Locus Technologies introduces On-Demand billing model for its environmental software

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 12 May 2005 — Locus Technologies, the industry leader in environmental information management, announced today a new “On-demand” pricing model for its popular analytical data management software (EIM™). This is the first truly on-demand solution for the environmental industry, allowing clients to pay for environmental software, much like one would pay for electricity. Up until now, the most common means for procuring software was to buy a shrink-wrapped product or develop an in-house proprietary system. Both of these approaches are expensive and usually require the involvement of IT departments to administer the system and apply upgrades and bug fixes. The Locus way negates the need for such work and, instead, allows users to access their data and any needed software over the web. Clients pay for only what they use, typically on a per-record basis.

Locus’s on-demand model is an innovative, low-risk, and flexible solution for laboratories, consultants, regulatory agencies, and clients. With little up-front investment, clients can rid themselves of the headaches of administering their own systems and begin using EIM’s versatile and proven set of tools to manage and view their data, typically within 24 hours from placing an order. These tools, which include a flexible and powerful data loader and state-of-the-art data visualization and charting modules, have won widespread praise from engineers, geologists, managers, chemists, and other environmental professionals.

In the software industry, the “on-demand” movement is beginning to take root in an ever growing number of fields as companies move away from expensive, customized products that they own and manage toward standardized, componentized, and lower-cost services that are obtained from an external provider. In the Locus On-demand model, customers can use the On-demand service for one site or all sites in their portfolio. The customer decides how much, what they need, and how much they pay.

Locus’s President and CEO, Dr. Neno Duplancic, said, “The appeal of the model to our customers stems from a combination of cost savings, convenience, ease of use, and simply better data management practices. Customers also benefit from a rolling upgrade program; standardization of data management practices across sites, divisions, and consultants; the ability to query across many sites; and ultimately, ownership of their own data. We are particularly excited about this business model and our ability to serve the consultant sector of the environmental industry. Consulting firms will be able to directly identify data management costs on a per-site and by-use basis. This will allow them to parse these line item costs back to a project at a very cost-effective price.”

Locus announces exciting new SVG functionality for geological data

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 6 October 2004  — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in environmental information management, today announced that it has expanded its award winning, web-based Environmental Information Management™ (EIM™) system to include the ability to generate on-the-fly boring logs and soil profiles using the Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. SVG supports dynamic, high-quality graphics that can be generated from real-time data and displayed in a web browser.

Previously, geological data needed to be entered into various expensive software applications to display the information, but did not have the ability to correlate geological and analytical information. These data types had to be downloaded, merged, and analyzed as precious time was lost and consulting hours piled up. The new SVG application, an integrated module in Locus’s EIM, is completely web-based to instantly deliver, sort, and assemble information into highly nuanced reports, boring logs, cross sections, charts, and maps, including raster image overlays, and pictures. Beyond the usual display of boring log data, the log can also display soil and groundwater analytical data and provides interactive drill-down capability for in-depth analysis. Best of all, report-quality geotechnical logs can be printed out with the click of a mouse, further streamlining a previously inefficient process. Much of the system’s power and ease of use is in the speed and flexibility with which it delivers information. Unlike other image formats, SVG image resolution is scalable and does not degrade with enlargement.

“SVG provides a highly suitable tool for real-time display of subsurface data with incredible speed,” says Dr. Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus. “Locus has successfully used SVG for the basis of EIM’s mapping module, and we are excited to bring SVG to the display of complex geotechnical data through boring logs and soil profiles. Furthermore, all of this exciting functionality comes without the need to store large image files on the server end,thus minimizing storage and Internet traffic requirements. By exploiting this exciting new web-based technology, Locus intends to stay at the forefront of web-based display of environmental information by putting inexpensive GIS capabilities on every desktop,” adds Dr. Duplancic.