendor built the first few floors of that skyscraper, there is no easy way to replace the foundation. You will be lucky if they end up like the tower of Pisa or Millennium Tower in San Francisco. To keep the tower standing, they will have to do constant underpinning of the foundation and restrict access to the structure. And you, the customer, will pay for it. That is what many customers of single-tenant EHS vendors are facing today.

Therefore, when considering a SaaS solution, make sure that the vendor is a true SaaS vendor who is solely committed to the multitenant SaaS delivery model and has invested in a true multitenant platform. This is the only way to reap all the benefits that a SaaS model has to offer.

Getting the most out of EHS mobile apps

Mobile tools for EHS have been around for some time now. By now, most users are familiar with the benefits such as instant data collection and access to reference information for better, more reliable EHS programs. However, as any tech-savvy individual knows, new software tools are consistently becoming more powerful and more accessible, and that is certainly true for mobile applications. That “ground-breaking” EHS mobile app that you purchased five years ago may now be looking a little dated if your software provider has not actively updated it. Here are some of the beyond-the-basic features that you probably really want, but perhaps never knew existed for your EHS mobile app.

Location metadata and mapping integration

Your coordinates are actively being recorded every time your phone moves. Why not record that data as part of an incident report or sample collection? Or use that information to locate the position of a monitoring well or other asset? Much of EHS information is associated to a specific location, so automatically storing your location can help ensure that you know where your data are originating.

You may be thinking that phone/tablet GPS is not very accurate, and you would be correct…..for now. According to GPS.gov, phone accuracy is typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft.) radius under open sky. While this may be accurate enough for some situations, it will not be sufficient for others. However, according to the IEEE, a respected technical engineering association, 2018 and beyond will bring new more accurate chips to phones that will improve GPS accuracy to about 30 centimeters, which should be much more useful for field locations especially when identifying the scene of a spill or accident.

So start thinking about what can be improved with your business process by getting more accurate location information, and start looking at upgrading mobile devices in the next year or two.

Barcode and QR code scanning

You are probably already using your phone to compare prices at your local store. It is amazingly easy to simply scan a product’s barcode and instantly see the best available price locally or online. Since virtually every phone/tablet now has a built-in camera, you can use that to scan barcodes or QR codes to associate data entry with a tagged location or asset. This can save you from possible mismatch errors that can occur when simply selecting from a list or typing in data.

For users with thousands of locations/assets, it’s also a huge time saver when you can skip the long list of locations and just point and click. Moreover, for anyone tracking assets or even chemical inventory, barcodes are essential. In fact, many facilities have been using barcodes for years, but now they don’t need a specialized device. Barcodes or QR codes can be incorporated into mobile apps in new and unexpected ways to streamline business process and do more in the field with less physical overhead.

Therefore, the next time you are doing an audit, you can easily examine an instrument and immediately determine its calibration and maintenance status along with reporting any audit findings.

Real-time entry validation

It is not enough to just enter your EHS event information into a mobile device. You also want to make sure you are entering correct information. Modern EHS mobile tools can check your entry as you enter it, to match whatever criteria are established for that data. So you make sure that you’re entering a pH reading of 7.2, rather than 72. You can also use configurable pick lists to limit data entry to your specific desired entries and not have to deal with misspellings or 16 different ways to say “cloudy”. Make sure that pick lists are configurable and can be shared with each of your company’s devices.

Use your voice

We are starting to use voice recognition technology in our mobile devices to quickly send out text messages. Why not use it for recording audit comments or field issues? Voice recognition is getting better and better every year, and can get your comments onto a data collection form much faster than typing and can be especially useful for conditions where gloves are required and typing or stylus input is not practical. Using the phone’s native abilities, take advantage of voice feature to streamline note taking knowing you can always fix up any issues back in the office.

Unique and custom forms

For many EHS programs, you may have your own data collection needs that are specific to your facility or industry. Mobile EHS apps now allow you to tailor your input forms to add new data fields, remove unwanted fields, change some of the logic like making certain fields required, and make certain fields tied into established pick lists. Even better, you can match the mobile form exactly to the original paper form, making the transition to mobile simple and intuitive for staff.

Along with form customization options, modern mobile apps let you have many different forms in one app, so the folks tracking waste shipments have their form, while to folks performing facility audits have their forms, which may be specific to the facility of the audit itself. One app with many forms greatly streamlines the training aspect of deploying mobile and gives EHS managers great flexibility to easily update forms when regulations change. Learn more.

EHS Compliance Software: The difference between configurability and customization

As you shop around for EHS compliance software, you’re quite likely to hear two similar words: “configurable” and “customizable.” You might hear these two words in answer to your question, “Can your software do _______ ?” Your implementation success will depend on which of the two words you put more weight in your selection of the vendor. Therefore, it is important to understand the difference between these two similar words.

Configurable means the software can do what you’re asking it to do “out of the box” with a few simple keystrokes. The software is designed to be easily modified by the end user (user developer) who has no programming background. For example, if exceeding water quality limit for a certain parameter in your software is called an “exceedance” but your new water utility customer is using the term “outlier”, configurable software lets you change the word on the form from “exceedance” to “outlier” without any programming or recompiling of the code involved, and without needing assistance from your software vendor. Often, the software will feature configuration options or a configuration workbench where you simply input all such terms and titles from a series of dropdown menus or drag-and-drop functionality. In other words, features and functions of the software are configurable if they are part of the off-the-shelf product.

Customization is a completely different feature. Unlike configurability, customization requires additional software programming (expensive), typically performed by software developers. Customizing software often incurs additional expense to the client. It also takes longer time and requires you to execute a change order—never a pleasant process.

Understanding the difference between configurability and customization also brings awareness of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your EHS software. Configurability is rolled into the software and has no additional fees. Customization requires expensive programming, usually for an additional charge (think “change order”). It is good practice to ask your software vendor upfront which features are configurable and which are customizable. The entire focus of EHS software selection should be on configurability.

I have seen many customers and their consultants and research analysts make a cardinal mistake by focusing on software features and functionality that exist in the software off-the-shelf without asking a single question about configurability. No wonder so many EHS software implementations fail or cost orders of magnitude more than the winning bid. It is not about features and functionality that exist in existing EHS applications, but it is about how easy it is to add, build, or configure features, functionality, or whole new applications that may not be present today using non-developers. It is about the flexibility of the platform, not about the rigidity of applications.

When you’re selecting configurable EHS software, make sure to consider this: If you have domain expertise in EHS and you know how to build a PowerPoint presentation, or you can draw a flowchart, or you can build a spreadsheet using formulae, with sorting tables and charts, then you can build any feature and functionality into your EHS software—provided the software is configurable off-the-shelf.

To put it in simple terms, you are a user developer. You will save your company lots of money and headache and avoid tons of change orders. I should also note that most of the end-user configurable software is built on multi-tenant SaaS architecture and offers drag-and-drop functionality.

Thinking of buying configurable EHS software? Make sure to focus on the right questions

As most people researching EHS software know, the words “configurable”, “multi-tenant”, and “platform” are being discussed everywhere. There are plenty of other great discussions on Platform as a Service (PaaS) and multi-tenancy. Let’s look at some tips for getting the most out of configurable software.

Ask yourself “What sets us apart?”

A key question to ask (as soon as you start thinking about configurable software) is “what sets my company apart?” What special challenges or circumstances make your EHS needs more nuanced or complex?

Are you in an industry or segment of the industry that may have unique tracking and reporting needs? Maybe you are an organic milk producer or only manufacture snacks from sustainable sources following global fair-trade policies. These more specialized practices may require additional or unique reporting to maintain accreditation.
Do you handle non-standard materials in highly regulated environments (such as radioactive materials, for example) that impose additional handling, tracking, disposal, and reporting requirements?
Are you a global enterprise with highly variable reporting needs in multiple jurisdictions? Or are you operating in a location with demanding local regulations?
Are you operating in an uncertain regulatory environment?

These are just a few of the things that could set EHS customers apart. The more unique or specialized tracking and reporting needs you have, the more you will value the ability to have software easily configured for requirements that are typically not supported in “off-the-shelf” solutions.

Most modern software handles the “basics” very well, but when you have unique or emerging needs—including future needs that you don’t even know about yet—having a configurable option really pays off.

When needs change, configurable software can be updated easily and quickly by the vendor or even your own in-house staff, saving time and avoiding the agony of “waiting for the next release”. And, best of all, those changes can be done by trained configuration staff, without the need for software developers and the cost and time usually associated with software development.

Follow best practices and engage with industry peers

Learning and internalizing industry best practices, a hallmark of the EHS professional association NAEM and its outreach events, can help any software buyer make better choices and evaluate software features, platforms, and key differentiators. Check out the excellent library of resources, including publications, newsletters, and webinars from industry peers. By taking advantage of shared industry knowledge, you can dramatically streamline and expedite your search for the right solutions.

One word of caution: many industry publications can be influenced by sponsors. This is not only true in the EHS domain, but in all industry expert reviews. That’s why actually talking and comparing notes with industry colleagues is an invaluable resource to get beyond the reviews and hear about real-life experiences with the EHS domain itself and the software options that others have actually used.

If you’re looking for advice on how configurable software may be used to address your EHS needs, talking to actual software users will help. Locus, along with many other vendors and hundreds of EHS professionals, routinely attends NAEM’s EHS and Sustainability Software and Data Management Conference in order to meet with potential customers and dive into any questions you may have.

Know the boundaries of configurability

“Configurable” means something different to each software vendor. Some will say “everything is configurable”—for a price. Others will tell you that you can change report names and add a few fields to outputs, and they call this being “configurable”.

Ask the vendor to explain in detail exactly what can easily be configured—and what is “off limits” and requires actual development effort (i.e., additional cost). You might ask:

Are application workflows easy to change, along with associated notifications and audit tracking?
Can I change my forms to add five new sections with new lookup values? Will the update be automatically reflected on my mobile forms?
Can I create an entire new application for tracking volume of green recycling vs. plastics (or anything else you need to track)? Will the new application show up on the mobile app, or is that a separate configuration?
Can the user interface look different based on the user’s role in the application? For example, could I streamline the interface for my technicians so they only see what is relevant for them?
Can I change the filter selections on my dashboard reports? How about the charts? Can I add new charts?

By knowing the software’s limitations, you can make better choices on the best fit for your current (and future!) needs. Your software vendor may also identify new configurable features that you hadn’t considered before, but that would greatly improve the usability of the software. Even if you don’t need these options now, knowing you have access to them in the future is critical when selecting software.

Beware the illusion of “the perfect fit”

As we’ve established, “configurable” software can mean anything—from a total blank slate and empty platform, to changing a title of a single data entry field, and everything in between. A “blank slate” may excite more technical people who love to tinker in software programs. For others, the thought of building their software from the ground up might elicit general fear and discomfort.

Most customers want something off-the-shelf that perfectly meets their needs. Honestly, who can disagree? That is the gold standard and what everyone wants. In reality, this solution is hard to find—especially for customers with unique need—and often the software tools that address those unique needs are so focused on a particular niche that they neglect some of the other, more basic EHS needs you might have.

The good news is that configurable software provides almost unlimited options for customers, and it can make a huge difference in how the software fits into your EHS workflow. With some solutions on the market today, you could choose to build one application from a blank slate and make minor tweaks to another pre-built application in the same software.

One of the common pitfalls that EHS professionals frequently encounter in selecting a software solution for a specialized need is the tendency to narrow their options down to limited set tailored to their specific industry. For example, if your organization has requirements for refrigerant handling, you might feel constrained to selecting a solution with specific “out-of-the-box” capabilities for that need. Considering the configurability of the software may allow you to consider new and more robust options, and some simple configurations to an existing chemical inventory application could address your refrigerant reporting needs even more accurately, within a single EHS platform.

Change is inevitable—make sure your software can handle it

Many customers will buy existing applications that meet their general needs, but eventually realize they need another form, a mobile solution, or changes for new regulations. Anyone in the EHS industry knows this is the norm rather than the exception.

According to Forbes, federal departments, agencies, and commissions issued 3,853 rules in 2016, while Congress passed and the president signed 214 bills into law—a ratio of 18 rules for every law. That’s just at the federal level. It’s not hard to imagine the amount of change when you factor in state and local rules and requirements.

Over the anticipated implementation life for your EHS software, you can be reasonably assured that the EHS requirements for your organization are going to be changed in some way. Some of these changes you can anticipate, but not all. Given such routine change, you can safely assume that the more configuration options you have, the more prepared you’ll be for those changes. You’ll be in a better position if you know you can configure your software quickly, rather than waiting for a scheduled vendor update that may be out of your control.

Develop a vision of success—for today and tomorrow

Configurable software can be an effective, sustainable long-term management and reporting solution that integrates smoothly into your existing EHS workflows, but it does require you to do your homework.

You can set yourself up for success with some initial reflection and examination of your organization’s unique needs, a few conversations with industry peers, a healthy skepticism of seemingly perfect “out-of-the-box” solutions, and a willingness to ask tough questions of potential software vendors. Think ahead to the future challenges and regulatory changes that might impact your organization, and make sure your potential software vendor has provided evidence that you’ll be able to handle these changes through configuration. Take the time to truly imagine your perfect application and EHS workflow, and ask the vendor to show how it can be possible through configurability. And finally, don’t be afraid to think outside the box!

About guest blogger— Marian Carr, Locus Technologies

Ms. Carr is responsible for managing overall customer solution deployments and customer relationships with Locus’ government accounts. Her career at Locus includes heading the product development team of the award-winning cloud-based environmental ePortal solution as well as maintaining and growing key customer accounts with Locus’ Fortune 100 enterprise deployments. In addition, Ms. Carr was instrumental in driving the growth and adoption of the Locus EIM platform with key federal and water organizations.

Celebrating 55 years of GIS-based EHS data insights

GIS Day was established in 1999 to showcase the power and flexibility of geographical information systems (GIS). In celebration of the 55th birthday of GIS, we’ve compiled a brief history of the evolution of this powerful technology, with a special focus on how it can be used in EHS applications to make environmental management easier.

Not only is GIS more powerful than ever before—it is also vastly more accessible. Anyone with Internet access can create custom maps based on publicly available data, from real-time traffic conditions to environmental risk factors, to local shark sightings. Software developers, even those at small companies or startups, now have access to APIs for integrating advanced GIS tools and functionality into their programs.

Origins of GIS

Before you can understand where GIS is today, it helps to know how it started out. This year is the 55^th anniversary of the work done by Roger Tomlinson in 1962 with the Canada Land Inventory. We consider this the birth of GIS, and Mr. Tomlinson has been called the “father of GIS”.

The original GIS used computers and digitalization to “unlock” the data in paper maps, making it possible to combine data from multiple maps and perform spatial analyses. For example, in the image shown here from the Canada Land Inventory GIS, farms in Ontario are classified by revenue to map farm performance.

An early GIS system from the Canada Land Inventory, in Data for Decisions, 1967
Photo: Mbfleming. “Data for Decisions (1967).” YouTube, 12 Aug. 2007, https://youtu.be/ryWcq7Dv4jE.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

In 1969, Jack Dangermond founded Esri, which became the maker of, arguably, the world’s most popular commercial GIS software. Esri’s first commercial GIS, ARC/INFO, was released in 1982, and the simpler ArcView program followed in 1991. Many of today’s most skilled GIS software developers can trace their roots back to this original GIS software.

Back then, GIS work required expensive software packages installed on personal computers or large mainframe systems. There was no Google Maps; all map data had to be manually loaded into your software. Getting useful data into a GIS usually required extensive file manipulation and expertise in coordinate systems, projections, and geodesy.

While the government, utility, and resource management sectors used GIS heavily, there was not much consumer or personal use of GIS. Early GIS professionals spent much of their time digitizing paper maps by hand or trying to figure out why the map data loaded into a GIS was not lining up properly with an aerial photo. This may sound familiar to those who have been in the environmental industry for awhile.

Esri’s ArcView 3.2 for desktop computers (from the 1990s)
https://map.sdsu.edu/geog583/lecture/Unit-3.htm

The Google Revolution

How much has changed since those early days! After the release of OpenStreetMap in 2004, Google Maps and Google Earth in 2005, and Google Street View in 2007, GIS has been on an unstoppable journey—from only being used by dedicated GIS professionals on large computers in specific workplaces, to be accessible to anyone with an internet browser or a smartphone. High-quality map data and images—often the most expensive item in a GIS project in the 1990’s — are now practically free.

Just think how revolutionary it is that anyone can have instant access to detailed satellite images and road maps of almost anywhere on Earth! Not only can you perform such mundane tasks as finding the fastest route between two cities or locating your favorite coffee shop while on vacation—you can also see live traffic conditions for cities across the globe; view aerial images of countries you have never visited; track waste drums around your facility; and get street level views of exotic places. Back in 1991, such widespread access to free map data would have seemed like something straight out of science fiction.

Traffic conditions in London, 3:30 pm 10/16/2017, from Google Maps

South Base Camp, Mount Everest, Google StreetView

Mashups in the cloud

Obviously, the amount of spatial data needed to provide detailed coverage of the entire globe is far too large to be stored on one laptop or phone. Instead, the data is distributed across many servers “in the cloud.” Back in the 1990s, everything for one GIS system (data, processing engine, user interface) needed to be in the same physical place—usually one hard drive or server. Now, thanks to the internet and cloud computing, the data can be separate from the software, creating “distributed” GIS.

The combination of freely available data with distributed GIS and the power of smart phones has led us to the age of “neogeography”—in which anyone (with some technical knowledge) can contribute to online maps, or host their maps with data relevant to their personal or professional needs. GIS no longer requires expensive software or cartographical expertise; now, even casual users can create maps linking multiple data sources, all in the cloud.

Google’s MyMaps is an example of a tool for easily making your maps. Maps can range from the playful, such as locations of “Pokemon nests,” to the serious, such as wildfire conditions.

Google MyMaps of Pokemon Nest Locations
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1anyDs-H7hOtGQaxaTwuLjulUrVM&hl=en&usp=sharing

These online maps can be updated in real time (unlike paper maps) and therefore kept current with actual conditions. Such immediate response is instrumental in emergency management, where conditions can change rapidly, and both first responders and the public need access to the latest data.

Map showing wildfire and traffic conditions in northern California, 10/16/2017
https://google.org/crisismap/us-wildfires

Furthermore, software programmers have created online GIS tools that let non-coders create their maps. These tools push the boundaries of distributed GIS even further by putting the processing engine in the cloud with the data. Only the user interface runs locally for a given user. During this period of GIS history, it became easy to create “mashups” for viewing different types of disparate data at once, such as natural hazard risks near offices, pizza stores near one’s neighborhood, EPA Superfund sites near one’s home, property lines, flood plains, landslide vulnerability, and wildfire risk.

Floodplain data for Buncombe County, NC
https://buncombe-risk-tool.nemac.org

Programming GIS with APIs

Another significant advance in GIS technology is the ability to integrate or include advanced GIS tools and features in other computer programs. Companies such as Google and Esri have provided toolkits (called APIs, or application programming interfaces) that let coders access GIS data and functions inside their programs. While neogeography shows the power of personal maps created by the untrained public, computer programmers can use APIs to create some very sophisticated online GIS tools aimed at specific professionals or the public.

One example is the publicly-available Intellus application that Locus Technologies developed and hosts for the US Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. It uses an Esri API and distributed GIS to provide access to aerial images and many decades of environmental monitoring data for the Los Alamos, NM area. Users can make maps showing chemical concentrations near their home or workplace, and they can perform powerful spatial searches (e.g., “find all samples taken within one mile of my house in the last year”). The results can be color-coded based on concentration values to identify “hot spots”.

Map from Intellus showing Tritium concentrations near a specified location
https://www.intellusnmdata.com

Another example of more sophisticated forms of analysis is integration of GIS with environmental databases. Many government facilities and private vendors incorporate GIS with online data systems to let public users evaluate all types of information they find relevant.

For example, contour lines can be generated on a map showing constant values of groundwater elevation, which is useful for determining water flow below ground. With such powerful spatial tools in the cloud, any facility manager or scientist can easily create and share maps that provide insight into data trends and patterns at their site.

Groundwater contour map where each line is a 10 ft. interval, from the Locus EIM system

Other examples include monitoring air emissions at monitoring sites (like US EPA’s AirData Air Quality Monitors, shown below) and actual stream conditions from the USGS (also shown below).

Screen capture of air quality data from US EPA AirData GIS app

Screenshot from US EPA AirData Air Quality Monitors interactive GIS mapping platform, showing Long Beach, California

Screen capture of USGS National Water Information System interactive GIS map tool, showing a site in Mountain View, California

There’s a (map) app for that

One particularly exciting aspect of GIS today is the ability to use GIS on a smartphone or tablet. The GIS APIs mentioned above usually have versions for mobile devices, as well as for browsers. Programmers have taken advantage of these mobile APIs, along with freely available map data from the cloud, to create apps that seamlessly embed maps into the user experience. By using a smartphone’s ability to pinpoint your current latitude and longitude, these apps can create personalized maps based on your actual location.

A search in the Apple AppStore for “map” returns thousands of apps with map components. Some of these apps put maps front-and-center for traditional navigation, whether by car (Waze, MapQuest, Google), public transit (New York Subway MTA Map, London Tube Map), or on foot (Runkeeper, Map My Run, AllTrails). Other apps use maps in a supporting role to allow users to find nearby places; for example, banking apps usually have a map to show branches near your current location.

What’s really exciting are the apps that allow users to enter data themselves via a map interface. For example, HealthMap’s Outbreaks Near Me not only shows reports of disease outbreaks near your location, but it also lets you enter unreported incidents. The GasBuddy app shows the latest gasoline prices and lets you enter in current prices. This “crowdsourcing” feature keeps an app up-to-date by letting its users update the map with the latest conditions as they are happening.

The Outbreaks Near Me app for phones (left) and the GasBuddy app for tablets (right)

EHS professionals can further harness the power of GIS using mobile applications. For example, in the Locus Mobile app for field data collection, users can enter environmental data—such as temperature or pH measurements—from a sampling location, then upload the data back to cloud-based environmental management software for immediate review and analysis. Mobile apps can also support facility compliance audits, track current locations of hazardous waste drums, collect on-scene incident data (complete with photos), and record exact locations for mapping by colleagues back in the office.

GIS-enabled mobile apps also typically include a map interface for navigating to data collection points and tracking visited locations. Other key features to look for include ad hoc location creation for capturing unplanned data—this lets users create new data collection points “on the fly” simply by clicking on the map.

Views of many different mobile app use cases from tracking drums to collecting field data

A bright future for GIS applications within EHS software

Where will GIS as a whole go from here? It’s possible that augmented reality, virtual reality, and 3D visualization will continue to expand and become as ubiquitous as the current “2D” maps on browsers and phones. Also, the “internet of things” will surely have a GIS component because every physical “thing” can be tied to a geographical location. Similarly, GIS can play an important role in “big data” by providing the spatial framework for analysis.

GIS is one of the most effective ways to convey information to a wide range of users, from corporate managers looking at the company’s key metrics to operational personnel looking for incidents across facilities and trying to find trends. It is a highly intuitive data query interface that empowers users to explore the data hidden deep in enterprise EHS databases. The examples presented above are just the tip of the iceberg for the range of possibilities to simplify communication of information and look more broadly across enterprises to identify where real or potential issues lie.

An EHS software system should have many ways to extract data and information to form insights beyond a few “canned” reports and charts. A spatially-accurate picture can often provide more actionable insight than tables and text. Imagine being able to see spill locations, incident locations, environmental monitoring stations for air quality, wastewater outfalls, central and satellite waste accumulation area locations, and PCB and asbestos equipment and/or storage locations—all visually represented on an actual map of your facility and its surroundings. All these types of maps are invaluable in an enterprise EHS software system and should be a critical item on your checklist when selecting software for your EHS needs.

Thanks to the GIS Timeline for providing some of the history for this article.

About guest blogger— Dr. Todd Pierce, Locus Technologies

Dr. Pierce manages a team of programmers tasked with development and implementation of Locus’ EIM application, which lets users manage their environmental data in the cloud using Software-as-a-Service technology. Dr. Pierce is also directly responsible for research and development of Locus’ GIS (geographic information systems) and visualization tools for mapping analytical and subsurface data. Dr. Pierce earned his GIS Professional (GISP) certification in 2010.

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