How to Influence EHS Management Leadership by Leveraging Enterprise Software Solutions
Sarah Brennan
This presentation is called How to influence EHS Management Leadership by leveraging enterprise software solutions and shows the advantage of enterprise solution software. In managing environmental, health and safety (EHS) programs, there are some key considerations to improve overall EHS performance through the use of data; and data needs and requirements may be massive with regulations, time deadlines, reporting requirements and numerous site locales. That massive data may be effectively maximized through software solutions. Businesses have four choices in terms of managing and maintaining business process areas: 1) pen and paper, 2) Word and Excel, 3) to build tools inhouse, and 4) to buy software tools. In today’s age, it is becoming harder to manage all the areas of the business with Word, Excel and even SharePoint, due to more stringent mandatory compliance audits and reporting requirements . Keeping up and updating all these data requirements s may be a fulltime job for more than one person. Additionally, some of the data may be difficult to manage in order to produce reports and analytics. When it is time for a business to have an audit visit, they may not cope very well using only Word, Excel, and/or SharePoint. Enterprise software is computer software that is used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Enterprise software is an integral part of a (computer-based) information system; a collection of such software is called an Enterprise system. The advantage of leveraging enterprise software solutions is that companies are able to have solutions such as: document control, version control, training records management, management meetings and actions, audits and inspections, accidents, incidents and near misses, risks, controls and assessments, equipment register, service and checks, supplier assessments and approvals, best practice sharing, areas of concern, and business improvement areas. Enterprise software allows for the collecting and analyzing of data, shows how a company is engaging with staff and provides evidence of leadership commitment and readiness. The value of using this type of technology is that it brings centralization, automation and data processing all on one platform. It also reduces administrative burden on document control. It allows for tracking and trending audit findings by site, program area and functional groups. It gives visibility to an organization’s pre and post applications of controls risk profile. Finally, it automates deadline notifications and escalations. In conclusion, using enterprise software solutions can improve efficiency, allows for more data, configures better graphs and critical visual tools, can be effective and easy to use and produces business success.