“We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.”
– Charles F. Kettering
Organizations involved in an EHS software selection process should take into account future needs as well, in addition to immediate, pressing ones. This ensures that they can leverage the benefits of their EHS platform for multiple business processes and use cases in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
EHS software buyers face a risk of selecting an EHS software vendor that will not meet future needs because the vendor offers a solution with functionality gaps or a fragmented solution built through acquisitions. At best, they will lose valuable time evaluating the wrong vendors. At worst, they will select the wrong vendor and have a serious case of buyer’s remorse because the system will not expand well.
However, it is possible to avoid this risk by making the Verdantix Green Quadrant EHS Software 2017 report a central part of your EHS software selection process. You can download the report from our website for free.
The report is the gold standard for the benchmark of EHS software vendors because of its sophisticated and structured methodology, evidence-based assessment, and objectivity. It compares 20 leading EHS software vendors by evaluating and scoring each vendor for 173 functionality criteria.
By , you can check for the following two key attributes that indicate whether an EHS software solution is able to successfully address both present and future needs:
Great breadth and depth of functionality
If “the devil is in the details”, then pages 27-30 of the Verdantix report offer a hell of a lot of useful information. When evaluating EHS software vendors, look at their scores for key functionality groups listed on pages 27-30. Look beyond functionality addressing immediate needs, and include also functionality that may be relevant in the future.
For example, you may look at scores for “Safety Management” because that is your immediate need. But look also at scores for related areas such as incident management, risk management, etc. Another option is to read the individual vendor profiles located in the second half of the report. They can help you identify the vendors that offer a one-stop-shop covering multiple EHS process needs and workflows, and with no functionality gaps.
If you prefer a general summary regarding breadth and depth of functionality, and a direct comparison between vendors, look at the green quadrant graphic on page 26 and see where vendors are placed for “Capabilities” (represented by the vertical axis).
An integrated platform built organically
If you want to know where an EHS software vendor is, and where they are headed, study their history. Vendors fit in one of the following two categories: 1) Those with a unified, common and integrated product architecture and database who have built functionality organically; 2) Those who have added functionality through acquisitions, resulting in fragmented solutions.
Vendors that fit in the first category are better equipped to address future needs for many reasons. First, they offer a common user experience across the board, which makes it easier to deploy additional functionality. Second, they facilitate data capture, reporting and analysis, and eliminate data silos, by virtue of having a common database and consistent code throughout the platform. Finally, as a result of the previous two items, integrated platforms have better scalability. Read the vendor profiles in the second half of the report to learn the history of vendors and identify those with an integrated EHS platform.
Now that you know more about the two key attributes to look for when evaluating EHS software, click on the image below to download the Verdantix report and get started:
