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Find the Right EHS Management
Software Faster
Did you know 22% of EHS Management software RFPs fail to deliver a conclusive recommendation?
That’s a lot of organizational time and efforts put to waste. Let’s discuss what are the most crucial factors and best practices to consider while successfully selecting the best-fit EHS system. This blog will provide you with a structured approach that can help you optimize the evaluation time and effort, and make the best choice for your business needs.
Ensuring employee health and safety and sustainable development are top priorities for any organization. As an Environmental, Health, and Safety(EHS) or Operational Risk Management (ORM) or Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) leader, your key focus is to improve your organization’s EHS performance and ensure compliance with all the regulatory requirements.
A Typical Process Flow for EHS Software Selection Process
These days, Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) software has become a must-have tool for organizations to get actionable insights and achieve EHS Goals. But what is the best EHS software for your organization? If you are asked to choose between available options, it would be challenging to know which one is better. ProcessMAP’s EHS Management Software Buyer’s Guide will help you find the right solution faster.
Also, let’s have a high-level look at the key processes that you can follow to select the most comprehensive and integrated software that meets your specific business needs.
The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide to Purchase a Best-fit EHS Management Software
Learn More1. Build the Business Case for EHS Software
To justify the investments required for a future-proof EHS software, champions must demonstrate the potential for significant ROI. In reality, however, it’s not easy to show the direct and indirect cost savings that result from an EHS Management software. The following steps can help you build a strong business case to justify the EHS software investment.
1.1 Identify Business Objectives
It is important to clearly define the business goals you wish to accomplish by implementing an EHS management software platform, so formulate your key EHS business requirements by building a business case that aligns with your company’s goals and vision. Always take the help of your team and potentially cross-functional colleagues to define and prioritize various requirements. It is vital to determine your business objective before moving on to the next steps, whether as basic as streamlining EHS operations or as complex as receiving actionable insights for risk-informed decision making.
1.2 Seek Stakeholder Buy-in
Involve your leadership, key champion, and other relevant stakeholders to make the buy-in process smooth and showcase your business case by highlighting the potential benefits and ROI your company gets from software.
Pro Tip: Try to involve your relevant project stakeholders – like EHS, Key System Users, Finance, IT Expert, Legal, Procurement members in various stages of the software purchase process to ensure smooth selection processes.
1.3 Prioritize Your Needs
Once you get buy-in from your leadership team, you need to prioritize some of the key requirements that will play a crucial role in evaluating the software. It is always a best practice to involve the business teams who are the system’s real users.
Pro Tip: Future-proof your investment by choosing an EHSQ software that’s mobile-ready with a dedicated mobile app, offers real-time analytics functionality, and free regular upgrades.
1.4 Estimate Your EHS Cost Savings
Demonstrate the cost savings with proper identification of key parameters. For example, reduction in non-compliance risks, EHS efficiencies, Cost Efficiency on IT spend are few convincing cost savings for you to consider. Furthermore, as part of your business case, identify how your safety initiatives would be executed effectively and efficiently with the help of a new EHS Management Software.
2. Select EHS Software Vendor through An Effective Evaluation Process
To make a preliminary list of vendors and share your RFI/RFP, you can conduct initial research or engage third-party analysts and advisory firms. However, engaging third-party companies can often be expensive for you. If you decide to identify the list of EHS vendors on your own, you can also take a glance at some of the public software review websites.
2.1 Manage RFI/RFP Process
Depending on the project’s scope, timeline, and complexity, you can choose to issue an RFI and then an RFP or directly an RFP. Identify the strong EHS software vendors in the market, create an RFI/RFP with all the key components, and give vendors reasonable time to respond. Make sure to include key components like
- Functional Requirements – Capabilities of, Platform, Solutions, Analytics and Reporting
- Non Functional Requirements – Company, Implementation, IT Security, SLAs, and Legal
Creating an RFP is a time and labor-intensive process but is essential for project success. Make use of our free RFX Templates to make the process more efficient and easier to manage.
2.2 Evaluate Vendors
Assign weighted scores to your business requirements which helps you to shortlist the most promising vendors easily.
We recommend allocating 70% weightage to your functional and non-functional requirements and 30% weightage to the pricing. Select the vendors who can provide more out-of-the-box solutions.
Need a simple, quick and easy vendor scoring framework? ProcessMAP can provide an automated scorecard, which can be customized to your specific needs.
“The guide was incredibly helpful in managing the complex and time-consuming RFP for Health and Safety Management systems. The template was extremely useful in crafting our system requirements.”
–Sr. EHS Director of a leading Automotive Company
2.3 Business Demos
This is the stage where you can verify these vendors can truly translate your EHSQ digital transformation vision into a reality. Identify real-life business scenarios for which a vendor can demo the solution capabilities and leverage a scorecard to track your evaluation.
Pro Tip: Involving your key stakeholders in the demos makes the selection process easier and seamless.
2.4 Commercial Discussion
Negotiating the right deal with your vendors doesn’t necessarily mean getting the best software you want at the lowest possible price. After you narrow down your selection to the top 2 or 3 vendors, negotiate with vendors that deliver all key capabilities without compromising quality.
Pro-tip: Always prioritize the quality of the EHS software and the vendor’s commitment to innovation above cost savings. In the long run, it is a more profitable deal!
2.5 Final Decision
Decide on the vendor you trust, the price you budgeted for, and a final solution that delivers exactly what you want. Review the vendor’s Statement of Work (SoW) which both parties have to sign along with the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Pro-tip: Rather than selecting the number one EHS software vendor in the market, choose the vendor who is the best fit for your business requirements.
Even though the EHS Software selection process is time- and effort-intensive, if it’s done with adequate planning, coordination, and communication, you unlock the maximum value from your investment. An EHS software platform that is configured to meet your business needs will empower your team to strengthen the safety culture within your organization. ProcessMAP offers complementary resources that can bring efficiency to your EHS software selection process.
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