Finding an EHS software for your company may sound like an easy one but the market is actually flooded with a plethora of EHS software options and this can leave you overwhelmed. For a more guided decision, here are essential factors to consider before sealing any deal with a software provider:
Customer Reviews and Feedbacks
Thanks to this digital age, reviews and feedbacks from previous buyers are now easily accessible. Software providers usually have a dedicated section on their official website that shows all good feedbacks and reviews about their product but for a more unbiased and fair set of remarks, you can head better to social media and YouTube where feedbacks and reviews are rarely filtered.
As much as possible, take notice about how previous companies find the EHS software as it should be geared towards people. Also, find out whether the software has helped them in managing their EHS practices and compliance or otherwise.
Although reviews do not always guarantee accuracy and there is no shortcut in determining whether what you read is real or not, they usually hit the right questions that you will most likely be asking as well. Ease of use, integrability, and other factors are usually discussed in these reviews. Nonetheless, you have to be keen about which reviews to base your decisions on as these can either save your company or end up being an opportunity blown. Also, do know that paid or fake reviews also exist and these are made to misguide the customers’ future decisions.
Features and Functionalities
Environment, Health, or Safety, or EHS can be branched out to essential areas. This makes EHS software a complicated, highly sophisticated program that is widely marketed nowadays. Before creating your list of EHS software options, and before you attempt to narrow them down, identifying the requirements that your company presently needs is vital. Many EHS software nowadays promises a plethora of features but you have to note that each of these features contributes to the hefty price. Also, EHS software will market the extra features as added bonuses but they may instead end up causing a distraction, setting your EHS professionals away from the original focus.
Majority of EHS software can also come as a program that can be customized with many modular features. This enables consumers to particularly pick and choose which features they think are most beneficial to the company. The number of features you’ll get through this modularity will reflect on the final value that your company will need to pay. Moreover, this also enables consumers to scale the software if the needs for new features arise in the future.
In terms of features and functionalities, you have to take extra caution in choosing an EHS software. More often than not, software with too many crammed features functions less efficiently in terms of performance because of the complexity that the program needs to deal with. Moreover, applications that are made overly complex can slower the process and it may appear like a plus initially but can end up otherwise. Investing in such programs may not be helping.
Integration-readiness
In terms of software integration, here are three areas to consider:
- Existing System
Common information software that medium to large scale companies use besides EHS software include inventory management software, accounting software, human resource management software, job order management, and a lot more. If your company has already invested in these software, then one of your topmost concern in purchasing an EHS software is if the latter is integration-ready to those systems such that data used in these software relevant to EHS data can smoothly sync to it. If your company’s previously manually managed EHS data were stored in spreadsheet files, the EHS software you’ll purchase should be able to facilitate migration of these data into the system. This is to ensure that existing data are still preserved.
2. Personnel
No matter how advanced an EHS software is, if it is not used at an optimum, then such advancements will deem useless. It is mainly up to the users if the software fails or not. But the less tech savvy ones may find it hard to use complex programs. To alleviate the impact of this issue, you should ensure that the level of savviness of the potential users are thoroughly taken into account before you decide to buy a particular software. Also, you should not overvalue the technical support that the EHS software provider commits, as people may come and go in and out of your company. These supports will make user orientation less hassle and expensive on your company’s part.
3. Work Process
EHS software is supposed to manage not just EHS but also ensure the compliance of the company with the set of EHS rules and policies the state has defined. In buying an EHS software, you have two possibilities to choose from in light of this area: first, adjust your EHS process to use the EHS software at an optimum; and second, purchase a more tailored-fit EHS software that is in perfect match with your company needs. Clearly, the latter comes with a hefty price.
Integration of the EHS software to the existing EHS process in your company is important. However, the software should act as a tool in improving the existing system, rather than wholly replacing it.
Price of the Software
Based on your company’s size, if you are working under a limited budget, you can still get a software that can cater to your company’s EHS management needs. Nonetheless, a best move would be to acquire the best one for your company regardless of the cost. As most software solutions are expensive on an average, a huge portion of the price is paid for the automation of the process.
As much as possible, do not mainly base your decision on the price tag as this may limit your company’s chances of acquiring the best support for EHS management and compliance.
Reliability, Stability, and Security
These areas ensure that your company data are preserved and prevented from any potential breaches. A secure software will put your company at peace knowing all data relevant to EHS in your company are safe and maintained in terms of integrity.
