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The world’s leading sustainability consultancy

The Phase 0 

Approach

Best Practices – Building Blocks and 

Roadmap for an EMIS Strategy

Brad D. Wilson

Principal Consultant

Environmental Resources Management

Last Rev.: 13 May. 2014

The world’s leading sustainability consultancy
The world’s leading sustainability consultancy

EMIS – What is it?

E M I S – Environmental (H&S and Sustainability) Management Information 

Systems

■ “Organizational-Technical information systems for obtaining, processing, recording and 

disseminating any relevant Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability information that is 

available to a company 

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■ An EMIS can be a point-solution or an enterprise-wide comprehensive solution

■ An EMIS can be regulatory and/or compliance-driven

■ An EMIS can be Stakeholder and/or NGO driven

■ Commonly (today), EMIS covers enterprise-level, integrated, comprehensive 

Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability domains

■ Example:

■ Air

■ Water

■ Waste

■ KPI Metrics

■ Incidents

■ Etc., etc., etc. 
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General Environmental, Health, and Safety

 Action Tracking

 Audit / Inspections

 Compliance Management/Tracking

 Document Management

 Emergency Response Planning 

Management

 Hazardous Material/Chemical 

Inventory/SARA Reporting (311,312)

 Incident Management

 Key Performance Indicators/Metrics

 Knowledge Management

 Management Systems/ISO 

14001,OHSAS 18001 etc.

 Product Registration and Regulation

 Regulatory Tracking

 Risk/Hazard Assessment

 Training

 Energy Management

 Sustainability

 MOC

Environmental

 Air Quality 

 Asbestos/Lead/PCB

 Emission Credit Tracking

 SARA 313/TRI

 Waste Management

 Water Management

 Subsurface, Sediment, and Remediation Date

Health & Safety

 Behavior-based Observations

 Ergonomic Assessments

 Industrial Hygiene

 MSDS Authoring

 MSDS Management (vendor)

 Occupational Health

 Radiation Safety

 Security

 Safety

EMIS domains - examples
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Typical Process – sound familiar?

Environmental department deems that it’s time to better automate their data management.

■ Our old methods don’t work and a few people have seen a few systems that look slick 

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An EMIS lead gets assigned by the EHS department

■ Go forth ... “figure this out”

If it helps Environmental ... why not leverage it for other parts of my business? 

■ All the sudden other parts of the business (H&S) attach to the project (or comes in and stalls it)

Herding Cats & Gotchas ... the EMIS designee will inevitably encounter:

■ Internal politics

■ Competing agendas

■ Legacy systems

■ Resistance to change

■ EMIS lead’s decision-making power (or lack thereof)

■ Perceptions from last major IT effort(s)

■ Time, Delivery & Cost pressures

■ Balancing experience and availability of internal resources versus external SMEs

Frustration sets in and focus gets placed on the Technology (too early)

■ EMIS lead’s credibility and stakeholder buyin is lost, you get rushed into a solution and/or the project 

stalls or dies
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IT Projects (History repeats itself)

■ Companies with poor business analysis capability will have 3 times as many project failures 

as successes.

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■ Companies pay a premium of as much as 60% on time and budget when they use poor 

requirements practices on their projects.

■ Over 41% of the IT development budget for software, staff and external professional 

services will be consumed by poor requirements at the average company using average 

analysts versus the optimal organization.

■ The vast majority of projects surveyed did not utilize sufficient business analysis skill to 

consistently bring projects in on time and budget. The level of competency required is 

higher than that employed within projects for 70% of the companies surveyed.

■ CIO.com cites a Dynamic Markets survey of 800 IT managers, reporting that 62 percent of 

IT projects fail to meet their schedules and are more likely to have a marginal project or 

outright failure than a success due to the way they approach business analysis. 

■ Other data:

 49 percent suffered budget overruns

 47 percent had higher-than-expected maintenance costs, and

 41 percent failed to deliver the expected business value and ROI
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The Remedy: Software Success Triangle 

Alignment is Critical

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People

Process

Technology

Process Alignment

• Are business processes ready 

to be automated? 

• Are there widely divergent 

processes across the company

People / Organizational 

Alignment

• The best system is so integral 

to “work” that it is transparent

Technology Alignment

• What is the state of your 

source data systems

• What is the state of your 

master data systems
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Establishing IT Project Alignment

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• Secure commitment from the M.A.N.

• Secure stakeholders’ commitment (for entire project)

• Bring neutrality to the table

• To your People and to Technology

• No agendas, no prior jading

• Establish project credibility & insurance

• Consider bridging the gap between IT and EHS via 3rd party 

expertise

• Have a strategic blueprint and plan

• For EMIS ... that’s the Phase 0 approach
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Why a Phase 0

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Building a home/Architectural Planning anecdote

• Due diligence is always $ well spent

• Ensures project risk mitigation

• Because historical IT history of failures WILL repeat if planning is skipped

• Instills confidence and Sr. Executive / stakeholder buy-in

• Clearly establishing a Defined Case for Change, Project Governance, 

Business Goals, Defined Business Requirements ensures: 

• Level setting across your organization (no misalignment within business 

units)

• Avoidance of NIH

• Elimination of unexpected increases in cost and timely project stalling due 

to misaligned, or competing agendas 
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Historically -- EMIS success rests upon, First ...

■ Clearly defining an achievable scope 

■ Clearly defining success by all stakeholders

■ Clearly defining business & functional requirements

■ Providing a solution that is fit-for-purpose (e.g., Corporate vs. Site)

■ Having a well defined process prior to implementation

■ Creating a strong deployment & support management organization

■ Obtaining commitment and stewardship from sponsors 

■ Ensuring user involvement throughout project

■ Maintaining close collaboration as a team (Integrator, Software 

Provider, Client) throughout the deployment program

>> The “Phase 0” approach helps lay the foundational building 

blocks and roadmap for a successful EMIS investment

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Catalog: Understand what you already do (Task 2)

Set the Vision

 Establish vision and mission 

statement for efforts

 Secure core team resources and 

executive sponsorship

Understand what You Want to 

Do

 Gather / validate business 

requirements

 Prioritize business requirements 

(Must Have – Nice to Have, etc.)

IMPLEMENTATION

PLANNING

The Steps of Phase 0

Set the Vision (Task 1)

Understand what you want to do (Task 2)

Check the Solutions Marketplace (Task 3)

Short List / Select Solution (Task 3)

Develop Prelim Implementation Plan (Task 4)

Formalize the Business Case (Task 5)

Catalog: Understand what You 

already Do

 Assess current business processes as 

a baseline

 Prioritize information management 

needs based on risk / importance to 

the business, maturity of business 

processes, value in automating, etc.

Check the Solutions 

Marketplace

 Develop RFI package

 Solicit information from software 

vendors, including indicative 

pricing

 Evaluate responses and short list 

select software vendors for RFP

Short List / Select a Solution

 Issue RFP package (including 

demonstration script) to short 

listed software providers

 Conduct demonstration sessions 

with software providers

 Iterate as necessary, evaluate 

 Negotiate best and final pricing 

and make selection (if desired 

now)

Develop a Preliminary 

Implementation Plan

 Decide upon preliminary 

implementation approach with key 

stakeholders

 Develop preliminary 

implementation plan, including 

phasing, resource requirements, 

decommissioning opportunities, 

schedule and budget

Formalize the Business Case

 Articulate business case to 

management

 Include drivers, NPV analysis 

versus “AS IS” case, etc. as 

necessary

Authorize the 

Investment and 

Prepare to Deploy.

Move to Next Phase 

EMIS 

Foundation 

built

Step by Step
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Step-by-step – Building EMIS Foundation

Task 1: Kickoff Workshop

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Steps Incorporated Set the Vision -- Understand What You Do Already

Objectives for 

Client

• On board key stakeholders to upcoming activity, outline schedule 

and expectations

• Ensure corporate EHS&S and IT strategies are articulated and 

understood

• Identify and review As-Is business processes / EHS&S domain areas 

are “in scope”

Prerequisites Client assembles documentation / descriptions of relevant EHS&S 

business processes, information inputs and reports

Consultant Work

Activity

Facilitation of onsite EHS&S domain workshops, preparation & follow-up.

Deliverables • Workshops, including discussion of lessons learned and best 

practices from past implementation experience

• Consolidated “playback” of key strategies and in-scope processes

• Refined framework for requirements gathering (i.e., focused on 

appropriate domain areas)

Estimated Duration ~2 weeks
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Step-by-step – Building EMIS Foundation

Task 2: Business Requirements Gathering

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Steps Incorporated Catalog -- What You Want to Do

Objectives for 

Client

• Gather / validate and prioritize (e.g., “Must Have”, “Nice to Have”) 

business requirements through engagement with Client stakeholders

• Consolidate and approve list that will be used as the basis for 

subsequent tasks.

Prerequisites Approved in-scope business processes / EHS&S domain areas

Consultant Work

Activity

• Assessment interviews with Client stakeholders (1-2 hours each)

• List consolidation, review and approval with Client Core Team

Deliverables • Consolidated & client validated business requirements list

Estimated Duration ~3 weeks
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Step-by-step – Building EMIS Foundation

Task 3: Software Vendor Engagement & Selection

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Steps Incorporated Check the Market for Candidate Solutions; Short List / Select a Solution 

Objectives for 

Client

• Agree on endpoint at this stage (short-short list / final selection)

• Finalize approach to solutions (“best of breed”, “single, integrated”)

• Survey the market for candidate solutions using a structured RFI / 

RFP (including demonstrations) process

• Determine “fit” of solutions against identified business & functional 

requirements

• Short-short list or select software solution

Prerequisites Approved list of business & functional requirements

Consultant Work

Activity

• Develop RFI / RFP process 

• Develop demo scripts (apples-to-apples comparison)

• Facilitate select software vendor demonstrations and interactions

• Facilitate software selection decisions for Client

Deliverables • RFI package

• Demonstration scripts

• Demonstration sessions

• RFP package

• RFI / RFP review notes

Estimated Duration ~10 weeks, depending on Client’s needs for the process (RFI, RFP, 

number of vendors contacted, etc.), Client stakeholder availability, 

software vendor availability
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Step-by-step – Building EMIS Foundation

Task 4: Preliminary Planning

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Steps Incorporated Develop Prelim. Implementation Plan

Objectives for 

Client

Understand scope, budget and schedule of solution implementation 

within appropriate limits of certainty to enable management decision

Prerequisites Short-short list or select final software vendors with RFP evaluation 

results

Consultant Work

Activity

• Develop deployment approach with Client stakeholders (by domain 

area, geography, etc.)

• Estimate scope, budget and schedule for deployment, including 

required Client resource commitments

Deliverables Preliminary plan estimate

Estimated Duration ~2 weeks
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Step-by-step – Building EMIS Foundation

Task 5: Presentation to Management

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Steps Incorporated Formalize the Business Case

Objectives for 

Client

Facilitate management decision (budget allocation or final selection)

Prerequisites Short-short list or final selected software vendors with RFP evaluation 

results and preliminary deployment plan

Consultant Work

Activity

Assist Client stakeholders in the development and execution of business 

case and management presentations, as appropriate

Deliverables • Business case overview

• Management presentation

Estimated Duration ~2 weeks
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Step-by-step – Building EMIS Foundation

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Recommended Client Resources during Phase 0 and beyond

■ Executive sponsor (aka: the M.A.N.)

■ Program leader (aka: EMIS lead)

■ Key EHS leaders / stakeholders

■ 1 per “region”?

■ 1 per functional area (e.g., Environment, Health & Safety, Contractor 

Management, Product Stewardship, etc.)?

■ IT representative

■ Procurement representative
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With the Foundation Built – Now What?

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Phase 0 is only the1st part of 

the overall SDLC process

Next step ... is the Design 

Phase
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Contacts

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Brad D. Wilson

Principal Consultant, ERM Information Solutions

O: +1 615 614 8449 | M: +1 615 920 0121 | E: brad.wilson@erm.com
Annex

More About ERM Information Solutions

The world’s leading sustainability consultancy
The world’s leading sustainability consultancy

Environmental Resource Management (ERM)

• Environmental Resources Management (ERM) is a leading global 

provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, social consulting 

services and sustainability related services. 

• We have more than 5,000 people in over 40 countries and 

territories working out of more than 150 offices. 

• ERM is committed to providing a service that is consistent, 

professional and of the highest quality to create value for our 

clients. 

• Over the past five years we have worked for more than 50 per 

cent of the Global Fortune 500 delivering innovative solutions for 

business and selected government clients helping them 

understand and manage the sustainability challenges that the 

world is increasingly facing.

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ERM’s Global Reach

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Over 5,000 staff worldwide operating in 140 offices in 40 countries.
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Leading Provider for Oil & Gas, Chemicals
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ERM Sustainability Information Solutions

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We help corporations reach 

their environmental, health and 

safety performance potential, by 

leveraging best-of-breed third 

party technologies and 

designing business processes 

that enable our clients to better 

serve their stakeholders, 

customers and employees. 

We assist clients in developing 

and implementing an 

Information Management 

Systems strategy that will build 

a compliant, value-added 

Environmental, Health, Safety 

and Sustainability (EHS&S) 

program for them. 

Proficient in Market-Leading, Common, 

Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Platforms

The global 

knowledgebase of 

ERM’s 4500+ 

domain experts

The experience of 

150+ enterprise 

EMIS deployments
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Sustainability Information Solutions (SIS)

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Key Characteristics of SIS:

• COE of over 250 people globally 

• 18 years of experience in O&G EHS data management systems

• Specialize in enterprise programs

• SAP, IHS, Enablon, Others

• Technology agnostic - We focus on the needs of the business and the 

people doing the work. 

• Services tailored for the solution life cycle

• Planning

• Design and Implementation

• Change Management

• Support and Sustain
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The Software Success Triangle