Environmental, Quality and Health & Safety Management On-line: The Efficiencies, Performance Improvements and Cost-Effectiveness of Web and Intranet-based EQS Software Solutions

1. Introduction

The sustainability imperative

The ‘Global 2500’ company spends £56 million on all aspects of environmental management and likely up to three times that for environmental, health, safety and quality management. Of this, as much as 64% relates solely to the costs of information management. Consequently, for every pound spent on environmental, health and safety or quality management, another £1.75 is spent managing the information behind it . Consequently, environmental, quality and health and safety (EQS) managers spend two thirds of their time gathering, analyzing, storing or sharing information and little of this time is value added . Obviously, therefore, whether an organisation is a Global 2500 company or a small or medium scale enterprise, EQS management efficiency and performance can be improved by as much as 56% simply by improving information management practices.