By Phil Molé, MPH

The term “mixed authentication” in the context of EHS (Environmental, Health, and Safety) software refers to the availability of multiple methods of user authentication to access the software platform.

While login and authentication may not be the first features companies consider when evaluating EHS software, it’s an important factor that can significantly impact implementation success and long-term usability.

This overview outlines common authentication methods used in EHS platforms and explains why mixed authentication should be a key consideration when choosing a solution.

What are Common Types of ‘Authentication’ in EHS Software?

You’re probably in the market for EHS software primarily because of the benefits the software brings for you and your team. Increased engagement of your employees in safety, improved efficiency in addressing risks, reduced rates of occupational injuries and illnesses, and better regulatory compliance.  Still, don’t forget that the way you access those capabilities is through user authentication — the means the software provides for authorized users to verify their identity and use the software.

Here are the most common authentication methods for users to access EHS software.

1. Single Sign-On (SSO) – For employees or internal users in the company’s IT infrastructure who log-in using company credentials.
2. Local/Native Login – For external users like contractors, suppliers, or auditors who are not part of the company directory. These users do require a username/password stored within the EHS system.
3. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – An authentication method that involves an extra step, such as confirming a code sent by text to mobile or email. MFA is often used as an extra layer associated with a primary authentication method.
4. Social or Email-based Login – Used in rare cases, especially for external users (e.g., Google login, Apple ID, or custom link).

Why Should You Want EHS Software with Mixed Authentication?

Recall the earlier point that authentication is your means to access all the valuable tools and capabilities within an EHS software platform. If authentication isn’t flexible enough to accommodate different types of users, it becomes a roadblock instead of a smooth on-ramp.

There are times when a single authentication method just won’t cut it. For example, if you have distinct populations of employees such as payroll employees and contracted workers, you will quickly find that one authentication method won’t effectively serve both groups. The more contractors you have, the worse of a sticking point this can be. If it’s difficult for contractors to access the software they need to view safety data sheets (SDSs), conduct inspections, complete safety orientations, or perform other contractor safety tasks, you’re going to run into bottlenecks that not only waste precious time, but introduce risks that could cause or exacerbate incidents or injuries. Keep in mind, too, that the ability of all workers including contractors to participate in your safety program is a central ingredient of a successful management system as envisioned by international standards like ISO 45001.

Software with mixed authentication features can help get you unstuck by providing different authentication methods for different employee populations, such as SSO for payroll employees vs. username/password for contractors, vendors, and visitors.

This flexibility allows organizations to onboard users without needing them to be in their internal IT system, which allows parties such as contractors and vendors to access the necessary software, such as contractor safety management software used for induction and orientation, or self-serve portals that save time by letting contractors take responsibility for managing their qualification documents and records.

At the same time, host employers can still maintain control over access to data, protecting accuracy and privacy. In fact, industry-leading software including VelocityEHS Contractor Safety & Permit to Work, part of the Accelerate ® Platform, offers mixed authentication capabilities while also meeting global standards for cybersecurity and data privacy such as GDPR and SOC 2.

In short, mixed authentication enables access to EHS software for a wider range of user types, improving flexibility, security, and usability. Be sure to include mixed authentication as a key feature to look for on your EHS software shopping list as you vet the capabilities of software providers you’re considering.

Let VelocityEHS Help!

VelocityEHS understands the importance of mixed authentication to successful implementation of EHS software, especially if you use a significant number of contactors and vendors or have frequent visitors coming and going at your facilities. That’s why our Contractor Safety & Permit to Work software specifically provides for mixed authentication methods, allowing contracted workers to log into the software via a simple username and password instead of requiring full SSO access to view orientation and induction materials or manage documentation via the contractor self-serve portal. Our Accelerate ® Platform also gives you innovative, expert-designed capabilities for safety, chemical management, industrial ergonomics and operational risk management, with an integrated user experience and a single sign-on powered by mixed authentication.

If you’re ready to learn more, set up a meeting with us so you can see our software in action.

The post What is Mixed Authentication in EHS Software? Why Does it Matter? appeared first on VelocityEHS.

By Phil Molé, MPH

Are you interested in Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) software? You’ve come to the right place! Investing in EHS software delivers significant capabilities and benefits that enhance compliance, safety, and operational efficiency.

Here are the top five reasons to consider implementing EHS software at your organization.

1. EHS Software Can Help Improve Regulatory Compliance

There are many EHS regulations out there, and the regulatory landscape is always evolving. Regulations like the OSHA HazCom Standard are widely applicable, and OSHA issued a 2024 final rule to update the Standard via a phased-in compliance timeline, so even companies in the chemical supply chain who already had a handle on HazCom will now have more work to do. There are also global regulations like Canada’s Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Australia’s Work Health and Safety (WHS) model regulations and many others. If your company operates globally, compliance is even more complex.

EHS software centralizes and automates compliance tracking, ensuring adherence to standards such as OSHA and EPA regulations. This reduces the risk of fines and legal issues by keeping organizations updated on regulatory requirements.

2. Improved Workplace Safety & Incident Prevention

Many EHS professionals (perhaps including yourself) struggle through no fault of their own to tackle their safety to-do list. There are incident investigations to start, completed investigations to follow up on, inspections to conduct, and safety meetings to schedule and manage. The job is often harder and more time consuming than it needs to be because there isn’t enough support – for example, you might still be using hard copy forms for inspections, and even if you’re using technologies to support various EHS tasks, you may have different tools for doing different things with little or no communication between them.

All of this is frustrating, but it also puts your employees at risk because time spent laboring through inefficient manual tasks is time that you can’t spend addressing hazards and improving workplace safety. There’s no separating efficiency from effectiveness in EHS management. Addressing risks quickly is literally a matter of life and death.

EHS software helps by:

• Simplifying completion of your most important tasks, like incident investigations, inspections, safety meetings and management of your safety data sheet (SDS) library
• Providing clear insights into patterns of risks and injuries, so you can focus efforts where they’re most needed
• Facilitating many types of risk assessments, including hazard identifications (HAZIDs), job safety analyses (JSAs), hazard and operability studies (HAZOPs), process hazard analyses (PHAs) and more, and making it easier to access and understand information from the assessments
• Enabling high quality ergonomics assessments using 3-D motion capture technology, with the expertise of real certified professional ergonomists (CPEs) baked into the software to help you better identify root causes and select appropriate controls. The best ergonomics software also helps you and your team quickly build knowledge with interactive, online modules covering everything from principles of ergonomics to ergonomic design guidelines.

3. EHS Software Streamlines Data Management & Reporting

It’s not enough just to shorten your to-do list, because you also need to be able to access your EHS records and data to be able to confirm that you’ve completed your tasks and to be able to gain actionable insights about EHS performance. Good data drives good decision making, but the challenge is to be able to view your EHS data clearly and concisely so you can make those decisions with speed and confidence, but that gets harder to do as the volume and complexity of data increases.

EHS software centralizes your data and dramatically simplifies analysis and reporting. It empowers EHS professionals with real-time insights into safety incidents and other important EHS metrics, facilitates compliance reporting, and generates key performance indicators (KPIs) to more clearly and easily track EHS performance trends.

4. Cost Savings & Operational Efficiency

Addressing risks quickly and effectively is critical to the well-being of your workforce, as well as your own because let’s face it, the life of an EHS professional comes with its share of sleepless nights. When your foremost concern is getting all of your people home safely at the end of every workday, the stakes are high.

A lesser but still significant concern is that bad safety performance also costs your company money. For example, injuries and occupational illnesses have direct and indirect costs, and those can be substantial. There are also less obvious costs, including:

• Lost productivity due to downtime from injuries and psychosocial risks such as anxiety due to employees being worried about injuries
• Recruitment/onboarding/training costs to replace employees who leave your company following a significant injury, or due to dissatisfaction with safety management
• Fines due to non-compliance with EHS regulations and potential civil financial liability
• Loss of business and value chain partners (e.g., transporters, retailers, distributors) due to negative publicity over workplace accidents

There’s a direct link between safety risks and financial risks, but fortunately there’s also substantial opportunity for return on investment (ROI) when EHS professionals are proactive in addressing those risks. Choosing and implementing the right EHS software can lead to significant cost savings by helping you identify and control workplace risks. Along the way, you’ll reduce expenses related to employee compensation, recruitment, and illness, and boost operational efficiency by automating processes and reducing manual administrative tasks.

5. Improved Employee Engagement with Your Safety Program

You can have the most beautifully written EHS policies in the world and have the best intentions behind them, but they will fail without employee engagement. Why is that? One reason is that you simply can’t do it all yourself. You’ve probably already realized this truth, and maybe that’s why you’re here looking for information about EHS software. Being able to share responsibility for key safety tasks is a surefire way to get that to-do list shorter. Another reason related to that is that employees need to believe in, or “buy into” your safety program, or they won’t want to participate in your program. If you don’t have good employee buy-in, you ‘re at risk of increased injuries, increased numbers of violations and fines, poor data, and higher overall costs.

This is a big reason why international safety management standards like ISO 45001 emphasize the importance of employee engagement (or what the standard, more technically, calls “consultation and participation”) in a successful safety management system. In fact, ISO 45001 specifically stresses the importance of involving frontline workers in safety, not just EHS managers, executives and consultants, as has often been the case.

The problem is that many companies would like to more significantly involve frontline workers in safety management, but don’t have effective ways to do so. That’s where EHS software comes in.

Here are some of the ways that the right EHS software can improve employee engagement:

• Providing easy mobile capabilities to share responsibility for completing key tasks such as reporting incidents and hazards, conducting risk assessments, and conducting inspections.
• Baked-in expertise combined with AI and machine learning technologies provide better insights into safety data that you and your team can use to make meaningful improvements
• Built-in notifications to alert employees when they’ve been assigned a task, with notifications for tasks that are approaching or passing their deadlines, helping to drive ownership and accountability for safety performance
• Access to built-in guides and user training facilitate implementation and adoption
• Simplified access to safety program data to foster better transparency and buy-in

Ready to Learn More About the VelocityEHS Accelerate ® Platform?

Now that you’ve learned the most important reasons to buy EHS software, you’re ready to learn about the best EHS software.

We built the VelocityEHS Accelerate ® Platform for the real heroes, the EHS professionals like you, to give you the tools you need to help keep your workers safe. Accelerate ® gives you best-in class chemical management, safety, industrial ergonomics, and operational risk management software, all on one platform that delivers an integrated user experience that’s accessible from anywhere via mobile devices.

Join the largest global software community of EHS experts and thought leaders, and see how easy EHS management can be when you’re backed by a team that is committed to your success. Request a demo today to see the Accelerate ® Platform in action!

The post Top Five Reasons to Invest in EHS Software appeared first on VelocityEHS.

Introduction

In today’s digital landscape, businesses rely on a diverse range of software solutions to remain competitive and adapt to evolving operational challenges. Whether it’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for supply chain management and logistics, customer relationship management (CRM) software for sales and marketing, HR management platforms for recruitment, payroll, and performance tracking, or any number of other business applications, software is at the core of modern business success.

Given how integral software has become in driving operational excellence in virtually every area of the business, adopting EHS software is a natural next step for businesses looking to improve safety and compliance, drive productivity and efficiency, and achieve a competitive advantage. This article explores the multiple ways that EHS software, specifically the industry-leading capabilities of the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform, helps businesses to enhance compliance, improve workplace safety, and boost operational efficiency.

1. Improved Compliance Management

Navigating the complex EHS regulatory landscape can be overwhelming, often putting businesses on the back foot in just trying to keep up, let alone getting ahead of their compliance obligations. EHS software can provide a systematic framework for identifying and addressing the full range of regulatory requirements that impact your business, helping ensure compliance tasks are completed on time, plan for future requirements, and provide assurance that regulatory requirements are met.   

How EHS Software Simplifies Compliance

• Real-time tracking of regulations and compliance tasks
• Automated alerts and reminders promote accountability and ownership for compliance tasks and deadlines, providing greater visibility of compliance activities.
• Centralized permit and reporting management consolidates tracking and reduces the risk for non-compliance penalties.

Why the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform Stands Out

• Comprehensive compliance tracking and audit tools purpose-built to manage EHS permits and regulatory requirements.
• EHS regulatory content integration via Enhesa and STP ComplianceEHS to automate regulatory applicability analysis and requirement tracking.
• Automated status notifications and system alerts for pending deadlines, ensuring timely submissions and minimizing compliance risk.
• Visibility across locations and jurisdictions to centralize global compliance obligations in one system, enhancing oversight.

The Competitive Advantage…

• Reduced risk for costly fines and penalties.
• Comprehensive visibility of deadlines and automated compliance status insights.
• Enhance your company’s reputation as a compliance leader, building trust with regulators, investors, and stakeholders through effective compliance management.
• Gain a more proactive footing toward compliance to anticipate and adapt to changing requirements over time. 

2. Stronger Safety Culture: Lower Incident Rates, Higher Productivity

A strong safety culture is essential for any business, and EHS professionals know that a strong safety culture depends on high levels of worker engagement with the EHS program. Poor worker engagement with the safety program often results in negative perceptions of your program, higher incident rates, lower productivity, increased costs, and even lower levels of worker engagement that all lead to further negative perceptions of the program. It’s a vicious cycle, but the surest way to boost engagement is to make it easy for workers to take part in EHS activities and see the results of their efforts. EHS software not only helps organizations proactively address safety risks and prevent incidents, but it also offers a direct, interactive link between workers and the company’s EHS activities.

How EHS Software Enhances Safety

• Centralized incident reporting and tracking systems help you document, address, and communicate hazards.
• Safety training, audits, risk assessments, corrective actions, and other EHS activities are more accessible and visible to users.
• Greater visibility of safety activities promotes higher engagement with workplace safety programs.

Why the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform Stands Out

• Simple, standardized incident management tools make recording incidents, hazards, and near-misses accessible to all workers.
• Intuitive, guided EHS workflows make it easy for workers at all levels to take ownership of essential EHS management tasks.
• Powerful reporting features streamline analysis and communication of key EHS performance metrics.

Competitive Advantage

• Fewer workplace incidents reduces costs and improves productivity.
• A safer work environment boosts employee morale, retention, and safety culture.
• Positions the company as a leader in workplace safety, driving positive perceptions of the EHS program and strengthening worker engagement.

3. Enhanced Operational Efficiency

Many businesses unfortunately are still heavily reliant on manual EHS processes, leading to unnecessary inefficiencies, potential for errors, poor communication and accessibility, and increased administrative overhead. One of the core benefits of EHS software is automating and simplifying these processes, helping companies to reduce human error, speed up workflows, and improve resource utilization.

How EHS Software Automates & Simplifies Workflows

• Eliminate time-consuming manual processes and reduce barriers to efficiency.
• Standardize safety processes to minimize errors and improve accuracy of EHS data.
• Promote collaboration across departments by improving visibility and accessibility of EHS program information.

Why the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform Stands Out

• Automates and simplifies time-consuming EHS tasks including regulatory applicability analysis, action item scheduling and assignment, reporting, and many more.
• Standardized, pre-built EHS workflows for key EHS tasks, ensuring greater consistency and simplifying compliance.
• Automated location/role-based notifications enhance EHS program alignment, communication, and accountability across the organization.

Competitive Advantage

• Frees up limited resources so you can focus on your strategic initiatives rather than time-consuming administrative tasks.
• Improves responsiveness to changing regulations, risks, and EHS performance trends, giving your organization greater agility and making it easier to capitalize on opportunities for improvement.
• Supports more proactive EHS management strategies, making businesses more responsive and efficient.

4. Data-Driven Decision Making: Unlock Insights for Continuous Improvement

Successful businesses all have one thing in common; they incorporate data as much as possible into decision making processes for every aspect of operations, including EHS management. EHS software provides businesses with greater ability to capture, analyze, and understand EHS performance so they can make smarter, evidence-based decisions about their EHS and compliance programs.

How EHS Software Empowers a Data-Driven Approach

• Centralizes the collection and analysis of safety data to provide a single source of truth for evaluating EHS program performance
• Detailed reports to help pinpoint and prioritize areas for improvement.
• Communicates EHS performance in a clear language that stakeholders need to understand safety program value.  

Why the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform Stands Out

• Powerful, versatile analytics and 3^rd party BI app integration to visualize and communicate EHS program performance, helping break down data siloes.
• An extensive library of pre-built EHS reports and custom reporting features help quickly identify trends, clearly communicate performance, and take a more proactive approach toward safety.
• Customizable dashboards and automated reporting features ensure that data gets to the right people, right when they need it to drive better decision making.

Competitive Advantage

• Empower a more proactive, rather than reactive approach to EHS management.
• Enhanced data-driven insights improve decision-making across all organizational levels, helping to optimize resources and capitalize on opportunities.
• Fosters continuous improvement and innovation in safety and compliance strategies.

5. Scalability and Flexibility: Grow Without Outgrowing Your EHS Software

As businesses grow, their EHS program needs to keep pace. A scalable EHS software system ensures companies can grow efficiently without compromising their EHS program and meet emerging EHS management challenges with confidence.

How EHS Software Supports Growth

• Track and ensure compliance with a wide range of global regulatory requirements.
• Centralize EHS administration enterprise-wide, folding all your locations under a single EHS management system.
• Coordinate essential EHS functions through scalable workflows and business system integrations.

Why the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform Stands Out

• Utilizes microservice architecture, allowing businesses to add EHS capabilities to your Platform configuration and scale your system effortlessly.
• Offers centralized administrator control, enabling global visibility and making leadership decisions faster and easier.
• Provides flexible, highly configurable workflows that evolve with your business’ needs.

Competitive Advantage

• Greater adaptability to changing regulations and EHS challenges.
• Establishes a standardized framework for EHS management across your entire organization – enhancing communication, transparency, and consistency.
• Ensures businesses can scale without delays, discrepancies, or losing sight of EHS management priorities

Key Takeaways

Today’s EHS software is much more than a simple compliance tool, it’s a strategic business asset that enhances safety, improves efficiency, and drives long-term value for your business. The VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform stands out as a leader in the EHS software market with capabilities that:

✔ Simplify compliance with automated tracking and reporting.
✔ Foster a strong, proactive safety culture, reducing incidents and improving productivity.
✔ Enhance operational efficiency through automation of routine manual tasks.
✔ Leverage data-driven insights for smarter, more responsive decision-making.
✔ Scale with business growth, providing long-term flexibility for your EHS program.

By integrating EHS software like the Accelerate® Platform, businesses can enhance risk management and protect workers’ safety while helping achieve a competitive edge within their industry.

Ready to take your EHS management program to the next level? Click here to schedule a demo of Accelerate today and see how it can transform your business!

The post 5 Ways EHS Software Gives Businesses a Competitive Edge appeared first on VelocityEHS.

VelocityEHS continues to hold its top ranking on the Top 100 Digital Companies in Chicago list. The annual list from Built In Chicago, an online community of startups, entrepreneurs, and innovators, ranks top tech companies based on full-time employees in the Chicagoland area.

This is VelocityEHS’ third consecutive year on the Top 100 list, a testament to the substantial growth we’ve experienced since we first launched as MSDSonline in the late 1990’s. Last year, MSDSonline and KMI joined forces under the new VelocityEHS name to make enterprise-level environmental, health safety and sustainability software accessible and affordable to businesses of all sizes. Since then, we’ve undergone significant changes to further cement our global industry leadership, including the relocation of our Chicago headquarters to a larger office space in the Merchandise Mart to accommodate our growing employee base. We’ve also broadened solution offerings with the addition of several new products. With more than 12,000 customers from around the world, our solutions help more than 8 million workers perform their jobs safer every day.

The annual Built In Chicago list illustrates Chicago’s strong tech growth and maturation from years past. The total number of people employed locally by the companies in this year’s Top 100 was almost 41,000, up 17 percent from last year’s 35,000.

A full list of this year’s top digital companies can be found here.

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Our Canadian office has moved out . . . and moved up (a floor)!  Having outgrown our old office, our new location doubles our available space to accommodate our continually expanding team. The new office reflects our new name and branding as VelocityEHS. This new identity reflects our unique focus on providing a comprehensive EHS, sustainability and risk management software platform that is easy to use and quick to implement.

The innovative space reflects our collaborative, fun, and creative culture. With new sit/stand ergonomic work stations, fair trade coffee, and yoga ball “chairs”, every detail was thoroughly planned to create a positive and healthy work environment.

“When you spend 40 hours a week at work, it is energizing to collaborate with an amazing team in such a bright, dynamic space,” said Matt Airhart, president of VelocityEHS Canada. “This is the fifth time we have outgrown our space and expanded into bigger and better facilities. It has been a fantastic change every time but ultimately, it is the quality of our people that has made VelocityEHS such a great place to work and the largest and fastest growing EHS software company.”

If you are ever in the Oakville area (30 minutes west of Toronto), we’d love to have you in and show you our new office; you might even be challenged to a game of foosball!

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