Making sure your EHS program is equipped to withstand company changes, shifts in goals, and new challenges is the last step in your EHS software journey. We’ve talked about how to make the business case and obtain buy-in for purchasing EHS software and how to have a successful implementation but now it’s time to talk about what happens after. By the time you’ve reached this point, your new EHS software solution should be in place and your team should be realizing the benefits of an integrated system.
But, the project isn’t over just yet. As with any new system, your EHS platform will need to be maintained over time. Here are a few tips to optimize your solution for continued success:
Step 1: Maintain the System
As with any software system, there is a need for ongoing maintenance. This responsibility will ultimately fall on your organization’s system administrators, business unit leads, and IT team. They will all need to work together to manage and maintain key aspects of the system.
For true SaaS solutions, this usually means managing user permissions, data integrations, organizational hierarchy, and updating pick lists and inspection forms. While these activities may not warrant a full-time dedicated resource, be aware that resource need will ebb and flow depending on the company’s organic growth, as well as mergers, acquisitions, and divestments. A governance committee should review and approve all changes after “Go Live” to ensure the integrity of the system remains.
Additionally, resources will need to be available for training new users and conducting refresher training with existing users. It’s recommended to have a person designated internally to handle user issues with the system rather than everyone calling the software provider’s help desk. This generally saves time, reduces confusion, and helps with user adoption.
Lastly, work with your software provider to determine your adoption rate. This can be done by reviewing when users last logged into the system, how much time they spend in the system and determining what they do while in the system.
Step 2: Expand System Use
Once everything is up and running and management is pleased with your project’s success, consider reviewing ways to expand the system to add value to other areas of the company. You can start by:
Reviewing processes that you couldn’t change
It’s likely your EHS project budget wasn’t large enough to improve everything that you and your colleagues initially identified. Now that implementation is complete, it’s time to review your list and determine how the existing functionality in the system can enhance these processes. This may require the development of a new business case or maybe it’s something that you and a small team can accomplish as a side project. Either way, doing this will help to ensure user adoption.
Identifying business units that would benefit from the existing platform
Your project was largely focused on environmental, health, and safety but there are other business units that can benefit from solutions in an EHS system. Audits, inspections, and incident management are three modules that have wide appeal across corporations. As long as your software is flexible and secure, there are few limitations to expanding the solution beyond EHS processes and procedures. Be sure to check with the software vendor to see if you need to add additional user licenses. You may also need a project budget and support from the software vendor for this, so make sure you fully scope out this effort before diving in head first.
Adding new modules that can help drive continuous improvement
You’re probably only using a small percentage of the modules your software vendor offers. Review their website, attend their conferences and training sessions, talk to your account manager, and work internally to identify opportunities to add new functionality to streamline other processes. Keep in mind that adding new modules will likely require creating a business case and securing budget approval. Procurement may also require you to submit a single-source justification, which documents why you are not going out to bid for the services you are requesting.
Final Thoughts
Now you should have a solid understanding of how to take your EHS software project from vision to reality and how to maintain and optimize the solution for continued success after implementation. An EHS software project takes time, dedication, and coordination but, if done properly, it provides tremendous long-term value to your company and can even help elevate your role, too. More and more companies are realizing the value that EHS professionals bring to their organizations and are willing to invest in new technologies to break down silos, centralize and standardize processes, and drive operational excellence across the enterprise. Navigating the software buy-in, selection and procurement process can be daunting, but don’t get discouraged. We’re here to help.
