So, EHS compliance management has some new technology friends. Namely EHS software that’s become increasingly cloud-based and more sophisticated for environmental compliance needs, but also EHS digital transformation technologies whose adoption is on the upswing. Especially for functions like data management and reporting, the compatibility of these software and digital technologies is showing up in the form of automation, digitized data, and more efficient data collection and reporting processes. They’re also enabling EHS professionals to discover smarter ways of working.
More aptly, EHS compliance teams are discovering the possibilities of digital transformation for EHS compliance management. They’re finding out EHS digital transformation and its cloud computing framework can help them complete compliance tasks and solve problems in creative new ways using new EHS solutions that drive digital data.
A Guided Environmental Compliance approach
For EHS operations looking to go in a digital direction, the key is finding a technology provider who can help bring compliance management, the cloud and EHS digital transformation together. A partner who continue to redefine EHS solutions through industry knowledge, thought leadership, and innovation. Encamp blends its high-tech software with the high-touch support of compliance experts to guide you through the environmental compliance process in its entirety.
Invest in the vendor partnership, not just technology
Rule #1 about technology is that it moves forward quickly — and constantly. Rule #2 is therefore to build an established, trusted partnership with a tech vendor who can help your business get started and steer it through technology advances. The strongest partnerships are formed when the vendor:
- Understands your business and its immediate and long-term objectives for EHS compliance management — knowing every situation is unique.
- Comprehends your business’s culture, inner workings, and how and where compliance and sustainability fit in.
- Analyzes your compliance processes and weighs new functionality to make them better, in line with your business objectives. This should be a continual customer success process.
- Structures your solution based on your requirements, not one size fits all. The vendor should further report on compliance industry trends for EHS digital transformation, cloud technologies and other similar EHS solutions.
- Defines the scope, timeline, projected cost, ROI, and other factors of your solution accurately.
- Orchestrates the implementation, onboarding and admin process for your EHS solutions and associated technologies.
- Helps your organization and employees with change management, system and user administration, training, and ongoing support.
- Exercises transparent lines of communication, and responsiveness, with key EHS compliance stakeholders and executive leadership.
And let’s be honest. Effective business partnerships often come down to personal aspects and customer support. It’s not surprising that shared interests, knowledge experts, and even personalities typically carry more influence in building a tech vendor partnership than the actual solution does.
On the vendor side, the best tech providers play to their strengths and know their limits. They don’t try to be everything to everybody, and provide the right technology fit by being “simple” and “agile.” Within the EHS compliance management sector, this is why vendors who focus on simplistic cloud technologies and the agility of EHS digital transformation are best fits.
Where is a vendor on the innovation scale?
Technology itself is inherently innovative, and most tech companies consider themselves to be “innovative.” So that part of the scale is a wash. The more important thing is whether you partner with a vendor whose technology roadmap leads your organization to its own innovation success.
Ironically, the innovation strategies of an organization often depend on vendor products that are still in the invention stage or still evolving themselves. We’ll say it again. Technology moves forward quickly and constantly, which makes it vital to always know what a strategic tech partner is developing.
If the tech company isn’t gigantic and full of red tape, chances are also good your organization has direct access to the developers who created the solution you use. This translates both to a more direct line of support and often to a suggestion box for new functionality. If users see something that might add value to a solution, their suggestions can many times lead to the development of new features. As far as innovation goes, this is practical and collaborative inventiveness at its finest.
Just don’t be an organization whose procurement processes (and politics) inhibit an innovation partnership with a tech vendor. It can distract from a mindset that could drive truly valuable advances in your business’s technology solutions.
Trust and transparency
A final word here. You should have the utmost confidence in any technology company and its leaders and people you partner with. Substantiate the company’s reputation and its breadth and depth of experience. Read industry reviews, customer case studies, and talk to customers whose situation is similar to yours. After all, trust and transparency are the underlying keys to building a successful partnership and then maintaining it.
A tech company’s stability matters, too. What do you know about how they started and their journey? Their philosophy? Do you have visibility of who the shareholders or investors are and the company’s financial standing? Are you confident they’ll still be around in 5 years? Do your homework and ask questions.
We’ll start with our own bit of transparency from one of our investors, High Alpha:
“Encamp CEO Luke Jacobs spent years working with Fortune 10 companies to streamline their environmental compliance programs. To streamline the compliance process, he wrote software that increased accuracy, ensured environmental compliance, and boosted efficiency by cutting out costly and repetitive tasks. He understood the inefficiencies and gaps in current EHS solutions and knew that companies deserved better…
“At High Alpha, we believe that in spaces with known rules and parameters, software will outperform and underprice human competition. Regulatory compliance, monitoring, and management lend itself well to augmentation and automation via cloud solutions … Encamp has become the largest third-party filer of EPCRA Tier II reporting in the country because of this.”
Transforming the way enterprises stay in compliance
Encamp is on a mission to create a world where good for business can equal good for the environment. We help enterprises transform compliance programs and human processes into a technology-driven system that lays the foundation for accurate and ongoing environmental compliance through a blended method of intelligent high-tech solutions and high-touch expert support.
Tom Bailey
Tom is the Senior Content Writer at Encamp. And like all other Encampers, he’s in tune with the environment and what happens to it. He’s been writing about creative technology solutions for longer than he cares to admit.
