Earthwon Environmental Business Uses

Application Processing

Your Earthwon system takes your staff through every business step of your defined workflow processes in order to complete work, such as processing an environmental application. Alternately, Earthwon can be used to enable citizens or business to initiate applications and monitor status of the application without coming to your office or even calling in. This enables your staff to do their work more effectively and focus on what needs to be done with fewer interruptions.

Earthwon ensures that all business rules and validations, such as zoning and address validation, etc., are applied to applications. Customers immediately receive any necessary feedback and only valid applications enter the system. Partially completed applications can be saved for completion at a later time.

Additional functions:

• Digital drawings, plans and supporting documentation can be uploaded as part of the application process for review by staff and related external agencies who provide feedback that your customers can view.
• For each application, Earthwon automatically generates a reference file number using a file numbering scheme formatted to your need. Earthwon also supports external file numbering.
• Any fees associated to the application process can be paid online using integrated third party e-commerce or point-of-sale systems.

Permitting and Licensing

Earthwon manages the workflow involved with any type of environmental permit or license process. Within most organizations, a permit is a permission normally granted for a single use or event. A license is typically a permission having an ongoing life, and is often associated with an annual renewal cycle.

The amount of data collected for a permit is often less than that collected for a license, and the business rules for permitting are often more simple. In some cases, permits can be issued quickly, if not immediately, on a self-serve basis. A license often involves more complicated business process steps. In many cases, a license requires review and circulation steps within your organization as well as notifications to adjacent owners, or hearings with a broader stakeholder group.

As part of a typical permit or license application process, fees and documents are generated by Earthwon. The contents of each permit or license document will reflect the branding and legal content required by your organization. Earthwon automatically stores a copy of the permit or license in encrypted PDF format as a permanent record for future retrieval.

Earthwon can automatically notify staff and/or licensees (via e-mail, To Do list, fax), as the renewal date for a license approaches. “Effective dating” is used to track changes in data (i.e. ownership or operator changes) and all renewals are related to the original license to keep a complete historical record of activity over the multi-year life of a license.

Fee Collection

Earthwon manages any type of fee structure related to your environmental activities, such as flat fees and calculated fees. For example, a calculated fee might be used when the fee is based on the size of a tank being installed or the value of a remediation project. Earthwon allows you to determine the parameters from which your fees are calculated.

Authorized users may have the ability to override a calculated fee with a manual fee, or fees can be calculated based on particular circumstances. For example, Earthwon could automatically double a permit fee if a citation has been issued against the owner of a facility.

Earthwon tracks full or partial payments, as well as refunds. Fees can be broken down to the line item level and different general ledger accounts associated for each if required. An end-of-day report can be run for reconciliation with your financial system. You can also integrate payments with contract or grant management business processes.

Earthwon can interface with your e-commerce or point-of-sale system of choice using Earthwon’s Application Program Interface (API). Earthwon can also interface to your financial system (G/L, A/R, or A/P) in real-time, if payments draw upon a deposit, bond or escrow accounts that a contractor may have set up for paying fees.

Work Tracking

Earthwon manages and tracks every step of your environmental business processes. With the appropriate user security levels, staff or customers can view the status of an application, who the work is assigned to, next steps, etc. Earthwon can even be used to track related manual processes involving stakeholders not using Earthwon. Where possible, work is assigned in parallel (to multiple stakeholders/users at the same time) in order to compress the total time for completion of the business process.

Earthwon utilizes outcomes to trigger next steps. When tasks are completed, subsequent activities in a business process automatically appear on the next person’s “To-Do” list. Supervisors can view current workloads for each of their staff and can reassign work at any time to balance workloads or compensate for planned or unexpected staff absences. Bring-forwards and reminders can be setup to remind staff or supervisors of task assignments that are nearing critical scheduled completion dates.

If desired, performance reports can be used to assess task completion or throughput rates. Information related to activities, such as mileage or expense reporting, can also be captured for reporting needs.

Stakeholder Communications

Earthwon ensures all stakeholders in a business process are kept informed of the status of the work, and using current data for improved decision making.

Earthwon can be used to supply URL links to required regulatory codes, training manuals, online help, or related websites. This ensures that users effectively use the system to increase their knowledge, productivity and better serve customers, or customers can find the information they require regarding environmental requirements.

In Earthwon, escalated communications can be automatically triggered at a defined event (process step) to ensure that critical safety or liability issues are well managed. Whether working with internal or external stakeholders, Earthwon uses e-mail, fax, or IVR systems to ensure that the right information is provided to the right people at the right time.

Inspections and Monitoring

Many environmental regulations call for ongoing inspection or compliance monitoring of facilities that might impact the quality of air, land or water resources. Earthwon manages the automatic scheduling of inspections as well as unscheduled “roaming” inspections, and acts as the central repository for compliance monitoring results.

Earthwon ensures your staff have all the information they need while in the field, regardless of their location. Earthwon is deployed to mobile staff in a self-contained, disconnected or occasionally connected mode, so you don’t have to worry about the cost or reliability of wireless coverage. Where wireless coverage is reliable and cost-effective, Earthwon can be used in the field through Web-enabled notebook, tablet or PDA devices.

Using Earthwon, inspectors can go directly from home to the job site, thereby improving productivity. Work is assigned by discipline, territory, or work group; tasks can be sorted to optimize the day’s inspection route. Uploads and downloads are synchronized with the main Earthwon database. Synchronizations are completed using an Internet connection, through your office LAN or WAN, or from the field using a wireless connection or cell phone. Once inspection results are captured and uploaded, customers and staff can view inspection results, and additional processes may be triggered.

Earthwon’s mobile solutions can be used to show all of the possible deficiencies of a particular inspection process as well as the relevant regulatory code. Earthwon mobile helps inspectors capture all relevant data as well as related drawings, digital photos and signatures while conducting an inspection or monitoring activity. Inspectors are also able to print inspection reports, notices of violation, or other documents while in the field, using a portable printer. If required, re-inspections are scheduled.

Complaints and Investigations

Complaints often originate from citizens through a call to your office, call center, or via a complaint form on your website. Earthwon integrates with call center systems and can generate inspection, enforcement, or investigation activities from the complaint process. In addition, Earthwon can be used to give the complainant the ability to track the status of the complaint.

In many jurisdictions, there is additional internal reporting and tracking activities related to complaints. For example, senior managers and elected officials can use Earthwon to review and track the status of complaints. Earthwon also provides fully automated escalation capabilities for complaints.

While investigations are sometimes triggered by a complaint or an inspection, they are typically more complex, take longer, and are more formal business activities. In some cases, they may arise for legal purposes, perhaps to determine the party at fault for an environmental contamination or a major health or safety infraction. Earthwon can function as a case management tool to manage an investigation workflow. This could involve several stakeholders or external agencies, such as the Public Health or Fire Department, to complete the investigation. Earthwon coordinates the work of these stakeholders to provide collaborative work management, and also manages case files for legal action.

Enforcement Management

Earthwon empowers enforcement officers to view and collect data they need to assess a situation while in the field. Enforcement officers download data (current and historical if desired) from the main Earthwon database, capture additional information while in the field, automatically calculate fines, and print documents at the job site.

Like investigations, enforcement activities are often triggered by an event, such as a field inspection or citizen complaint. An enforcement activity could also be initiated by an enforcement officer working on either a scheduled monitoring or on a roaming basis. Various reports, such as warnings, notices of violation or citation, or stop work orders can all arise from enforcement activities.

Other agencies, such as the Public Health or Fire Department, could be immediately notified of certain infraction types. It is likely an enforcement notice would automatically schedule a follow-up inspection activity in Earthwon. If proceeding with legal action, Earthwon can be used to manage the investigation case file.

Accreditations and Certifications

Earthwon can manage accreditations used to certify that contractors or operators who perform an activity are trained to defined standards. In Earthwon, accreditations can be applied to individuals or organizations, and Earthwon can be used to manage all of the examinations and renewals for accredited individuals or professions. Earthwon can also manages the certification of equipment or devices that might require design or engineering reviews, testing, or inspections to ensure their safety.

Earthwon can manage all of the above activities to help ensure that your environmental activities are only conducted by qualified personnel, using certified equipment or devices, as per your business requirements and regulations.

Searching and Reporting

Earthwon has extensive searching capabilities with numerous standard and configured search filters and sort parameters to find Earthwon data fast. These search options include:

• job number, job details
• dates, keywords
• names, addresses
• and any other information stored in or available to Earthwon.

In Earthwon, all searching and reporting is produced from the same data, providing consistent information to your organization’s decision makers. Users can drill down and navigate through their data and any related data they have permission to. For example, if a certain type of tank valve is found to be defective, all storage tanks with that valve installed could be located. Or if problems exist pertaining to a particular contractor, it is easy to find all work that has been performed by that contractor within a given period in your jurisdiction.

Reporting can take many forms in Earthwon. Integrated operational reports, such as permits or receipts, are embedded within Earthwon workflows and are automatically generated as tasks are completed. Earthwon can also integrate with any application that is scriptable, including Microsoft Office products, using Earthwon data to populate the document.

Earthwon data can also be used for management and summary reporting. Summary reports can be used to provide a record of activities over time, often broken down by geographic region within your jurisdiction. Management and ad hoc reports can be developed by Computronix, your trained staff, or by a third-party of your choice to meet your exact needs.

For high volume, management or analytical reporting, the Earthwon reporting warehouse is used to replicate data to an off-line repository to ensure that performance of your production environment is not affected. Industry standard reporting tools that can access an Oracle database can be used for running standalone reports.