In this issue: Environmental & Energy Management Software · 2019-08-30 · EL Insights Issue 20 | March 24, 2011 | | © 2011 Environmental Leader LLC.All rights reserved. !!!!! 20!.!!!!!

In this issue: Environmental & Energy Management Software

Issue 20 • March 24, 2011

EL Insights Issue 20 | March 24, 2011 | www.environmentalleader.com | © 2011 Environmental Leader LLC. All rights reserved. Single license EL Insights subscription can be used by one person. For multiple users, purchase an enterprise license by emailing [email protected] for more information.

ENVIRONMENTAL & ENERGY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE AT A GLANCE

A wide variety of software applications are available for the management of environmental or energy-‐related programs and issues. Their scope can vary from the very wide, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages that include energy and environmental modules, to platforms that monitor a broad range of environmental, health and safety (EHS) issues, down to software products or modules that do very specific things, such as tracking a company’s hazardous chemical shipments. Such software is referred to by a variety of names, whose meanings can vary subtly. These include: EHS management information systems (MIS); enterprise energy and carbon accounting (EECA); enterprise carbon and energy management (ECEM); and even the confusing ECM (energy and carbon management or enterprise carbon management).

SOFTWARE FUNCTIONS

Forrester’s The Evolution Of Enterprise Carbon And Energy Management Software report divides the marketplace into the following segments:1

ECEM software targeting executive/business levels

This is the most crowded segment today, according to Forrester. These platforms help executives monitor, analyze, and manage

1 Forrester Research, The Evolution of Enterprise Carbon and Energy Management Software, December 21, 2010

energy consumption, as well as related carbon emissions and energy consumption, acting as aggregators of information coming from various sources across the company. Users employ a dashboard to drill down to specific geographical places or asset categories. But these solutions usually don’t let users directly control those assets. ECEM software is the focus of this issue of EL Insights.

Operational carbon and energy management (OCEM) software

These solutions are designed for the monitoring and control of energy-‐intensive systems like heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) in facilities. They are used primarily at the facility and operations management level. These systems are less integrated with other types of software and do not provide the user with sophisticated intelligence or analytical capabilities. They typically do not track carbon emissions.

Information and communication technology (ICT) carbon and energy management (CEM) software

This category focuses on data centers and PC power management. Users tend to be IT management. As with OCEM, these platforms focus mostly on energy usage and not carbon.

VENDORS

The chart on the next page shows most of the major players in energy and environmental management software, divided by their areas of expertise.

A few other vendors of note:

• EPS Corp. • SAI Cintellate


• KMI • Gensuite • Urjanet

In addition, a number of vendors have formed partnerships to offer joint products.

These partnerships include:

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and PE International • Wipro Technologies and SAP • Siemens IT Solutions and Services and CA Technologies • Hara and AEA2 • Hara and HP3 • Orange Business Services and JouleX4

Choosing a vendor

Verdantix’s US Carbon & Energy Software Market 2010-‐2014 report ranks CA Technologies, CarbonSystems, Enablon, Enviance, Hara, IHS, ProcessMAP, SAP, Verisae and TRIRIGA (which was recently bought by IBM) as the top ten leaders in the carbon and energy software market, based on 28 live product demonstrations involving 99


3 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/10/hp-‐launches-‐energy-‐management-‐software-‐announces-‐joint-‐offering-‐with-‐hara/

4 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/17/orange-‐joulex-‐prenova-‐launch-‐energy-‐management-‐applications/

Carbon Energy and Management Software

A Map of the Diverse Marketplace

C3, CarbonSystems, CarbonView, Climate Earth, CSRware, Dakota

Software, e3 Solutions, Enablon, Enviance, ENXSuite, FirstCarbon

Solutions, Foresite Systems, Greenstone, Hara, IHS, IFS, Infor, Intelex,

Locus Technologies, MetricStream, Microsoft, Ndevr, Pace Global

Energy Services, PE International, Perillon Software, ProcessMAP,

QCS, Revolution ID, SAP, SAS, Summit Energy, Verisae, Verteego

Enterprise Carbon and Energy Management

AspenTech, Echelon, GE, Honeywell, Ingersoll

Rand, Johnson Controls, Philips Teletrol,

Siemens, Tririga, Viridity Energy*

Operational Carbon and Energy

Management (OCEM)

EnerNOC

Verizon

CA

1E, JouleX, Cisco Systems, Faronics,

Sentilla, SynapSense, Verdiem, Verismic

Software

ICT Carbon and Energy Management

(ICTCEM)

IBM

Schneider

Electric*

Source: Forrester, December 2010


assessment criteria.5 Verdantix assessed platforms’ facilities for capturing and analyzing supply chain emissions, organization modelling and workflow; their carbon emissions calculation engines, energy management tools and carbon management tools; and their project and portfolio management, reporting, dashboards, audits and internationalization. The study also scores each supplier on market vision, product strategy, architecture, customer momentum, value delivery, financial resources and implementation partnerships.

Groom Energy has also ranked its ten top EECA leaders in its 2011 Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting (EECA) Software Market: A Buyers Guide. They are: Advantage IQ, Enablon, EnerNOC, Enviance, Hara, IHS, Johnson Controls, PE International, SAP, and Summit Energy. 6

But buyers of EHS systems stress that requirements vary greatly from user to user, so there is no such thing as an overall “best” system. See the Q&A for more information.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Worldwide and U.S. markets

The vendors in the ECM market report an average revenue growth of 235 percent since the inception of their company or business unit,

5 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/11/17/ca-‐carbonsystems-‐enablon-‐among-‐top-‐ten-‐leaders-‐in-‐carbonenergy-‐sw-‐market/?graph=full&id=1

6 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/02/08/energy-‐and-‐carbon-‐software-‐market-‐poised-‐for-‐300-‐growth-‐sector-‐leaders-‐named/?graph=full&id=1

Forrester says.7 With an estimated takeoff year in 2008, this means that the market more than doubled from 2009 to 2010, reaching $163 million in 2010. Likewise, Forrester’s Global Green IT online survey in April 2010 found that planned adoption of ECEM software had risen from 13 percent in 2009 to 27 percent in 2010. But only between 200 and 300 companies have implemented ECEM on a truly corporate-‐wide basis, Forrester says.

Verdantix attributes rising demand for this type of software to unpredictable energy costs, greenhouse gas (GHG) compliance requirements and more robust sustainability strategies. It finds that the biggest change in strategy for corporate buyers in 2010 has been a shift from tactical carbon accounting to strategic energy and carbon management.8

Groom Energy Solutions says that the market for enterprise energy and carbon accounting (EECA) software grew 400 percent during 2010. It found that more than 200 large corporations – including Arch Coal, Bayer, RJ Reynolds, Safeway and Wyndham Hotels – bought EECA software in 2010. The report also found that more companies are reporting carbon disclosure as part of quarterly results, and although the largest markets for EECA products are the U.S. and Europe, Asian and South American companies are steadily becoming part of the sales mix. The vast majority of Fortune 500 companies now track and report carbon emissions at least yearly, the report said.

But despite all the indicators of ECEM growth, most energy and utility companies do not have any systems in place to measure their carbon


8 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/11/17/ca-‐carbonsystems-‐enablon-‐among-‐top-‐ten-‐leaders-‐in-‐carbonenergy-‐sw-‐market/?graph=full&id=1>


emissions, according to a survey by software provider Enviance. Its poll of attendees at the Energy, Utility and Environment Conference (EUEC) found that 58 percent of those surveyed have no system in place to record carbon emissions – down only slightly from 61 percent last year.9

Trends

9 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/02/01/enviance-‐survey/

2010 has been widely described as a year of market maturation. Leading vendors have continued to snap up the competition. Acquisitions and venture capital investment dropped significantly from 2009 to 2010. There were no acquisitions and only $11M in financing raised by PE International in 2010, compared to five acquisitions and $47M raised by multiple firms in 200910. At the same time the market has become very crowded, with vendors who have their roots in business intelligence (BI); enterprise resource planning (ERP); environmental, health, and safety (EHS); governance, risk, and compliance (GRC); IT management software (ITMS); and project and portfolio management (PPM), Forrester says.11

End-‐users’ systems appear to be aging. In a survey this year of National Association for Environmental Management (NAEM) members, as well as attendees at an NAEM conference, over 41 percent of respondents said they have had their systems for five years or more, 32 percent in 2009 (see chart). The survey was answered by 70 respondents, of whom 52 provided meaningful data.12

Sophistication of EHS MIS systems appears to be improving over time, for the most part. No respondents to the NAEM survey rely on paper records, although 14 percent rely on basic electronic records or some combination of paper and electronic records (see chart). Another 31 percent use stand-‐alone databases, or something nearing that level of

10 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/02/08/energy-‐and-‐carbon-‐software-‐market-‐poised-‐for-‐300-‐growth-‐sector-‐leaders-‐named/?graph=full&id=1


12 NAEM

19%

19%

17%

10%

14%

14%

18%

16%

35%

40%

39%

32%

23%

26%

32%

41%

1 year old or less

1-2 years

2-5 years

5 years old or more

2011 2009 2007 2005

Source: NAEM, EHS MIS Survey Results, March 2011

Relative Age of EHS MIS Applications % of Respondents, 2005-2011


sophistication. Another 49 percent use enterprise systems, integrated databases or something approaching that level.

As the market has aged, certain accepted practices have emerged. Nearly all respondents are using web-‐based systems. Increasingly, respondents are paying for software as a service, instead of on a license basis. And most respondents use some do-‐it-‐yourself software, even if they’re also buying an off-‐the-‐shelf solution.

ADOPTION BY BUSINESSES

GE

The company uses the web-‐based Gensuite software suite for collection and analysis of realtime data across 60 applications, covering air emissions, energy use and waste. Gensuite began as a software suite developed in-‐house at GE, but later spun out to form an independent company, Gensuite LLC. GE says that the software helps it keep track of environmental performance throughout its diversified business, which has over 2,100 locations, and experiences constant churn as the firm makes billions of pounds of acquisitions. The software drills from the corporate level down to businesses, divisions, segments and individual operations. It tracks compliance with laws in all countries where GE operates, using both English and the local language. Last year the system helped GE deliver over two million units of required regulatory training. Today over 60,000 GE employees, or about 20 percent of GE staff, use the system in one way or another.

GE uses the system to create a quarterly scorecard that ranks all its business units' environmental performance on a color-‐coded matrix. The results are visible throughout the company, and the competition helps business strive for better performance. Notable improvements include decreases in environmental exceedances and injuries.

GE's Oil & Gas business uses a variety of Gensuite applications. Some examples include modules to track emissions, energy use and natural gas consumption. Gensuite allows users to drill down from the plant level to separate sections, individual meters or even production areas. GE Oil & Gas uses the platform to calculate the cost benefits and payback times of potential efficiency projects, and to track the tasks involved in each project.

TDX Power

The utility has selected Enviance software for the tracking and reporting of greenhouse gas and air emissions at the company’s electric utilities facility in Alaska. With the selection, 40 percent of

0% 0% 2%

15%

7%

12%

25%

14%

24%

0% 2%

0% 0% 0%

11%

3%

20%

11%

26%

23%

0%

6%

2009 2011

2009 (n=59) 2011 (n=35)

Sophistication of EHS MIS Applications, 2009 vs. 2011 % Respondents (n) Ranking Scale 0-10 (No Records to Fully Integrated)

Source: NAEM, Environmental Health & Safety, March 2011


U.S. utilities have now deployed Enviance’s Environmental Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, the software provider said. These utilities include Georgia Power, Southern Edison, Entergy, American Electric Power, Pacific Gas and Electric and First Energy.13

ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas

The elevator manufacturer has chosen Verisae’s Sustainability Resource Planning (SRP) software platform for sustainability reporting and data management. The purchase includes Verisae’s Carbon Emissions Manager, Sustainability Projects Manager and Executive dashboards.14

Cardinal Health

This $99 billion health services company uses ProcessMAP for managing EHS and sustainability information. The company deploys the platform enterprise-‐wide, at about 400 facilities in several countries, for energy and carbon management, corporate and site audit management, and reporting and investigation of accidents and incidents. Cardinal Health uses the system to gain visibility on energy usages and costs, track tasks, institutionalize EHS processes and support external reporting, among other purposes.

Cox Enterprises

The communications and auto services firm has announced it will track energy usage and costs for 30,000 utility accounts using services provided by Urjanet. The software provides an energy data feed that

13 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/09/tdx-‐chooses-‐enviance-‐for-‐emissions-‐data-‐thyssenkrupp-‐elevator-‐selects-‐verisae/>

14 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/09/tdx-‐chooses-‐enviance-‐for-‐emissions-‐data-‐thyssenkrupp-‐elevator-‐selects-‐verisae/>

includes billing and consumption data from utility accounts in real time, and will allow Cox Enterprises to track accounts with 190 different utility companies. This will enable Cox to measure the impact of its energy efficiency projects, manage resources and demand response initiatives, and improve procurement, the two companies said.15

Kraft Foods

The food giant is rolling out EPS Corp energy and carbon management software, xChange Point, to all manufacturing facilities in the company’s grocery unit. Kraft will use the software and accompanying analyst advice to monitor and curtail energy use and carbon emissions, identify the most compelling options for achieving target reductions, and track the results.16

Hasbro

The toy company has selected the Hara Environmental and Energy Management (EEM) solution to help it manage and optimize its energy efficiency and natural resource consumption.17 Other Hara clients include United Natural Foods,18 U.S. Bank19, EMD Millipore20 and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA)21.

15 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/22/cox-‐enterprises-‐and-‐urjanet-‐to-‐track-‐energy-‐use-‐across-‐30000-‐accounts/>

16 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/02/23/kraft-‐selects-‐eps-‐carbon-‐management-‐system/>

17 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/06/24/hasbro-‐to-‐deploy-‐hara-‐environmental-‐software-‐to-‐optimize-‐energy-‐efficiency-‐resources/

18 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/18/united-‐natural-‐foods-‐selects-‐hara-‐for-‐energy-‐efficiency-‐and-‐ghg-‐reduction/


DP World

This global port operator selected Greenstone Carbon Management and the CarbonNeutral Company’s carbon management and reduction solution for implementation across its 50 terminals worldwide.22

Here are some other corporate end-‐users and their chosen software providers.

SOME EXAMPLES OF MORE SPECIALIZED APPLICATIONS

AMCOL International

The specialty minerals company uses 3E Company's MSDgen to track compliance with constantly evolving chemical regulations. The company has operations on six continents and must comply with a wide variety of regulations such as Europe's ROHS, REACH and CLP, Canada's Chemical Management Plan and California's Air Toxics Program. AMCOL uses the software to streamline the development of accurate, compliant and up-‐to-‐date hazard communication documents for multiple products in more than 15 languages, and then

19 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/02/18/u-‐s-‐bank-‐chooses-‐hara-‐for-‐energy-‐management/

20 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/01/27/environmental-‐reporting-‐pressures-‐greater-‐than-‐ever/

21 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/12/07/hara-‐lands-‐huge-‐abu-‐dhabi-‐environmental-‐energy-‐management-‐contract/

22 http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/12/14/dp-‐world-‐selects-‐greenstone-‐for-‐carbon-‐management/

distribute documents to ensure the proper classification and use of materials by downstream users.

Vendor Sample clients23

CA Technologies Tesco, Datotel

CarbonView Symbion Pharmacy Services, Westin Hotels & Resorts

Climate Earth Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Del Monte Foods

CSRware Avaya, Bloomberg

e3 Solutions FedEx, Bank of America

Enablon Accenture, Tyco International

Enviance TDX Power, American Electric Power, Walmart

ENXSuite Morgan Stanley, Sears

EPS Corp Kraft Foods

EnerNOC Seaport Boston Hotel

Gensuite GE

Greenstone Carbon Management Fujitsu, DP World

SAS E.ON, Poste Italiane-‐Group

Urjanet Cox Enterprise

Verisae Costco, Target, ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas

Verteego Le Bon Marche, Ricoh


McKesson

This pharmaceutical company is using IBM’s Supply Chain Sustainability Management Solution (SCSM) to reduce carbon emissions and drug distribution costs.24

Bank of China

The bank’s London operations have reduced paper consumption by 95 percent with help from IBM Business Partner Centric iSolutions, which has automated the processing of interbank messages.25

General Motors

The auto maker adapted GE’s Proficy Cimplicity software at 20 plants, to tie the use of lights to the schedule of conveyers. The manufacturer then discovered other aspects of consumption that could also be tied to conveyer operations, including air supply houses, compressed air generators, water and paint shop ovens. Payback was less than six months, GM said.26

Projections

Large U.S. firms’ spending on carbon and energy management software will grow to $558 million in 2014, more than four times the sector’s value in 2010 – a 51 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to a report by analyst firm Verdantix.27 The biggest rate of increase will be this year, with a 92 percent jump in spend; followed by a 54 percent increase in 2012, 35 percent in 2013 and 30

$46 $95

$185

$330

$528

$21 $43

$84

$151

$240

$12 $25 $48

$85 $135

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

North America Europe Other

Market for ECEM Software 2009-2013, US$ Millions

Source: Forrester Research, December 2010

Hara Hasbro, Safeway, U.S. Bank, Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority

IHS ArceloMittal, Shell

Infor Mohawk Fine Papers, Bentley University

Intelex Technologies Nalco Company, Total South Africa

Locus Technolgies Honeywell, ExxonMobil

Microsoft The Atlanta Journal-‐Constitution, Banque de Luxembourg

Ndevr Abigroup

PE International ABB Group, Airbus

ProcessMAP John Deere, Ingersoll Rand, Cardinal Health

Quantum Compliance Systems (QCS) Lockheed Martin, Tyco Electronics

Revolution ID North Shore City Council

SAP Casella Waste Systems, Nova Chemicals


percent in 2014. The biggest markets for this software in 2011 will be in oil and gas, followed by telecoms and utilities, Verdantix said.

Forrester found that the ECEM market will grow at a 83 percent CAGR from the end of 2010, reaching $903 million by 2013. Market growth will be driven by both increasing first-‐time adoption and expansion of existing implementations, Forrester says. Looking at ECEM together with OCEM and ICTCEM, Forrester predicts a multibillion dollar market.28

Forrester says North America and Europe will make up the principal markets (see chart). It says that manufacturing is by far the biggest ECEM market, more than double the next two sectors of utilities and telecom – in contrast to the Verdantix data, which broke down manufacturing into constituent sectors.

Growth will be fueled not just by higher corporate responsibility spending, but by higher price points and improved economic conditions, Verdanix said. It says that firms which recently appointed chief sustainability officers will lead the second wave of demand for carbon and energy software, in 2012.

Groom Energy Solutions forecasts that the market for enterprise energy and carbon accounting (EECA) software will grow 300 percent this year. The report names ten companies as EECA leaders for 2011. They are: Advantage IQ, Enablon, EnerNOC, Enviance, Hara, IHS, Johnson Controls, PE International, SAP, and Summit Energy.

The threat of regulation is no longer the primary factor driving the purchase of EECA software, according to Groom. It said the three principal factors behind the sector’s growth are now environmental data requests from top customers, a desire to enhance company image and brand loyalty, and cost savings.29

ENTERPRISE AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE: WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

There is a dizzying array of vendors and products to choose from, though the number of major players is likely to continue shrinking

Take-‐up of ECEM and related types of software will continue to grow as companies respond to increasing regulatory, reporting and other stakeholder pressures. Companies will also enhance their existing management system capabilities to deal with new and anticipated demands – for example, the need to report on Scope 3 carbon emissions and other supply chain impacts.

To narrow down their ECEM purchasing options, companies should determine their “must-‐have” components and attributes, not just go

32

27

19 17 17 16

14

8 8 7 7 7 5 5 5 4 3 2 2 1

Carbon and Energy Management Spending Estimates across Industries for 2011, US$ Millions

Source: Verdantix, "US Carbon And Energy Software Market 2010-14"


for the best-‐rated products or the software their competitors are using – see our Q&A for more information.

Q&A WITH GE OIL & GAS

Gretchen Retteghieri,Global EHS Compliance Assurance Leader, GE Oil & Gas

What are the major factors that a company should consider when trying to

choose between various EHS MIS packages?

GE: I would recommend considering whether the package: 1) Enables EHS & Operations process owner needs to be met; 2) Drives performance excellence and provides monitoring/business-‐intelligence for real-‐time decision making and 3) Grows with your company and continuously evolves based on changing process owner needs, programs, and regulatory requirements.

What are the major steps that an environmental manager goes through when

implementing EMIS?

GE: The major steps and best practice we have put in-‐place for implementing our EMIS applications include: 1) Prioritization of needs by gathering stakeholder inputs, 2) Defining an implementation plan, timeline, and measures of success (e.g. utilization), 3) Establishing stakeholder buy-‐in and a feedback process (e.g. through a pilot), 4) Incorporating /revising the full implementation plan based on stakeholder feedback, 5) Executing the implementation plan, and 6) Assessing measures of success and recognizing significant achievements.

What were the biggest challenges that you faced when buying and implementing an EMIS package?

GE: The biggest challenge we faced with this acquisition was ensuring that the EMIS applications were provided to sites based on a prioritization/need strategy rather than requiring full implementation of all applications at one time. This enabled the site EHS and operations teams to establish a solid foundation for their compliance and incident management programs and to ensure the EMIS became an integrated part of the EHS management system rather than a data gathering tool. After the foundation was established, the sites worked to implement other applications based on their priorities/needs (e.g. Air Monitoring/Permit Compliance for Title V sites vs. sites that had a critical need to establish standardized LOTO procedures). This prioritization/need based model continues to be used today and is key to ensuring that EMIS applications are an integrated and sustainable piece of our business EHS programs.

To learn more visit GE Oil & Gas @ www.geoilandgas.com

Q&A WITH NAEM

Carol Singer Neuvelt, executive director, National Association for Environmental Management (NAEM)

What are some of the trends you’ve seen in EHS MIS over the last couple of years?

NAEM: Since we started our EHS Management Information Systems conference more than a decade ago, we’ve seen the evolution of a mature software marketplace. Within that, there are a large range of companies that provide many tools to address the foundations of EHS and sustainability management, e.g. compliance, hazardous waste and incident tracking.


The major shift in the software industry came a couple of years ago, when we moved from large-‐scale systems that had to be customized for each firm (thereby requiring a long implementation cycle) to greater flexibility in software offerings as a result of the software-‐as-‐a-‐service model. This new way of operating has democratized the field, allowing more companies to rapidly deploy systems at an affordable price point. And over time, as the role of the EHS function has grown, EHS leaders now come to the selection process with a longer and more specific list of system requirements that are driving the industry forward.

What do you see as the major trends just emerging or that will emerge in the next year or two?

NAEM: On the user side, companies are increasingly looking for software to address emerging needs such as greenhouse gas tracking, product stewardship and global product material compliance. To this end, there is an increased interest in EHS systems that can interface with a firm’s other operational software. One example of this is greenhouse gas management. What we know is that companies need software options to measure emissions, but it’s not yet clear whether the best practice will be to purchase a specific module to address this need, or integrate it into their broader software systems.

Who typically is in charge of selecting, implementing and using EHS MIS -‐ what job functions do they hold, and at what level within the company?

NAEM: The EHS manager continues to be the primary decision-‐maker when it comes to evaluating and purchasing software for that function. What we heard at our March 2011 EHS MIS event were examples of EHS managers who created new working relationships with the IT department or in some cases even hired their own IT personnel to meet their specific needs.

What are the biggest challenges that EHS managers struggle with when buying and implementing MIS?

NAEM: As with any major investment, EHS leaders must develop a return on investment model to justify the software purchase. In the case of EHS MIS, the challenge is to identify the business objectives, articulate the scope of the need, understand what the software can do and develop opportunities for user buy-‐in.

To learn more visit NAEM @ www.naem.org.

Q&A WITH E2 MANAGETECH

Glenn Mayer, Principal, E2 ManageTech

What are the emerging trends in environmental MIS?

E2 ManageTech: Sustainability remains the largest emerging trend in environmental MIS. The two largest trends within sustainability information management are inclusion of energy as a metric not only to be measured as a lagging indicator, but to be managed proactively to drive reductions and supply chain certification. In energy management, the trend is towards real-‐time management, and even futures forecasting to drive energy reductions. Even a two or three percent reduction in energy can mean millions or billions of dollars in savings. Finally, supply chain certification is a very large issue to tackle as it goes well beyond the control of the organization in most cases.


What are currently the most popular modules/functions for EMIS?

E2 ManageTech: Modules vary widely by industry. For example, a chemical or oil and gas organization will have a high need and associated business case for compliance based modules (air, water, waste, etc). “Cleaner” industries tend to build their cases around sustainability and greenhouse gases (GHG). All industries continue to need incident management.

What are the major factors that a company should consider when trying to choose between various software packages?

E2 ManageTech: One of our challenges as a consultant is the fact that major factors in software selection can vary widely by client and industry. It is sometimes difficult to bring clients to the understanding that a commercial software package is developed to satisfy a large number of requirements spanning many industries. As such, solutions will not meet 100 percent of any particular client’s requirements. Prioritization during requirement development is an absolute necessity. For example, if implementing the system will result in a widespread workflow change to a large end user base, an intuitive, usable system interaction experience will be a key requirement to system success. If the system is limited to a smaller set of users, deep functional performance might be put at a higher priority than the user interface. That said, technical fit with the organization’s information technology environment (if internally hosted) and reporting capabilities/options are two areas that should be heavily scrutinized during the selection process.

What are the major steps that an environmental manager goes through when implementing EMIS?

E2 ManageTech: This is the most misunderstood aspect of EMIS projects we come across. Implementing a system of any kind, gaining acceptance into the organization’s culture, and engraining the system

into everyday process workflows is not a trivial task. It takes a focused effort to plan out deployment, redefine workflows, make the long term configuration decisions, configure the system, integrate into the environment, and retrain employees to the new workflow. Typical steps to consider are:

• Define requirements • Vendor screening/demos • Implementation planning • Infrastructure setup and application installation • System configuration • Data loading and cleansing • Customizations • Report development • Training • System testing and evaluation • Go-‐live • Post go-‐live production support • Documentation

What are the biggest challenges that environmental managers struggle with when buying and implementing EMIS?

E2 ManageTech: The biggest struggle is making sure that the right product is being selected. A lot of personal/professional risk is at stake when selecting a product, and even more so when implementing a product. Software cannot effectively be chosen without defining the organization’s requirements. The requirements definition process should not under any circumstances be circumvented. Just because a competitor company used software X, does not mean that is the right product for your company. Additionally, some conflicting messaging in the industry is that “software vendors can implement the product”. Software vendors can help configure the system, but that is only a portion of an overall implementation. Companies whose core business is dedicated to


development don’t put the same emphasis in development of appropriate, balanced configuration specifications and user acceptance. Service firms that specialize in EMIS project delivery are best suited to provide the external services that are often needed to make EMIS projects successful.

To learn more visit E2 ManageTech @ www.e2managetech.com.


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In this issue: Environmental & Energy Management Software · 2019-08-30 · EL Insights Issue 20 | March 24, 2011 | | © 2011 Environmental Leader LLC.All rights reserved. !!!!! 20!.!!!!!