How to Get the Most Out of Your Environmental Data Software
Three Top Take-Aways from an In-Person Training
Environmental software platforms can automate workflows, analyze data, create reports, identify trends, send alerts, provide visualizations – and that list barely taps into their capabilities. Whether it’s EarthSoft’s EQuIS or ddms’ own Project Portal, the ability to do more with data is at your fingertips.
But — you can leverage those systems to their full potential only if you fully understand the capabilities, the data needs, and the business goals.
Given the complexity of most environmental data management systems, what’s the best way to take advantage of all they have to offer?
When In Person Beats AI
When you sit in a room and stare at a presentation with somebody standing up there lecturing you, you won’t digest it very well,” said Monica Calabria, senior data analyst for ddms. “One of our clients literally called it ‘death by PowerPoint.’”
What’s a better solution when you need to orient an entire team to an environmental software platform?
“We’ve done presentations, we’ve done screen shares,” said Calabria, who started her career in the field and now helps clients manage data in EQuIS. “Now we ask clients to meet with us in person. Everyone has their laptops, and we sit at a round table or rotate around the room. It’s a hands-on experience. We do a lot of ‘see and do’ where we show them a feature, and then they do it on their own, with their own data, in their version of the database. That way it all makes more sense, and we can also answer questions in real time for the entire group.”
To make the best use of everyone’s time, the ddms project team works with the client team in advance to set up a specific agenda based on the client’s goals for the data and any stumbling blocks.
Spend Time to Save Time
Given that everyone is busy, is in-person training worth it, especially with tutorials and how-to guides readily available?
“Some clients have more experience than others, but even with a higher level of familiarity, we can show them the full range of what they can do,” said Callie Broaddrick, Environmental Data Technician at ddms. “We can give them real examples of how to use the system to make their jobs easier, like creating a tailored dashboard, or asking it to generate certain reports that get automatically emailed to certain people.”
Tony Guerrero, Senior Data Analyst at ddms, agreed. “You don’t have to be a power user to get a lot out of EQuIS. We show clients how to load data. We show them how they can check sample completeness or manage the field collection forms. Many clients haven’t discovered those options.”
The Light Bulb Moments: What Users Love to Discover
- Automated reporting: System-generated reports that can not only be created based on certain indicators, but also sent automatically to stakeholders
- Dashboard customization: How to pull in the data you truly need for real-time insights
- Time series charts: How to visualize trends in environmental parameters (and then share them with others)
- Field data collection tools: Realizing how to streamline data entry and management, both saving time and minimizing human entry errors
Top 3 Key Takeaways for Client Environmental Data Managers
For the training to add immediate value, here are the top tips from the ddms team.
- Audit your routine tasks and workflows: What do you do repeatedly that can be automated? What is each person’s workflow, from a database manager who’s in the system all day to a project manager or leader who isn’t? Map those out and then see which tasks the system can handle for you.
- Ask for what you want: Even if you’re not sure the software can do it, make a list of what you wish it could do. Chances are the capabilities are there, and you can uncover them with some help.
- Invest in a business partnership: For some software, online videos or how-to guides are good enough to give you the training you need. But for more complicated, purpose-built tools it makes sense to go through a hands-on session where you’re working with your data, in your industry, next to your colleagues. The more real-world the training, the more real-world the benefits.
This is how Monica explains it: “We’re there to help you as you need it. We’re a team of chemists, geologists, and environmental scientists who have done the sampling or the investigations and the remedial actions, who have worked in mining or energy, or industry. We know the industry, the science, and the software. We love showing people how to save time and get more useful insights with fewer manual steps.”
If you’re interested in this kind of hands-on training, let’s talk about how ddms can help you do more with your environmental data. Contact us here.