There are several questions safety professionals must ask when evaluating their current EHS software, to ensure they are maximizing their investment of time, effort, cost, and other resources that are expended to utilize EHS software.

First, are your users engaged and adopting the EHS software?

User adoption is one of the key drivers for successful ROI on the purchase and implementation of EHS software solutions. A recent NAEM study found that 48% of respondents indicated that user-friendliness is a key criterion when selecting EHS software. The software should be easy to use, to understand the system’s functionality and access system features for the company to maximize its investment. An intuitive system is as important as a feature-rich system because users will not likely adopt a new technology that they find difficult to use.

Is your EHS software easy to configure?

EHS Software should be easy to configure to support evolving business requirements. It should help you to streamline business processes including data reporting and creating and assigning CAPAs. An EHS software solution should be flexible, and easy to configure workflows to get the most out of your software investment. When needed, does your software provider have a dedicated customer success and service team available to support your objectives?

Does your EHS software integrate well with other software platforms?

When investing in EHS software, does your current solution seamlessly integrate with other software platforms? It is important that the EHS software architecture support integration with both internal and external software tools to complete such tasks as real-time claim submission, retrieving employee data, staying current with regulatory requirements and other important information. The EHS software must provide an Application Programming Interface (API) library to easily exchange information with other third-party systems.

Can your EHS software obtain actionable insights?

One of the benefits of deploying an EHS software solution is being able to gather and manage volumes of data. But once you collect the data, is your EHS software helping you to analyze and convert that data into actionable insights for risk-informed decision-making? Your software solution should provide insightful analytics, data visualization and business intelligence dashboards to simplify risk mitigation. Your software should also offer you the tools needed to create your own advanced, customized reports that meet your business needs without intervention from your software provider.