The six characteristics of the “perfect” EHS application

 

Build your own EHS apps with Locus Platform

A configurable application-building platform lets you easily build and reconfigure apps that perfectly fit your business needs.

In the EHS&S industry, companies and organizations demand a unique set of needs from their software applications.

There are many software tools and applications available out there aimed to assist with any aspect of your company. Many buyers get stuck on the question of how to find the perfect app solution for their business needs, especially considering that these needs grow and evolve over time. They spend money and time researching the perfect app that fits their unique situation.

An unexpected solution to this dilemma lies in a configurable software platform— designed specifically to allow you to easily build and reconfigure apps that perfectly fit your business needs.

Developing custom applications on a cloud-based application development platform has a number of advantages that you should consider before deciding to buy an off-the-shelf application that happens to tick all the boxes on your features list. This solution delivers easily configurable, scalable, and well-integrated applications that will help you drive your productivity and success in the future.

 

Currency cost icon  Lower long-term costs

Custom app development on a platform means you can create a custom application that is specifically tailored to your company’s needs, as well as being focused on scalability and efficiency.

Off-the-shelf software may initially seem like the faster and cheaper option, but the lack of customization for day-to-day operations is ultimately inefficient (and often leads users to invent their own manual processes outside the software to compensate for the software’s inefficiencies).  As the application is used more often, even the smallest issues can grow exponentially, leading to costs that will far outweigh your initial savings on the off-the-shelf software.

 

Configure customize icon  Better productivity = higher ROI

Configurable custom applications that are specifically designed with your needs in mind will help your team work faster and smarter.  Well-integrated apps on a unified platform can yield major efficiency gains, since all the data is in one place and users do not have to switch between different applications or websites as part of their workflow.

Another added benefit comes from the interoperability of apps coexisting on the same platform, which can drastically reduce input requirements, as well as the need for multiple QA/QC processes.  Input once, use many times.

 

Speed fast icon  Save time, adapt faster

The ability of an organization to quickly shift technology strategies can mean the difference between dominance and obsolescence in many industries.  A configurable platform enables you to rapidly customize and deploy your application, with a fraction of the time and resources that would be required for an off-the-shelf application.

 

User Interface UI icon  Common UI, data and security model

Platform applications share the same user interface, security, and configuration-data model amongst all apps.  There is no need to manage data integration or sync issues.

Additionally, new software upgrades are easily deployed to a large number of users, so users will remain in a familiar interface across all apps.  These benefits support faster and easier deployment, as well as rapid user adoption— both of which are critical to success and a high ROI for any solution.

 

Integration icon  Built-in support for integration with other platforms

Advanced APIs (to support integration of third-party, enterprise, Internet of Things, or legacy applications not on the platform) are interoperable and will help maximize your team’s productivity.

Off-the-shelf software may not be compatible with other programs.  You may need one software product to read IoT data from sensors, another to launch an incident management workflow, and yet another to file a new SAP purchase order.  If the programs do not communicate effectively, they will hinder your work process.

A custom platform app can integrate with a wider set of APIs from different software and data partners, providing a seamless flow of information.

 

Mobile icon  Mobile capability

Mobile applications have become a significant extension of any web-based application.  A configurable app platform inherently supports an easy transition from a web app to a mobile app, without any extra development efforts.  This saves time, money, and resources needed to maintain the mobile app.  It also resolves any data integration or usability issues that integrating a third-party, custom mobile app could cause with your application.
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Still looking for the right EHS software to revolutionize your environmental and compliance initiatives?  Book a demo with us today!

 

Rehan Shah - Senior Software Engineer

About guest blogger— Rehan Shah, Locus Technologies

An avid programmer, Rehan Shah is passionate about programming and making the world a better place.  At Locus, Rehan gets the opportunity to combine both his passions, making his job much more fun and intriguing.

After graduating from Purdue with a degree in computer engineering, he spent the next 10 years working for industry leaders including HP, Oracle, and ServiceNow.  Now at Locus, he’s a senior software engineer in the Locus Platform dev team, an agile dev team lead and a self-proclaimed Chief Hackathon Officer.

How to choose the right EHS vendor (or, turning a minefield into a playground)

 

In today’s Internet-driven age, consumers are overwhelmed by an abundance of choices and information on every conceivable product on the marketplace.  The same is true for businesses looking to buy software solutions. Selecting an enterprise-wide EHS&S software solution can be a feat for any organization.

Whether you have been tasked to research vendors from the EHS shop window, or you are driving the data evolution in your business to move from spreadsheets (or worse – paper) to a 21st century-ready alternative— the task at hand can seem daunting and fraught with challenge.

Establishing a timeline and setting milestones along the way will help you break down your mission into manageable, bite-size chunks. Here are some helpful tips to find the right EHS vendor for you — and remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint!

 

Cartoon of EHS stakeholders considering a cloud EHS software solution

Different departments and stakeholders will have different goals– don’t forget to consider how the EHS software solution will help them, too.

Who are the stakeholders?

As the individual spearheading this project, you are not the only one with skin in the game, nor is this likely confined to your team. Multiple business units, divisions, and departments are not only going to have to use a new EHS software solution – they need to like doing so.

The different stakeholders also come with their own individual business goals, and they will be looking to the new EHS software solution to assist them.  Can you carefully engage different areas of your business to find the key drivers?

Even better – assign project leaders within business units to join your selection process, attending demos and providing critical feedback along the way. After all, more heads are better than one.

 

The nice-to-have’s vs. the need-to-have’s

Many of us in the EHS&S industry share similar passions, such as the desire to help reduce climate change and help businesses move to more environmentally-friendly ways of operating.

Sadly, this isn’t at the top of every company’s list of priorities.  But we can all agree that the most important and critical areas are compliance-driven.

Think about which local, state, and federal regulations you are bound by and must adhere to at all costs. It’s all well and good, having a software that can calculate CO2 emissions saved from a new “green” initiative.  But shouldn’t it also be smart enough to alert you when a permit is up for renewal?

Take time to compile a list of all areas you need to keep on top of.  The right software should be able to keep you one step ahead, not left scrambling around, collecting data from all of your sites to meet a certain deadline.

 

Who to engage? 

EHS conference attendees networking

Conferences such as those hosted by NAEM are a great place to network with other EHS professionals and ask your peers about their experience with specific software vendors.

Trying to select a shortlist of vendors to demo with is no easy feat, especially when an Internet search throws up 20 pages of results.  Fortunately, there are plenty of independent sources and conferences that exist specifically to help you in this endeavor.  The National Association of Environmental Managers (NAEM) is one example.  Networking with other EHS professionals can lead to recommendations and “been there, done that” advice on who the key players are.

It’s also important to remember that EHS vendors are not necessarily built for every terrain, and some specialize in different areas (i.e., health and safety, air emissions, waste management, etc.).  I have yet to come across two businesses with the exact same EHS needs and requirements, so remember to regard your own company as the unique entity that it is.

Once you have a feel for the vendors that are most suitable for your needs, you should start engaging sales professionals in initial 20-30 minute conversations on what you are trying to achieve, as well as finding out more from vendors on their potential suitability for your project.

 

EHS software demos are the easiest way to find out if the EHS software will meet your requirements

Before a demo, give the vendor as much detail about your unique requirements, business processes, and ultimate goals as you’re willing to share– this will help the vendor focus on the most relevant functionality for your needs.

Evaluating the market

Once you have a shortlist of worthy candidates, the next logical step is to schedule some demos.  I recommend a 60-90 minute demo to begin with – anything shorter is not worthwhile to get a full grasp on the software capabilities.

There seems to be two schools of thought regarding demos and how much information to provide to the vendor, prior to the big day.  Some companies like to keep their cards close to their chest and ask to see the “out-of-the-box” functionality.  Others choose to provide the vendor upfront with their detailed requirements, existing reports, and sample data, in order for the demo to focus specifically on what the customer is looking to solve.

I favor the latter approach, as it gives the vendor the opportunity to tailor the demo to the needs that are of most importance to the customer.  This helps both sides to focus the conversation on exactly how the software functionality will make the customer’s job easier.  Tell them what you want to achieve or what you’re struggling with, and let them do the work of showing you how their product will solve all your problems.  And quite frankly, if you are looking to catch out a vendor who doesn’t have everything you need, then the relationship is already off to a pretty bad start!

Longer sessions and “focus groups” can be arranged as a follow-up.  Second and third demos are par for the course in most selection processes.  These additional demos will give you a chance to whittle down the competition, plus give you the opportunity to reflect and to go back to the vendors with any additional questions, requirements, and clarifications.

 

Going steady

As you continue through the purchasing process, you will find yourself building bonds with the best vendors.  This working relationship is key to a lasting experience that assists your business in getting the “mission-critical” EHS work done.

EHS vendors collaborate with their customers

As your relationship with a vendor grows, you should start to see evidence of a cross-departmental team that is committed to your satisfaction and your business’s compliance success.

The best EHS vendors will have a healthy mix of subject matter experts, project managers, developers, and sales professionals – all dedicated to keeping your business compliant and happy enough to renew your subscription, year after year.

Pricing is obviously a concern for any customer, and it’s important that you fully understand what the vendor is going to charge you.  The last thing you want is to agree on a project and implementation process, only to be hit with a hefty bill once the software has been deployed – for what you felt was a minor change.

Useful questions to ask:

  • Is the software configurable?
  • How much support is available to me?
  • What happens when you upgrade to a new version?
  • How much data can I store on your platform?

Once you have settled on a vendor and are ready to embark on the implementation, the real fun begins.  Now you can start to reap the benefits of your carefully planned and executed selection process.

Good luck out there!

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Still looking for the right EHS software to revolutionize your environmental and compliance initiatives?  Book a demo with us today!

 

Remy Leaf - Sales Engineer at Locus Technologies

About guest blogger— Remy Leaf, Locus Technologies

Remy Leaf has worked in the EHS industry for 6 years, since graduating from the University of the West of England with a BSc in Environmental Management & Sustainability. His current role with Locus is Sales Engineer, working with new and prospective customers to identify their EHS targets.

Locus introduces visual rule configuration to Locus Platform SaaS

The new visual rule configuration leverages the latest web technologies. We designed it to efficiently perform tasks in the software configuration process – without any programming. This helps Locus Platform customers meet rapidly changing EHS&S software requirements at lower cost.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 18 October 2016 —

Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental, sustainability, energy, and compliance management software, has once again expanded on the configurability of its cloud-based Locus Platform. Locus Platform is introducing new visual rule configuration, which allows users to conditionally change the behavior of fields within any form using a simple interface that requires no additional software code.

The system can be easily configured to make certain fields conditionally visible, editable, and required based on other information entered by the user. This makes data-dependent forms easy to construct for any application. This feature is available for all existing Locus Platform applications, as well as for customers building their own applications using the Platform’s configuration tools.

This new feature is pertinent to all EHS applications. System administrators are able to follow a simple setup wizard to create many kinds of dynamic input forms, such as collecting additional information if a user responds ‘no’ to an audit question, or displaying waste code options if a waste profile is categorized as hazardous. With visual rules, the these applications can now be reconfigured for any user without the need for any expensive software development.

With this functionality, Locus Platform emerges as a market leader in EHS&S rule management systems. The intuitive, graphical approach will make it popular with domain experts, as well as managers. EHS&S departments will be able to create and maintain business rules and to automate a wide variety of operational decisions specific to their organization, without needing any programming knowledge. Visual rule configuration reduces the time it takes to develop, implement, and update their applications, compared to traditional software.

“One of the great benefits of the Locus Platform has always been its configurability. Businesses don’t need to modify their practices and policies to fit an off-the-shelf EHS&S solution with predefined forms, features, and rules. Rather, the solution can be configured to their existing practices – without the need to ask a vendor to do it for them. And with the new visual rules feature, that configuration is easier than ever,” said Wes Hawthorne, President of Locus.

“Keeping the end users’ perspective in mind, we’ve packed the same 20-plus years of domain expertise that Locus has been offering into a highly configurable and scalable new software platform, built from the ground up using the latest web technologies,” remarked Neno Duplan, CEO of Locus.

A day in the presidential life

 

Follow the new President of Locus, Wes Hawthorne, through his typical week to see the big picture of running a successful environmental cloud software company

Wes Hawthorne is the newly appointed President of Locus Technologies, having been promoted to this position after 17 years of working at Locus. Wes comes from a background of environmental engineering and geology, and he previously worked as VP of Operations, overseeing Locus’ operations and product management teams.

In his new role as President, Wes is quickly learning about all the aspects of the company, and what roles come together to keep it operating smoothly and successfully.  As part of this, he has been getting a crash course in departments that were previously outside his scope of job responsibilities (such as sales and marketing).

Let’s follow Wes through some highlights of his typical week as the new President of Locus to see what kind of things he works on day to day.

Monday

10 a.m. – Met with our marketing team to discuss some upcoming conferences.  It’s looking like it will be a busy conference season, and each conference takes months of careful planning— from booth design, to presentations, to setting up demos of our mobile app for conference attendees— but our marketing team works hard to make sure we have everything mapped out well in advance of the events.

Locus President Wes Hawthorne at computer

Getting organized and ready for a busy week at Locus…

11 a.m. – Reviewed emissions and environmental data acquisition equipment for a cement manufacturing facility. One of the things I really love about working at Locus is the opportunity to work with so many industries, each with their own specific needs and requirements for managing their environmental data.

2 p.m. – Met with sales team to talk about some ongoing sales opportunities.  We also talked about the kinds of company values our sales team members are communicating to our clients. Everyone agreed that one of Locus’ core strategies is having all the stakeholders involved initially, before the kickoff of the project. We have a strong cross-disciplinary team involved in making sure that every new customer has their data migrated and their personnel trained, and that they are totally satisfied with how the system is configured.

4:30 p.m. – Discussed new configurable reporting options with product management and development teams for Locus Platform. There is some really innovative work coming out of our Platform team, and no shortage of exciting ideas in the pipeline!

Tuesday

9 a.m. – Met with USEPA to discuss data management and reporting requirements for bioremediation projects. These projects have special data collection and analysis needs, which our EIM system handles in a very simple way.  I just took a tablet into the field and was able to redesign a monitoring program on the spot with the regulator. As a result, the project is taking another step towards closure, bypassing a process that used to take months.

11:30 a.m. – Prepared an evaluation of potential uncertainty associated with cap and trade emissions credits for a winery. With cap and trade programs, the metadata related to the reported emissions and product data are just as important as the reported totals themselves. Using a transparent data set and calculation engine, I can not only review reported data, but also quantify uncertainty and sensitivity of the inputs.

Locus President Wes Hawthorne meets with Locus Platform dev team 2016

Meeting with the Locus Platform dev team

3 p.m. – Met with product development team for Locus Platform to preview upcoming features, including new tools for managing Internet of Things (IoT) data feeds.  The dev team showed some really interesting new features related to using IoT data, such as showing live data connection and viewing real-time dashboards. We also have some new tools that are developed to configure those features— not just to view them, but also for setting them up in Locus Platform, using its existing integration tools to pull that data in, drive actions for meeting compliance goals, and process it.

The product and development of Locus Platform is something that I’ve been involved with for several years now, but it’s still so gratifying to see the product continually evolve, and to have a hand in saying how it should grow.

Wednesday

8:30 a.m. – Spoke with California Air Resources Board about GHG verification requirements for cogeneration plants. I frequently interact with many regulatory agencies. Because most of our products and services are driven by regulations, I use these conversations to keep our work aligned with the current and upcoming requirements.

12 p.m. – Joined welcome lunch at Doppio Zero in downtown Mountain View for new employee Venk Madabhushi.  We’re always growing and finding new recruits, and we welcome new employees and support their growth.

The company culture at Locus is a very friendly, workable atmosphere; people just get along. We have people in a lot of different multi-disciplines— you have people from the environmental engineering background, the software developers, marketing and sales personnel, field technicians, and others. It’s just a huge variety of people to learn from.

Locus employees, Wes, and Neno discussing new mobile app tools

Reviewing and brainstorming about a new mobile tool for managing compliance for drinking water utilities

And culturally, I think Locus is great.  Well, I’ve been here for 17 years, so I obviously think it’s a great place to work.  When our customers interact with an implementation team or our products team, they can tell that we’re constantly communicating and working together, talking daily about their projects and how to keep moving forward. Keeping a positive atmosphere around how we work helps ensure that we’re all aiming towards the same goal of delivering the best product possible.

3 p.m. – Met with account management and product management to start work on a new mobile tool for managing compliance information for drinking water entities. An exciting part of our work at Locus is identifying new needs for our current customers and then finding new ways to use our technologies to meet those needs.

4 p.m. – Reviewed cap and trade applicability for a supplier of petroleum products with operations in California. Fuel marketers have very different needs for their data management when it comes to cap and trade, because the reporting is organized around regulatory boundaries rather than facilities. We used integration with the transaction database to quickly assemble the data and avoid potential transcription errors.

Thursday

9 a.m. – Prepared a monitoring program for a theme park to address surface water runoff issues for permit compliance. This is a project where regulatory compliance tools are integrated with software for compiling and analyzing analytical data, in order to optimize a monitoring program that meets the specific sampling requirements of the permit.  It also meets the objective of identifying the source to target future mitigation efforts.

GIS+ screenshot- query layers on night basemap

A sample map with graduated symbols and custom layers, from our forthcoming GIS+ platform

10 a.m. – Reviewed the latest build of our GIS+ functionality with development team.  As all of our customers know, Locus has provided cutting-edge mapping and visualization tools with our software for many years, and we continue to invest in those features.

But I’m really excited about GIS+, a new platform that we’re rolling out, which has amazing new tools for data analysis using Esri technology.  We’ve seen our mapping and other visual analysis tools become more and more popular every year, thanks to the increasing volume of data being collected for environmental projects.

The new GIS+ is more powerful than anything we’ve offered before.  It’s an all-in-one tool to give you quick visual analysis of contours or other geographic distribution of data, to give you a visual display of where things are located, make quick interpretations, and then generate report-ready deliverables.  I can’t wait until our customers get a chance to try it out!

1 p.m. – Completed GHG verifications for an oil and gas producer, a distribution company for natural gas, and nine cogeneration facilities. Locus is one of the largest accredited verification bodies for GHG emissions in California. This gives us a unique perspective when it comes to this type of data, which is why we put a lot of emphasis on the quality and transparency of data in our software development.

4:30 p.m. – Reviewed applicability of data management requirements for air emissions from a power generation facility under 40 CFR Part 75. For this facility, we reviewed the system configuration to make sure that data substitution procedures were correctly applied. I’ve worked with many continuous emissions monitoring systems over the years.  For the most part, I’ve found that they collect a huge volume of data, but the tools for extracting useful findings out of that data are usually limited. Fortunately, we’ve learned some quick methods for reviewing this data that help to immediately identify potential issues.

Friday

Locus President Wes Hawthorne drawing on whiteboard

Hashing out ideas on the whiteboard

8 a.m. – Updated a compliance monitoring program for a school site that is managing arsenic issues with a surface cap. For compliance programs, you really need to look at the variety of regulations that apply to specific sites, which can be difficult and challenging.  You have to not only identify them initially, but then you have to help them manage all the associated requirements. This specific project had a lot of issues with making sure they stay on top of these requirements.

At the heart of a lot of environmental remediation sites is risk management. And school sites have a particular sensitivity regarding risk. While you’re in the process of cleaning up these problem areas, there’s a real risk exposure, and minimizing the potential impact to those risk receptors is extremely important. Eventually, you need to have all of the risk receptors addressed before you can close the project.

Our team helped this particular school district to consolidate their EHS compliance requirements and develop a calendar with notifications, in order to ensure all their obligations are met.

10 a.m. – Worked on a management system for handling community outreach documentation associated with large environmental projects. Occasionally, Locus gets involved in projects that go somewhat beyond the traditional scope of “environmental data”.  This could be financial data associated with environmental projects, or in this case, the public outreach documentation.

Previously, this “tangential” environmental data had to be managed in separate spreadsheets, but Locus now has the tools for building applications that are tailor-made for handling this information, and allows it to be directly integrated with the tools for managing compliance tasks or analytical data.  It’s a huge time-saver to be able to maintain information on all these affiliated activities in one system.

3 p.m. – Modified a corporate compliance reporting tool for health and safety incidents for a railroad operator.  A lot of times, our customers are able to teach us about how they manage and analyze their EHS data. For this project, our customer gave us some great ideas which we merged into a master template for incident reporting. Even after so many years, I’m still learning quite a bit with every new project.

5:30 p.m. – Made it through the Bay Area traffic and got my daughter to soccer practice on time. After a full and exhausting week, it was quite rewarding to relax and just watch her run around for an hour. In two more days, I’ll be re-energized to start up a few new projects and finish work on a few others. Though, if the past 17 years are any indication, on Sunday evening I’ll already be lining up my activities for the week and figuring out what new challenges Locus will tackle in the next five days.

 

Locus Technologies President Wes Hawthorne- Locus employees

About guest blogger— Wes Hawthorne, Locus Technologies

Wes Hawthorne has been with Locus Technologies since 1999, working on development and implementation of services and solutions in the areas of environmental compliance, remediation, and sustainability. As President, he currently leads the overall product development and operations of the company.

Aviation industry agrees to cap CO2 emissions, other transportation industries to follow

The first deal limiting greenhouse gasses from international aviation has been sealed after years of negotiations. Carbon emissions from international aviation will be capped under a global agreement to limit the impact of commercial flights on the climate. The deal launches a voluntary compliance system from 2021 that would become mandatory in 2027. Airlines spent about $181 billion on fuel last year, and this deal would add between $5 and $24 billion in additional costs, depending on the price of carbon at the time. The aviation carbon cuts were agreed in Montreal by national representatives at the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO.

The deal comes in a critical week for climate policy when the Paris agreement to stabilize climate change passed a key threshold for becoming law. International aviation is responsible for putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year than the whole of the Germany or the UK. And until now, there has been no global consensus on how to address aviation emissions.

CO2 will be allowed to grow to 2020, but after that, emissions will need to be offset. The deal will be voluntary to 2026, but most major nations are expected to take part. Airlines that pollute more than the prescribed level after 2020 would have to purchase carbon-offsetting credits.

The offsetting proposal is especially controversial. Airlines are striving to make planes more efficient, but the industry can’t innovate fast enough to contain its dynamic growth.

That led to the proposal for offsetting – but sometimes offsetting by planting trees is not enough and is prone to double-counting.

One way to offset emissions, besides planting trees, is using trees’ and other plants spoils to make sustainable fuels. The effort to use sustainable fuels has already started, and manufacturers and airlines support of alternative fuels is high.

To that end, the US biofuels leader, Amyris, Inc is developing an alternative aviation jet fuel made with a sustainably-sourced hydrocarbon using Amyris’s proprietary synthetic biology platform. It is one of the most promising developments in aviation fuels in decades.

Amyris’ jet fuel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80 percent compared with petroleum fuels, when compared unmixed to petroleum fuels on a one-to-one basis, according to Amyris.

Attempts have been made for nearly two decades to include aviation and shipping in the UN’s climate agreements, but both sectors have managed to avoid firm targets.

US EPA earlier this year issued a final scientific assessment that concluded that carbon emissions from aircraft endanger public health and welfare, a legal prerequisite the agency must take before regulating those emissions in the US. It is widely expected that EPA will introduce its set of rules for regulating domestic aircraft emissions in the US. Domestic aviation represents about 40% of total carbon-dioxide output from commercial flights.

Environmental groups said they hope the action to curb airline emissions will spur a similar cap on maritime CO2 production. Maritime emissions aren’t covered by the Paris climate deal even though the industry is considered a major carbon emitter.

All these emissions trackings must be managed and verified and will require companies to install scalable and intelligent database systems like Locus SaaS-based EIM and Locus Platform that already help many companies comply with various emission laws and regulations around the world.

Configurable software solutions—Change is good, right?

 

Modern software technology and design has enabled an unprecedented amount of creation and innovation by managers, subject matter experts, and technical staff.

Before, if you wanted a new custom facility environmental audit form, you had to create a set of specifications, outline all functionality, and engage software developers to create the application (or just do it all on paper).  This approach could take months to develop, test, debug, and rework.  With the tools we have now, this kind of custom job can be done within a day, complete with mobile-enabled forms.  It’s amazing how modern technology is such a huge time and cost saver.  But it also introduces a new list of challenges that have to be considered when taking ownership of a configurable software solution.

You need to know what you want.

While we now have easy-to-use tools for creating applications, you still need to define what you want to get out of the application you’re making.  When you buy pre-configured software, you adapt your process to fit the constraints of the system you just bought. When you buy configurable software, you’re able to create the exact workflow that you need, but you have to first develop a complete understanding of what your needs actually are. With flexible tools, it’s easy to try out different configurations with your team members.  However, it’s a challenge to have your team on the same page about what configuration will benefit the entire range of users or departments.

Just because you can make easy and fast changes, doesn’t mean you should.

Typically, you have to wait until a vendor updates the software and hope they address any changes you were hoping for.  With configurable software, you or the vendor can make those changes anytime.

However, if you’re making these kinds of changes on your own, without proper management and communication, there is a very good chance you will create usability issues for other users in your community. Even the simplest management system for changes will make everyone’s life easier. For example, you can categorize potential changes by their urgency. The urgent changes can be notified to users immediately (as soon as they are made), and the non-urgent changes can be scheduled for later. Establishing any kind of management and communication system can help you keep your team up to date with software changes.

You are not in this alone.

Configurable software, with its endless possibilities, may seem daunting.  But you don’t have to be overwhelmed with options— there are plenty of people who would love to help you:

  • The software vendor can be your configuration partner and do the work at your direction. You get real-time updates to ensure the configuration keeps heading in the right direction toward fulfilling your needs— and you can spend your time focusing on your business, rather than configuring the software.
  • Your consultants can configure for you. It’s very likely that you have great, trusted relationships with the consulting community, who already know you and have developed some understanding of your business needs.  These resources can help to ensure you get the perfect solution.
  • Your staff likely has people that would love to configure and would jump at the chance to develop an effective solution that benefits the department and the organization as a whole. They are easy to spot— they spend time in Excel and write macros for fun.
Bottom line: Plan, prioritize, partner.

Configurable software can open up a world of options and often prove to be a great choice for many customers.  But it’s important that you understand the process— including all the advantages and challenges that come with it. Decide how you want to manage the configuration and reach out to trusted people. With some preparation and an invested team, you will have no problem navigating the exciting waters that technology has made possible.

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Still looking for the right EHS software to revolutionize your environmental and compliance initiatives?  Book a demo with us today!

 

Marian Carr

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.

Locus Technologies completes SOC 1SM and 2SM certification

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 24 August 2016 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in cloud computing enterprise software for environmental, energy, air, water, and compliance management, is pleased to announce that the company has undergone a Service Organization Control 1SM and 2SM examination. A CPA report has been issued stating that Locus Technologies has maintained effective management over financial reporting, as well as the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy of its Software as a Service (SaaS) system. The assessment was performed by A-Lign. Locus is proud to have held these reports for the past four years.

The SOC 1SM report provides assurance to current or potential customers about the effectiveness of financial reporting systems at Locus. This report was prepared in accordance with Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16, Reporting on Controls at a Service Organization. It is specifically intended to meet the needs of the entities that use Locus’ SaaS products and the CPAs that audit Locus’ financial statements, in evaluating the effect of the controls at Locus on the company’s financial statements.

Locus’ SOC 1SM report is a Type 2–report stating that the presentation and description of Locus’ system is fair, and that its design and operating effectiveness of controls achieve the related objectives included in the description throughout a specified period of time.

The SOC 2SM report is designed for customers who inquire about the effectiveness of controls at Locus that are relevant to the security, availability, or processing integrity of the system Locus uses to process customers’ information, or the confidentiality or privacy of that information.

The SOC 2SM report places Locus in a rare category among environmental data management providers to have attained this rigorous classification. In today’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) and risk-management environment, it is essential that service providers like Locus demonstrate that they have adequate controls and safeguards in place, so customers can be confident that their data are safe. Unlike most other environmental data management providers, Locus does not limit the SOC 2SM review to their data centers for hosting, but rather the entirety of the software development and management process, including the data centers.

“We are pleased that our SOC 1SM report has shown that we have the appropriate financial controls in place. This is in addition to a SOC 2SM report we received that is focused on mitigating risks related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy of customers’ environmental, energy, sustainability, and compliance data stored in Locus’ cloud,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, CEO of Locus Technologies.

“The culture here at Locus is to put our customers first at all times, and it is essential that they feel secure with our financial information management and in trusting us with their data.”

Locus Technologies creates IoT interoperability with Locus Platform

Locus helps customers leverage data, analytical, cloud, and mobile capabilities via IoT-to-Locus SaaS platform

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 9 August 2016 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in cloud-based EHS software, announced today that its multi-tenant SaaS Platform fully interoperates with the Internet of Things (IoT). The company has been the pioneering innovator in the EHS software space since 1999 when it first introduced its Automation and Data Management Groups, which used Internet-based technologies to manage and control vast amounts of data generated at the company’s customer sites.

Locus’ automation technologies have evolved over the years to encompass the vast array of Internet-connected devices, sensors, programmable logic controllers, and other instruments to gather and organize large amounts of streaming data.

The IoT interconnects uniquely identifiable embedded computing, testing, and monitoring devices within the existing Internet infrastructure and software platform. Locus IoT services offer connectivity beyond machine-to-machine communications and cover a variety of protocols, domains, and applications.

“The IoT is one of the fastest-growing trends in tech. When applied to the environmental monitoring industry, there is an overwhelming influx of information that has to be dealt with; many companies are concerned that the sheer volume of data will render the information useless. For that reason, Locus invested in smart software and intelligent databases to deal with this new trend, long before IoT had a common name. We aspire to change the face of the environmental monitoring industry,” said Neno Duplan, CEO of Locus.

In any industry, when all incoming data are connected and centrally accessible through a multi-tenant SaaS application, the flow of information is much more efficient and effective. For example, instead of having a separate data collection protocol from software applications for water quality management, waste management, GHG management, EHS compliance and incident management, a company can have all emissions-related records—regardless of whether they originated in the laboratory, field, or Internet-connected monitoring device—in a single system of record. From this single system of record, they can manage compliance activities, perform data gathering and monitoring, manage water treatment systems remotely, and manage resources for sustainability reporting at the same time. Adopting such a structure offers Locus’ customers the ability to converge all incoming sources of information to create a much-needed integrated enterprise platform for EH&S+S management.

At the crux of this integration is Locus’ highly scalable and end-user configurable Locus Platform. The interoperability combines the Locus Platform as a service with its automation, mobile, and IoT platforms. The combined IoT suite will be hosted on Locus’ cloud.

“By combining our cloud platform and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms to make them interoperable, we provide the single platform for our customers that helps them lower their operational costs, reduce cycle time, and ultimately become better stewards of the environment. This integration will give our customers more analytics from connected devices,” added Duplan.

Why SaaS multitenancy is key to successful and sustainable EHS management

A recently published survey by a research analyst firm indicates that 90 percent of EHS software applications installed today are single-tenant on customer premises or single-tenant, vendor hosted.  Only 10 percent are multitenant, vendor-hosted. In other words, most of the vendors in the EH&S space do not run a single version of their software maintained at one location. Instead, they run multiple copies at a single or multiple locations, with the high likelihood that these multiple copies are not alike, but instead represent multiple versions or contain specific customizations for individual customers. This model is crushing their growth and scalability potential.

Locus delivers EHS+S SaaS solutions as highly scalable, Software as a Service (SaaS) application and platform services on a multitenant technology architecture. Multitenancy is an architectural approach that allows Locus to operate a single application instance for multiple organizations, treating all customers as separate tenants who run in virtual isolation from each other. Customers can use and customize an application as though they each have a separate instance, yet their data and customizations remain secure and insulated from the activities of all other tenants. Locus multitenant services run on a single stack of hardware and software, which is comprised of commercially available hardware and a  combination of proprietary and commercially available software. As a result, Locus can spread the cost of delivering EHS SaaS services across user base, which lowers the cost for each customer. Also, because Locus does not have to manage thousands of distinct applications with their business logic and database schemas, we believe that we can scale our business faster than traditional software vendors. Moreover, we can focus our resources on building new functionality to deliver to customer base as a whole rather than on maintaining an infrastructure to support each of their distinct applications.

Multitenancy also allows for faster bug and security fixes, automatic software updates and the ability to deploy major releases and frequent, incremental improvements to Locus’ services, benefiting the entire user community. Our services are optimized to run on specific databases and operating systems using the tools and platforms best suited to serve customers rather than on-premise software that must be written to the different hardware, operating systems and database platforms existing within a customer’s unique systems environment. Locus developers build and support solutions and features on a single code base on our chosen technology platform. Locus efforts are focused on improving and enhancing the features, functionality, performance, availability and security of existing service offerings as well as developing new features, functionality, and services.

Locus customers and third-party developers can create apps rapidly because of the ease of use of Locus Platform and the benefits of a multitenant platform. Locus provides the capability for business users to configure applications easily to suit their specific needs.

Also, Locus multitenant cloud platform makes it possible to use a remarkably small number of servers as efficiently as possible. When organizations move business applications to Locus, they can significantly reduce their energy use and carbon footprints compared to traditional on-premises or single-tenant or ASP solutions

Locus built and maintains a multitenant application architecture that has been designed to enable service to scale securely, reliably and cost effectively. Locus’ multitenant application architecture maintains the integrity and separation of customer data while still permitting all customers to use the same application functionality simultaneously.

Both Locus and its data centers providers hold independent  AICPA SOC1 (SSAE16)  and SOC2 certification.

Locus Announces New Company President

J. Wesley Hawthorne promoted to President of Locus Technologies

San Francisco, Calif., 14 July 2016 — Locus Technologies, the industry leader in SaaS environmental compliance and information management software, announced today the promotion of long time Locus employee J. Wesley Hawthorne to the position of President of Locus Technologies. Current President and CEO Neno Duplan will remain CEO. He will focus his energies on long-term strategic goals to ensure Locus remains a leading force within the EHS compliance and sustainability software industry.

Mr. Hawthorne has been an essential contributor to the success of Locus Technologies for the last 17 years. Mr. Hawthorne holds an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford and B.S. degrees in Geology and Geological Engineering from Purdue University. He is registered both as a Professional Engineer and Professional Geologist, and is accredited as Lead Verifier for greenhouse gas emissions by the California Air Resources Board.

Since 2014, Mr. Hawthorne has managed Locus’ operations and product development teams, including the launch of Locus Platform, a fully configurable multi-tenant software solution designed from the ground up to address modern EHS data management needs. His strong technical background, coupled with his keen business sense, will provide Locus with the outstanding leadership needed to navigate the dynamic and changing EHS software space.

“At Locus, it has been my privilege to work with some of the world’s leading companies and organizations, bringing cutting-edge technological solutions to address their EHS and sustainability compliance needs,” said Mr. Hawthorne. “I am very excited to take a leading role in continuing the growth of those products and services with one of the best development and configuration teams in the industry. Locus is well-positioned to become a dominant provider of EHS compliance software, thanks to our experienced staff and industry-tested platforms. I look forward to continuing to serve our existing customers with enhanced software solutions, and expanding our market reach in the GRC space with new and compelling software tools.”