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

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.

Environmental Business Journal Interviews Locus’ CEO

Locus Technologies seeks to pioneer environmental information management through on-demand approaches.

Read full article here.

Locus Technologies Receives Another Environmental Business Journal Business Achievement Award in Information Technology

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., February 20, 2008 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the world leader in on-demand environmental data and information management software, today announced that it has received a 2007 Business Achievement Award in Information Technology (IT) from the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ). This award recognizes Locus for achieving record sales to new Fortune 100 customers and for adding more than 30,000 new sites to its popular EIM database, representing a 600% increase over 2006.

Locus was also recognized for introducing the environmental industry’s first “software as a service” (SaaS) environmental portal (ePortal) to its Fortune 100 customers. Locus’ ePortal provides customers with a user-friendly interface to environmental information, business analytics and direct integration with Locus’ EIM environmental database. ePortal is based on next-generation portal technology that enables seamless information integration across multiple sources and includes sophisticated data mashups for enhanced environmental data visualization.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Environmental Business Journal for our sales and technical achievement,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies. “2007 was an outstanding year for Locus. We introduced an entirely new category of product for the environmental industry, and we significantly enhanced our Fortune 100 customer base who embraced our new offerings.”

Locus plans to keep the momentum going in 2008 with continued innovation in its products. According to Duplancic, “It’s no surprise that consumer social networking sites are driving business demand. After all, all the new Web 2.0 features people use everyday become so ingrained in our lives, we begin to demand the same features in business products.” Social Computing is radically changing today’s definition of collaboration and ECM (enterprise content management), prompting corporate environmental managers to reconsider how to make it easier for teams of environmental professionals to collaborate and securely manage content both inside and outside the organization.

After adopting the ePortal platform in 2007, Locus is perfectly positioned to add the features to ePortal that environmental customers are demanding, including enhanced collaboration and communication tools and more data mashups. Already in progress are enhanced linkages with Google Earth and GIS programs to extend ePortal’s mapping capabilities and enhanced business analytics to report enterprise environmental sustainability parameters.

“Business Achievement Award in Information Technology,” Environmental Business Journal, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., February 20, 2008 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the world leader in on-demand environmental data and information management software, today announced that it has received a 2007 Business Achievement Award in Information Technology (IT) from the Environmental Business Journal (EBJ). This award recognizes Locus for achieving record sales to new Fortune 100 customers and for adding more than 30,000 new sites to its popular EIM database, representing a 600% increase over 2006.

Locus was also recognized for introducing the environmental industry’s first “software as a service” (SaaS) environmental portal (ePortal) to its Fortune 100 customers. Locus’ ePortal provides customers with a user-friendly interface to environmental information, business analytics and direct integration with Locus’ EIM environmental database. ePortal is based on next-generation portal technology that enables seamless information integration across multiple sources and includes sophisticated data mashups for enhanced environmental data visualization.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Environmental Business Journal for our sales and technical achievement,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies. “2007 was an outstanding year for Locus. We introduced an entirely new category of product for the environmental industry, and we significantly enhanced our Fortune 100 customer base who embraced our new offerings.”

Locus plans to keep the momentum going in 2008 with continued innovation in its products. According to Duplancic, “It’s no surprise that consumer social networking sites are driving business demand. After all, all the new Web 2.0 features people use everyday become so ingrained in our lives, we begin to demand the same features in business products.” Social Computing is radically changing today’s definition of collaboration and ECM (enterprise content management), prompting corporate environmental managers to reconsider how to make it easier for teams of environmental professionals to collaborate and securely manage content both inside and outside the organization.

After adopting the ePortal platform in 2007, Locus is perfectly positioned to add the features to ePortal that environmental customers are demanding, including enhanced collaboration and communication tools and more data mashups. Already in progress are enhanced linkages with Google Earth and GIS programs to extend ePortal’s mapping capabilities and enhanced business analytics to report enterprise environmental sustainability parameters.

Locus Technologies Wins Environmental Business Journal’s 2007 Business Achievement Award for Information Technology

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 9 January 2008 — Locus Technologies has won Environmental Business Journal’s 2007 Business Achievement Award, for achieving record sales to new Fortune 100 customers, adding more than 30,000 new sites using its EIM database, representing a 600% increase over 2006, and more than 20 million records, which constituted a 20% increase. In May 2007, Locus introduced what it claims is the environmental industry’s first “software as a service“ (SaaS) environmental portal (ePortal) to its Fortune 100 customers, providing them with a user-friendly interface to environmental information, business analytics, and direct integration with EIM. The ePortal is based on next-generation portal technology that allows seamless information integration across multiple sources. According to Locus, the facility gives users access to Web 2.0 features and allows customers access to important data and information in a single, customizable dashboard. Locus is poised to add another 10,000 EIM and ePortal sites and millions of additional records in early 2008 with existing signed contracts.

 

ABOUT EBJ BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
For more information on the EBJ Business Achievement Awards go to: www.ebionline.org.

Fortune 500 Chemicals Company Selects Locus Technologies SaaS for Environmental Data Management

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., November 19, 2007 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the market and technology leader in on-demand environmental data and information management software and services, today announced that Fortune 500 Chemical Company (The Company) has selected Locus’ award-winning Environmental Information Management (EIM™) on-demand system and ePortal environmental information portal to manage and organize their environmental information. The Company chose Locus’ SaaS EIM system to manage formerly inaccessible analytical laboratory data and will use ePortal’s strong business analytics to reduce overall environmental risk. As an On-Demand web-based solution, Locus’ EIM environmental database meets all project requirements for robust environmental data management, including quick deployment and multi-party access.

Established in 1912, The Company is a leading producer of specialty chemicals used in making a variety of products for home, office, and industrial markets. The Company joins more than 35,000 EIM sites of all sizes, industries, and locations now benefiting from Locus’ single centralized, comprehensive environmental data management solution, accessible at anytime, anywhere in the world.

With EIM, The Company can query and report a variety of data—visualize and spatially query environmental information through Locus Web 2.0 technologies, as well as create on-the fly Google Maps and boring logs all within an intuitive, user-friendly interface. The Company will also enjoy ePortal’s customized dashboards to display site-specific environmental compliance alerts. These advanced features will open a whole new world of environmental decision-making, as well as streamline existing business processes for The Company.

“Before EIM, The Company was using stand-alone systems and was unable to effectively share their environmental data or efficiently perform key business analytics or reporting. By putting the data back into the hands of the data owner, and providing a robust set of tools for environmental data management and visual analysis, The Company project managers and their suppliers will be able to quickly organize and share data on their projects, while significantly reducing the data management effort and cost,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus.

Republic Services Selects Locus’s EIM™ Software for Environmental Data Management

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., September 11, 2007  — Locus Technologies (Locus), the market and technology leader in on-demand environmental data and information management services, today announced that Republic Services, Inc., has selected Locus’s award-winning Environmental Information Management (EIM™) software to organize and manage data collected at their Countywide Services facility in East Sparta, Ohio. As an On-Demand web-based solution, EIM meets all their project requirements for environmental data management, allowing for quick deployment and multi-party access.

Republic Services, Inc., is a leading provider of solid waste collection, transfer, and disposal services in the United States. The company’s operating units are focused on providing solid waste services for commercial, industrial, municipal, and residential customers. The Countywide Services facility joins more than 35,000 existing EIM sites of all sizes, industries, and locations that comprise Locus’s customer base. Republic Services selected EIM as the best choice to meet stringent regulatory deadlines that require expedited sampling, analysis, reporting, and regulatory data submittals. The EIM environmental data management system played a pivotal role in complying with the regulatory requirements by providing a completely off-the shelf software solution and fast deployment. Locus’s skilled environmental data managers supported Republic Services to get multiple labs and project teams up and running in record time.

“Before EIM, Republic’s site did not have an environmental data management system that could be quickly deployed, and accept electronic submissions from analytical laboratories. EIM allows Republic Services to quickly share data on this fast-track project, while reducing the data management effort and cost.” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus. “Republic Services chose EIM software, because it came equipped with what they needed, allowing direct upload of laboratory data, subsurface and air emissions data management, quick and easy export of data to regulatory agencies, and easy collaboration for a geographically disperse project team – all key elements of this project. By using Locus’s environmental software, this project is now on the cutting edge of technologies that use data visualization, mashups, automated data validation, and project collaboration tools which resemble popular social networking technologies that serve as the core to Locus’s Web 2.0 offerings. Locus is proud to be contributing to the success of companies of all sizes, in all industries, around the globe, including Republic Services, one of the nation’s largest waste management companies.”

Achiever of the Week, Environmental Business Journal

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 obtains certified status in Microsoft Partner Program

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 26 January 2005, — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental information management, today announced that it has earned Microsoft Certified Partner status for software developed as part of Locus’s award-winning LocusFocusSM suite of environmental business solutions. The LocusFocus suite is a web-based environmental data management system – EIM™, along with Locus’s other environmental portal software applications for document management, environmental remediation system automation, waste management, and the soon-to-be-released air data management module.

“Only companies that have demonstrated high levels of customer service, proved their experience, and attained advanced certification receive the designation of Microsoft Certified Partner,” said Allison Watson, vice president of the Worldwide Partner Sales and Marketing Group at Microsoft. “Today, Microsoft recognizes Locus Technologies for its skills and expertise in providing customer satisfaction with Microsoft products and technology.”

Locus is pleased that its industry leading, web-based environmental database is based on Microsoft technology. “We find the Microsoft name to be immensely valuable when selling systems to Fortune 100 companies who value EIM’s Microsoft database engine behind the scenes,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus. “With more than 5,000 sites worldwide and millions of environmental records being managed in EIM, it’s clear that having a Microsoft database engine is a key differentiator in the marketplace and provides our clients with a high degree confidence in our systems.”

Microsoft appreciates companies like Locus that have skills and expertise in providing customer satisfaction with Microsoft products and technology. Microsoft Certified Partner status proves a high degree of competency and expertise with Microsoft technologies. Standards for acceptance into Microsoft Partner community are strict. To achieve Microsoft Certified Partner status, Locus satisfied Microsoft Competency requirements by proving its
ability and proficiency to develop high-quality products and software solutions based on Microsoft technologies.

“We are extremely pleased to have earned certified status in the Microsoft Partner Program. The certified status allows us to promote our relationship with Microsoft to our customers. The benefits provided through our certified membership will allow us to continue to enhance the offerings that we provide for customers,” added Dr. Duplancic.

The Microsoft Partner Program was launched in December 2003 and represents Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to the success of partners worldwide. The Microsoft Partner Program offers a single, integrated partnering framework that recognizes partner expertise, rewards the total impact that partners have in the technology marketplace, and delivers more value to help partners’ businesses be successful.

Environmental Information Management Services Puts Environmental Liability Information at Your Fingertips

BusinessWeek: Environmental Solutions, Progressive Ideas and Leading Technologies 

15 November 2004 — Environmental compliance ranks high on the list of corporate responsibilities, and most large companies have a department or division to manage such work. Companies generally find the task of assessing and quantifying their environmental liabilities extremely challenging—even those with significant technical and financial resources at their disposal.

Arecent BTI Consulting report titled E-strategies for Environmental Management estimates that for every dollar companies spend for environmental management, they spend another $1.75 for managing related information. Sooner or later, businesses must attack and eliminate this inefficiency in managing their environmental operations, particularly now that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires them to report these costs on their balance sheet. The resulting increased scrutiny of these obligations, and the possibility of lawsuits arising from incorrect or misleading information, also makes it imperative that officers and directors provide investors and regulators with as accurate an accounting as possible of their corporations’ environmental liabilities.

The investigation, cleanup, and long-term monitoring of contaminated waste sites, as well as air emissions monitoring and regulatory compliance monitoring, produce enormous amounts of data on the nature and extent of chemical presence at a site. One key to an effective environmental program is the deployment of an Environmental Information Management System (EIMS) that can provide managers and engineers with ready access to the information they need for their planning, decision-making, and reporting.

 

To read the full report go to www.environmental-resource.com.