A leading life science and technology company committed to helping customers solve complex challenges and improving quality of life around the world has over 20 individual business units each with an environmental, health and safety management program that is embedded in their organization’s overall business management system and over half of the employees and manufacturing facilities located outside the US.

In support of their quest for continuous improvement and deployment of a true enterprise-wide solution, when it was time to renew their EHS Information Management System subscription, they saw an opportunity to re-evaluate suppliers in the market to ensure a state-of-the art technology solution that was the best fit for their highly-decentralized business culture.

They also wanted to make sure the new platform would support their acquisitive business model and efforts to improve EHS performance across the corporation, including real time tracking and monitoring of incidents and dashboards of key EHS performance metrics for every level of the organization from site to corporate.

To gain access to the latest market intelligence and ensure it followed best practice given the size, scale and importance of the investment, the company turned to its longstanding consulting partner, ERM, for help with selecting a next generation EHS software platform.

User-centric and collaborative approach integrating people, processes and technology

ERM worked alongside the project team and key stakeholders to ensure the client’s core value of the “voice of the customer” was reflected in the evaluation process. Users from more than 20 business units were engaged early on in the RFP process, which helped to shape the evaluation requirements. Users were able to provide continuous feedback to ensure consensus was reached at key stages of vendor and platform selection.

ERM introduced several tools and methodologies to support this collaborative approach, including:

• A comprehensive evaluation grid to measure important factors such as technology features, price, and relationship to allow the client to shortlist three vendors and move forward with product demonstrations.
• Detailed scripts, outlining specific user stories to ensure that software functionality was compared equally and allow the client to better evaluate how each solution could align with the priorities of their various operating companies, specific workflows and support real-life situational needs of their business; and
• Interactive digital tools, including Mentimeter, were used to solicit dynamic, real-time feedback from key stakeholders after each demonstration improving collaboration and saving time.

Maximizing value and a future-proof contract

By working with ERM, the client was able to confidently and collaboratively select an EHS technology solution that meets all of their business process and associated requirements to support the acceleration of EHS business performance and further company growth.

The combination of their knowledge and experience in procurement leadership together with ERM’s knowledge and understanding of the software market allowed the company to realize an impressive discount on software (30-40% reduction in licensing fees) and the ability to creatively think about cost drivers to exploit the maximum value from the investment. Additional modules and capability were added for the same cost and a sound contract, taking into account costs and service, is in place for 5 years.

Taking the next steps

With the successful selection behind them, the client is now eager to move forward with implementation to transition to the new platform, working with ERM as their implementation partner.