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Locus Technologies partners with RegScan to provide EHS regulatory content and updates

The partnership will enhance Locus Platform’s Compliance and Task Management applications by providing real-time access to current regulations

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 12 January 2019 — Locus Technologies, the leader in enterprise EHS compliance and sustainability software, has partnered with RegScan, a trusted resource for up-to-date regulatory information, to enhance its Compliance and Task Management applications via its configurable SaaS Locus Platform. An integration from RegScan into the Locus Platform will give Locus 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 relevant EHS regulations.

“We are excited for this opportunity to partner with Locus, it’s important to be able to access all your regulatory information, legal registers and audit protocols in one place,” said Ned Ertel, President and C.E.O. of RegScan, Inc.

“By using Locus Platform’s Compliance and Task application with integrated regulatory content services, our customers can reap the benefits of using the out-of-the-box and configurable Locus Platform to build the exact solution that they need for their business process in a short time,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus.

Simple and reliable tank emissions calculation tool for accurate reports

EPA announced that it will no longer support its TANKS 4.09D emission calculation tool. Have you been researching various software options in the market? Look no further, Locus has a reliable, easy to use, scalable replacement Tanks Emission application for you!

Contact us to learn more about the Tank Emissions app

Simplify your EPA fenceline regulatory reporting

Locus Platform provides the solution for managing and submitting fenceline monitoring data.

Locus handles all the EPA required environmental data collected at your refinery giving you a simple solution for all your data management and reporting needs. Our enhanced GIS+ mapping, data reports, formatted outputs, and charts help you streamline, consolidate, and take control of all your crucial environmental information.

Contact us to learn more about Locus’ Fenceline app

5 time-saving tools for EHS compliance

We all know the struggle of getting things done with shortened staff without compromising the quality of our work, especially in EHS. Locus Technologies’ Locus Platform (LP) offers multiple options to ease your complexity by providing a truly SaaS platform packed with some nifty apps. Here are some tools in LP that can help you utilize your workforce much more efficiently:

1) Dashboards tailored to your needs

Every software has built-in report and dashboards, but they may not meet all your needs when purchased off the shelf. If you need a new report, chart, or other visualization of your data, it usually incurs a custom software development charge, but not with Locus Platform (LP). LP allows you to assemble the information you want in your chosen format (bar or line charts, maps, tables, treemaps, diagrams, etc.) and share your custom dashboards and real-time information/data with your team. In addition, the views and dashboards export to Excel, so you can easily integrate with commonly used tools and further mine the data. At the enterprise level, powerful dashboards will help you understand the status of each facility based on a matrix you design. With the LPs flexibility, facility information can be automatically populated based on the user credentials, saving your team time and frustration.

2) Simplified Sustainability Reporting

Locus Platform’s Sustainability application and calculation engine support simultaneous calculations using multiple methods for various reporting programs including EPA, California ARB, CDP, TCR, DJSI, and others. This allows users to input data only once and utilize it to report to multiple federal, state, and voluntary reporting programs, according to their required format. The application will also support direct electronic reporting formats for many reporting programs, so that additional manual transcription and submittal of data are no longer necessary. This is a very powerful tool and a huge advantage to customers in terms of improving efficiency, while reducing costs.

3) Integration

Integration, if done correctly, can save you a great deal of time and headache during some of the most tedious and cumbersome tasks in EHS data management. Locus Platform (LP) has built in a unique point and click integration application to enable connection with major databases or third-party systems that have open API (Access privileges). Some integration, database, and communication standards and methods that are supported include OLE compliance, SOAP, COM, Java, XML, web services, ODBC/ODMA/SQL/Oracle, VIM, and MAPI. LP also works well with MS Excel and provides a powerful two-way synchronization allowing users to download parts of the database to Excel, then work, edit, and verify or append data on their local copy of Excel where they have no internet connection. Any revisions they perform to the downloaded data in Excel can be automatically synchronized back to the Locus Platform application. During the process, a complete audit trail will be preserved. This can be a great time saver especially when you are sending large volumes of valid values in a database or if you are migrating any historical data.

4) Mobile

Locus’ Mobile application allows you to sync with your server to create data collection profiles on a mobile device, whether it’s your phone or a tablet. It will allow you to click through and enter data on the device even when you are offline. Data validation is performed in real time and is stored locally on the device, once the phone reaches an internet signal, it will sync with your server, and the data will automatically be updated in Locus’ cloud-hosted solution. What’s more, Locus Mobile works seamlessly with both EIM and Locus Platform.

Using Mobile you receive the benefits of data entry directly on the mobile device, with immediate data availability on the cloud when you reach an internet signal. Other advantages of using Mobile include location metadata and mapping integration, bar-code/OR code scanning, voice recognition, and form customization. If you’d like to know more about the Locus Mobile application, check out the Top 10 cool features in Locus Mobile.

5) XML Exports

Locus has prioritized enhancing its GHG application in Locus Platform to make it easy to manage GHG emission inventory tracking and reporting requirements. Locus Technologies is the only software vendor that is a certified GHG verifier under the State of California’s AB32, and has performed the most GHG verifications in California since 2015. The State and Federal eGGRT web portals are notoriously cumbersome and require a significant amount of your time to input all the required data and generate your report. But with XML support, you can bypass almost the entire data entry process, and complete your submittal within a few minutes. XML reports support many greenhouse gas subparts, including EPA GHG Subparts C, D, W, and NN. And because data entry for EPA and CARB is consolidated in the XML GHG application, it eliminates the need to maintain separate agency spreadsheets and software. Additional reporting programs are also adding support for XML submittals, such as EPA’s eManifest. This functionality can be a huge time saver for anyone working with these online regulatory reporting tools.

EHS software switch to multi-tenancy: Too late to switch for many vendors

The announcements by several EHS software vendors this Fall caught my attention. After offering their software on-premisses for over a decade, suddenly many are discovering and planning to introduce multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) while promising to continue to maintain their current on-premises or single tenant offerings. In essence, they are introducing multi-tenancy as if it were a new version of their software. This plan is not going to work! Let me explain why.

Most public announcements begin something like this: In the next several years we plan to expand our software offerings and offer our 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 multi-tenant cloud. That train departed years ago, and most of the current EHS software vendors missed it. While multi-tenancy has been a game changer in the tech industry, many are uncertain of exactly what makes an application “multi-tenant” 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, multi-tenancy. 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 multi-tenant, single-tenant, whatever tenant you need!” –anything to win the job. These vendors do not understand the real cloud.

Multi-tenancy 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, multi-tenancy 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 multi-tenant. The software architecture does not allow it for easy switch the same way as single family home cannot be “remodeled” to become a multi-tenant highrise. What differentiates multi-tenant application architecture is its effectiveness in achieving the same goal in a scalable and sustainable fashion.

Can anyone imagine companies like eBay, Salesforce, Google, Workday, or Amazon offering a “single-tenant” solution side by side to their multi-tenant clouds? I argue that any EHS software vendor who offers a single-tenant solution of any type, cannot be a serious contender in multi-tenant SaaS.

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 multi-instance 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 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 multi-tenancy is that instead of 100 copies of the OS, 100 copies of the database, and 100 copies of apps, it has 1 OS, 1 DB and 1 app on the server with significantly less vendor resources required to manage it. And it is those savings that are on a long term passed to customers.

Figure 3: Multi-tenant model requires less resources and easier (and rolling) upgrades (i.e. no version number necessary). 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 they contribute their phenomenal success since then exactly to the multi-tenancy. They could 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 multi-tenant model. Don’t do it.

I would also add that single-tenant (hybrid) cloud applications are worse than on-premise installment. Why? 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 multi-tenancy as these solutions address only hardware challenges.

The Economist magazine in 2004 described it: “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 datacentre 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 tell 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 only multi-tenant architecture, and you should not move to their “cloud.”

Multi-tenancy 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 multi-tenancy, all customers access the same software on one or a set of linked servers.

Multi-tenancy requires a new architectural approach. Companies have to develop applications from the ground up for multi-tenancy. Once companies commit their limited financial resources to one architecture, it becomes nearly impossible for them to switch to the multi-tenancy 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 multi-tenancy fast enough.

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 “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? Even Google and Microsoft are playing a catch-up game with Amazon’s AWS when it comes to cloud hosting business. The first mover advantage when it comes to multi-tenancy is a huge advantage for any vendor.

In summary, an EHS software vendor can be either truly multi-tenant 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 multi-tenant.

Figure 5: Where do you want your software to reside? In multi-tenant or single -tenant infrastructure? If multi-tenancy is attempted on old infrastructure or legacy application upgrade watch out. After 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 alive 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 multi-tenant SaaS delivery model and has invested in a true multi-tenant platform. This is the only way to reap all the benefits that a SaaS model has to offer.

Solving water utility data management challenges—one conversation at a time

Last month I got the opportunity to attend AWWA Water Quality and Technology Conference in Toronto, Canada. I was very enthusiastic to interact first hand with end-users of different water technology tools, and interact with other water technology professionals. It’s one thing to design software and support it, it’s a whole different thing to sit and talk with the real customers and real end users and get unfiltered feedback.

As a Product Manager, I’m usually connected with our customers by the various email and messaging systems that provide an endless amount of documentation, but nothing can substitute for an in person conversation. I heard first-hand how there is a need to change existing business practices and stop using older, non-integrated systems that only provide part of the data solution. This scenario is not a new problem; there is a need by most water entities to centralize data, and more easily load, share, analyze and report data. I have had this general conversation many times, but the more in depth, one-on-one conversations about sample planning and data collection provided the most useful feedback. I had the opportunity to give a brief demonstration on “Scheduling and collecting routine water samples using Locus Mobile and EIM” at AWWA, which provided a great venue for candid feedback. Based on these conversations, I have summarized a list of frequent challenges that users encounter during their water sampling process and how they can be solved using the right tools or better communications.

Challenge 1: Finding a flexible sampling planning tool

The overall feedback I heard from attendees is their sampling is generally routine, but the planning tools need to allow flexibility in terms of different sampling intervals and date ranges, different field and analytical parameters, and account for location grouping. Using a well-designed application can pull together all of this detailed information, and can provide a summary view of the individual samples. A manager can easily view sample status, and whether the sample is complete, in process, or planned. A well-designed application can also generate the chain of custody (COC), and lab and sample shipping date information and labels per sample, which is a huge time saver. This type of sample tracking detail seemed to be very useful to many conference attendees to help ensure they are in regulatory compliance with required sampling frequencies. A key feature to look for is an application that is flexible enough that it can allow one-time, unplanned sample events such as water main breaks, customer complaints and schedule changes, and can handle complex multi-year routine sampling with ease. As a plus, it’s easy for you or your manager to know where you stand at any time.

Challenge 2: Eliminating data entry errors caused by hand data entry

Everyone I talked with had dealt with data entry errors and fixing bad data when it was transcribed from field notes to Excel or other programs. Everyone wanted a better way to streamline the error prone data collection process. Many attendees were interested in an alternative to the pencil/paper/clipboard method and had goals to move to tablet or smartphone for data collection. As a field data collection mobile product manager, this was my area of expertise. The universal wish list for mobile field applications included:

Easy to use and set up
Built in data validation to catch data entry errors at the source
Direct upload to a data system so the end of the day all the daily samples were in the system with the push of a button
Prepopulating locations especially for large water systems
Complete field instructions for samplers on what to collect and where to collect it to eliminate missed samples
Smart tracking to know on a daily/weekly basis, what samples were collected and what samples were still outstanding
Integrated with sample planning tools (See challenge 1) to automate the sampling instructions and track the data collection activities vs plan

Challenge 3: Getting the most out of their software, especially regarding updates

Everyone one is aware that software updates all the time. Sometimes its security enhancements and sometime feature enhancements or bug fixes. Based on feedback from attendees, a source of frustration is getting a software update and not knowing what was updated or how best to incorporate a new feature/enhancement into their established process. There was also concern for impact to an established routine with field crews that were used to the existing way of doing things. Even if a functionality improved the workflow, enhancements are only valuable to a user if they understand how to use them and how to incorporate them into their existing process.

Some suggestions from the attendees included:

Concurrent documentation updates with software updates
“Quick start” guides for new functionality
Online training on the new functionality with recording for later viewing
Heads up on what is coming in the next several months so they can do strategic planning (sharing the roadmap)
Sandbox environment to test the enhancements before going in production so they can plan how to incorporate the features into their process and train field crews

Mobile applications, which appear very simple to the users, are in reality complex software and require careful integration with the receiving database for a range of complex use cases. This makes rolling out new mobile features challenging for both the developers and the users. Enhanced customer/developer communication along with a sandbox environment can go a long way towards solving some of the inherent issues with rapid innovations and updates associated with cloud and mobile software.

Take Aways

In person feedback beats everything
Communication is key.
Software tools are available and can solve a lot of the common data management challenges, but know what you want, know the problem you are trying to solve, and know it will take some time and effort but the end result will significantly improve your business processes.

About the author—Bill Donaldson, Locus Technologies

Mr. Donaldson has 5 years experience in SaaS systems, performing Product Management and QA/QC of Locus Mobile iOS application and Locus’ Environmental Information Management system (EIM). While completing his B.S., Mr. Donaldson held several paid internships, where he configured a Relational GeoDatabase and a Database Management System (DBMS), for biological data entry.

PennJersey Environmental Consulting selects Locus EIM SaaS-based software for its environmental compliance data

Locus’ EIM Solution Will Streamline PennJersey Consulting’s Entire Environmental Laboratory Data Validation and Reporting

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 11 December 2018 — Locus Technologies, (Locus), the industry leader in EHS, sustainability, and compliance management software, is pleased to announce that PennJersey Environmental Consulting (PennJersey), a leading environmental site assessment and remediation firm located in Milford, New Jersey, has selected Locus EIM SaaS-based software to more efficiently track analytical data, automate its field data collection, laboratory analyses, and overall enterprise data consolidation for its clients.

“With Locus EIM, our professionals and staff will be positioned to manage our laboratory data more efficiently. We were especially drawn to the ability to automate the laboratory data validation to assure the quality and usability of the data. EIM will provide our clients greater efficiency and allow us to focus on providing the timely and cost-effective solutions to their assessment and remediation challenges,” said Rodger Ferguson, President of PennJersey.

“Our deep understanding of the EHS compliance market enables us to quickly address environmental mandates, such as PennJersey’s tracking and management of soil, air, and groundwater data, with precision,” said Neno Duplan, Founder and CEO of Locus. “Locus EIM can indicate what levels of target compounds are in the soil, air, or water samples, how the data are trending, and provide real-time alerts to abnormalities. Overall, our solution ensures better monitoring, real-time analysis, aggregations and reporting of data that leverages a modern SaaS-based platform.”

Recology selects Locus Technologies EHS Compliance software

Locus Platform will provide “out-of-the-box” configurable software to streamline Recology’s compliance tracking and reporting.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 4 December 2018 — Locus Technologies, the leader in enterprise EHS compliance and sustainability software, today announced that Recology, an integrated resource recovery company headquartered in San Francisco, California had selected Locus Platform EHS software for its system of record for EHS compliance activities.

“With Locus’ out-of-the-box solution, we can configure the applications to align with our current workflow and tailor the functionality to our specific needs. The Locus Platform integration with the compliance content provider RegScan will help our Environmental Compliance team keep on top of all the regulations throughout California, Oregon, and Washington,” said Amy Dietz, Director of Environmental Compliance for Recology.

“By using Locus Platform Compliance application with integrated regulatory content services, Recology is combining the advantages of off-the-shelf software with Locus Platform’s powerful configuration tools. This means Recology will get exactly the software solution they need to fit their business processes in the shortest time,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus.

Cut your monitoring costs with EIM sample planning

Sample planning can be a valuable and necessary tool for many in highly regulated fields, including water utilities, where adherence to regulatory defined sampling schedules is essential. Moreover, if you have reviewed the drinking water requirements, you know the regulations require complex and variable schedules ranging from monthly samples at routine locations for a set list of parameters to once every five, seven, or nine years at other locations for a completely different list of parameters. Missing a required sampling event can mean fines and public notice to customers.

Other industries face similar complex sampling needs and the financial and reputational impacts can be hefty for missing required samples. So if you are currently an EIM user, or considering an environmental information management system, don’t forget about sample planning components that will save you time and money.

Here are some benefits of Sample Planning that may make you a believer.

Streamline routine or repetitive sampling – set it up once and reuse or modify as needed

Sample Planning in EIM excels in streamlining repetitive sampling, such as required drinking water samples, or quarterly monitoring well samples. Any sampling events with a schedule from daily to once every 10 years can be planned in EIM’s module and reused again and again, even with tweaks to the schedule for the samples to be collected. Imagine the time savings and the simplicity of having your regulatory requirements all lined out for the year and not have to worry about missing required samples. For water utilities, this is especially valuable given the very strict schedules and the public health implications of missing sampling events.

Automatically generate COCs and bottle labels

When samples are planned in EIM, it is a few simple clicks of the mouse to generate COCs, work lists, and bottle labels for the field crew. This saves time for the field and office staff, and helps ensure they collect the needed samples and not miss a collection or a field or laboratory parameter. Moreover, higher levels of accuracy and fewer transcription errors are ensured as sample IDs and requested analyses are printed electronically rather than entered by hand.

Its fully integrated with Locus Mobile – you can send your Sample Plan to field staff to ensure they collect the samples needed

For customer’s considering using Locus Mobile to streamline their field data collection, Sample Planning is a natural fit. All the samples planned in the Sample Planning module can be delivered directly to Locus Mobile for one or more field staff. You can even have multiple different events sent to the field crew so they can plan ahead in the field. All the collected data is uploaded to EIM in real-time (if service is available) or later (if not) for review and final checks after the field event is concluded. Imagine giving your sampling teams the weekly plan and tracking the progress each day as they sync their data. A handy feature of Locus Mobile, it can remove all the previously collected samples from the plan each day to make your field sampler’s life much simpler.

Larger drinking water utilities will find the integration of Sample Planning and mobile quite appealing, especially with daily sampling by multiple sampling teams and a large number of required routine samples.

All your required field sample information is already in EIM for your sampling event.

When lab data comes back from the lab, you no longer need to enter in the field sample information, it will already be in EIM.

For drinking water utilities, where you may be sampling daily for chlorine at your sample locations, imagine seeing the results across your distribution system instantly, and ability to see it on a map in near real time. Even better, you can share the results with your operations team with a simple dashboard link.

Always know where you stand on your sampling activities

By using Sample Planning, you will know exactly what samples have and have not been collected. You will also know which ones were collected late, and which ones are yet to be collected. This type of information can help ensure you don’t’ miss required samples, and identify schedule impacts when collection is not going according to plan.

When missed samples are identified, its easy to add to the next day’s sampling and send that information to field teams using the integrated mobile app.

Gain ability to track receipt of laboratory results with fine precision

For customers that need to track laboratory results down to the method and analyte level, Sample Planning will make that tedious task easy. Therefore, if you ordered an EPA Method 6010C analysis and no result for lead is reported, you will know immediately when the results arrive back from the lab that the deliverable is incomplete. EIM will also tell you when the lab substituted one method for another. You can then decide whether this change is acceptable or not. Because most regulations include a long list of required analytes and acceptable methods, this type of detail is invaluable to help ensure that you remain in compliance.

Make review of laboratory invoice easy as pie

Trying to review laboratory invoices, especially for large sampling events or complex sampling programs, can be a chore. With EIM’s Sample Planning module, most of the hard work is already done for you. Once you have all your data back, EIM will tell you:

If the quantity invoiced is more than the order
If an invoiced line item has been invoiced previously
If an invoiced line item total cost and/or unit cost is incorrect

5 tools to get more EHS tasks done with less staff

EHS software can be a boon or a bane of your life at work. Here are the 5 time- saving tools Locus’s EIM provides that can be the difference between the former versus the latter.

1. Mobile

Do you enter field data onto a paper form, and then have to manually type it into a spreadsheet or database when you get back to the office? Or have you ever been in the field and entered data into your remote mobile device and have lost the data due to the lack of internet signal? Locus’ Mobile application allows you to sync with your server to create data collection profiles on a mobile device, whether it’s your phone or a tablet. This application will allow you to click through and enter data on the device and store the data, even when you are offline. As a result, data only need to be entered once on your device, and then they are seamlessly loaded into your cloud-hosted solution.

Using Mobile you have data entry directly on the mobile device, with immediate data availability on the cloud when you reach an internet signal. Other advantages include location metadata and mapping integration, bar-code/or code scanning, voice recognition and form customization. If you would like to know more, check out the Top 10 cool features in Locus Mobile.

2. EDD Loader

With EIM’s electronic data deliverables (EDD) loader, you can upload and validate several thousand records within a minute. Laboratories are not required to use the same reporting format, yet the results will still end up at the same place in the database where sample data came from. Locus EIM also has a special lab interface so that your labs (with your permission) can upload their own EDDs. You no longer need to spend time receiving and processing EDD files from your lab. The labs simply log in directly, upload your reports, and they are immediately available to you.

EIM provides you access to popular features such as a planning module, forms for entering field data, a utility to upload EDDs, built-in mapping tools, and an extensive reporting and plotting module. It also has a calendar module for viewing information on sampling events and uploaded EDDs, automated exceedance notifications, and sophisticated statistical evaluation tools designed specifically for environmental data.

3. Sample planning

Setting up and implementing a complex sampling plan can be a time-consuming effort. Depending on the purpose and extent of the sampling plan, you may have dozens of analyses to complete at varying frequencies and locations. You may also have multiple compliance programs with overlapping requirements. EIM’s sample planning can save you valuable time and effort by assembling your requirements into a concise calendar, preprinting all of your chain of custody records and bottle labels, and tracking the collection of samples from the field to the lab. As an added bonus, the automation of this process ensures you’ll never miss another required sample.

4. Discharge Monitoring Reports

Locus’ EIM DMR tool solves the problem of time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive manual report generation by automating the data assembly, calculations, and formatting of Discharge Monitoring Reports. Depending on the type of discharge and the regulatory jurisdiction, you may be required to report information such as analytical chemistry of pollutants, flow velocity, total maximum daily load, and other parameters. For companies that report from 100 to 1,000 facilities, producing a DMR also becomes a major expense.

Thanks to Locus’ DMR reporting tool, companies can generate DMRs within minutes with validated data in approved formats, with all of the calculations completed according to regulatory requirements. Companies can set up EIM for its permitted facilities and realize immediate cost and time savings during each reporting period.

5. Formatted Data Tables

For most environmental database systems, getting the right data out is just the first step in assembling your reports. Comprehensive systems rarely store data in a format that is ready to submit to a regulatory agency or other party. Typically, you have a labor-intensive process of restructuring, labelling, footnoting, formatting, and paginating the data into tables that can be readily interpreted. EIM’s formatted reporting tools allow you to set up any number of table formats with specific grouping, sorting, footnotes, headers, and other data processing steps. Then you just select your data range, pick your format, and the table is ready to download or print directly from your web browser. And if you make a mistake, the report can be instantly regenerated without any effort.