June 20, 2022
EarthSoft Interview with Jem Shimmield, Environmental Advisor
[EarthSoft] What drove you to implement a centralized environmental data management system (EDMS)? What was the situational analysis or problems you were trying to solve?
[Jem] The main driver at Beach Energy (Beach) was when the company merged with Lattice Energy around 2017. At this time Beach picked up additional sites in Victoria, WA and New Zealand and executive-level management requested a database to centrally store all regulatory compliance based data from across the business.
[EarthSoft] How did you choose the solution? Was it functional requirements, market research, reference from others? Can you describe the process?
[Jem] I ran a mini (non-formal) tender process between MonitorPro, Esdat, EnviroSys, and EQuIS.
[EarthSoft] Why did you ultimately select EQuIS?
[Jem] Earthsoft took the time to deliver specific live demos to Beach, which were well received. The main areas where EQuIS scored well were automated lab submissions, price, auditability, access to support, and Beach user access (live Enterprise dashboards).
[EarthSoft] Describe your environmental data management program(s), such as the number of environmental programs, geographical coverage, number of users, number of sites, and others.
[Jem] Beach has 7 main sites in WA, SA, Victoria, and New Zealand; all with specific regulatory conditions. We monitor groundwater, surface water, drinking water, air quality, and noise. Beach has 3 super users and roughly 20 dashboard users.
[EarthSoft] Can you provide either quantitative or qualitative improvements in your environmental data management processes post implementation? Gains in quality, efficiency, process, and others?
[Jem] Automated data input direct from labs and automated notification removes the bottleneck getting data into the system. Regulatory reporting requirements are streamlined. Beach management have direct access and oversight of live regulatory compliance levels.
[EarthSoft] Any lessons learned that you want to share?
[Jem] Consult with all primary and secondary labs prior to implementation. For Beach, one of our primary labs has been unable / unwilling to provide results in an EQuIS compatible format.