Intelex is pleased to announce it has achieved Gold-Level certification within the Microsoft Partner Network.

Secifically, Intelex has achieved three specific competencies within the partner program, including Application Integration, Independant Software Vendor (ISV), and Mobility.

Head over to our Press Room to learn more.

Is your business considering sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting? What will it be: CERES? GRI? CDP? FRP? A4S? WBCSD? Or IIRC?

Phew. That’s a lot of acronyms for what’s really a simple premise: reporting on sustainability and CSR data to stakeholders and the public at large. The above organizations are all associated with voluntary reporting frameworks that organizations can use to standardize sustainability and CSR reporting. While the frameworks differ in scope, to sort out any potential confusion, here’s a quick rundown of each:

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): Based in the UK, CDP brings together investors and works with large corporations around the world to develop effective carbon reduction strategies and disclose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data. Less a sustainability/CSR reporting framework than an emissions reporting organization, CDP’s scope is nonetheless broad: it publishes emissions data accounting for more than a quarter of global air emissions associated with human activity.
Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES): Founded in 1989 by a group of investors seeking to integrate sustainability into capital markets, CERES itself is not as focused on reporting and disclosure as it is on encouraging sustainability reporting. However, the organization has birthed a reporting framework known as GRI (see below).
Ceres and Tellus Institute Facility Reporting Project (FRP): Another CERES-based reporting framework, FRP is focused squarely on providing a generally accepted framework for facility- and site-specific environmental and social sustainability reporting.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD): This CEO-led association of companies pushes business to incorporate sustainable development into all business decisions. WBCSD is primarily concerned with advocacy and policy development, but asks members to report on environmental performance and urges them to “aspire” towards economic and social reporting.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): Formed in 1998 by CERES, GRI has become the standard-bearer on how organizations report on environmental, social and economic performance. Over 1,500 global organizations report in accordance with G3 guidelines (the most recent iteration of the GRI reporting framework).
The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Framework (A4S): Spearheaded by none other than Prince Charles, A4S brings advisory and accounting bodies as well as NGOs together to embed sustainability into decision-making and reporting processes.
International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC): This is the big one. Announced only earlier this month, IIRC is poised to become the everything-to-everyone reporting framework. IIRC is a collaborative project between GRI and A4S and essentially covers all bases: environmental, social, financial, governance—everything! If widely adopted, and if integrated reporting becomes popular enough, IIRC might erase the need for other reporting frameworks.

For the forward-thinking organization, IIRC is probably the best route. However, if you’re just beginning to consider sustainability and CSR reporting and don’t want to worry about stringent framework requirements yet, start by capturing, tracking, and reporting on environmental data and essential sustainability metrics. It’s a simple start that will make the leap to full-fledged reporting easier in the long run.

As most of you know, Intelex has finally rolled out its powerful new 5.1 release.

With amazing platform enhancements, a suite of new Power Tools, new modules and much, much more, Intelex 5.1 is the most configurable, versatile version of Intelex’s pioneering software yet.

Check out the official press release in our Press Room, or head over to Intelex-Exchange, our client portal, for more details. And don't forget to download the colourful Intelex 5.1 Wallpaper for your desktop!

Achieving verifiable sustainability throughout the supply and demand chain can be a daunting task for any company, especially for those who have a substantial amount of partners involved from top to bottom. As global product manufacturers are now placing more emphasis on being competitive and environmentally conscious as a result of social, economic and regulatory factors, pressure has mounted for companies to apply a “lean and green” makeover to their product sourcing, logistics, transportation, distribution and operational practices. In order to address the challenges, issues and opportunities associated with this trend, The Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum in partnership with Global Renewable Energy and Environmental Network (GREEN) have developed The Acceleration of Eco-Operation initiative. A rich repository of resources and information compiled from industry experts and associations as well as a comprehensive industry survey, The Acceleration of Eco-Operation initiative is aimed at helping improve bottom lines through enhanced trading partner visibility, flexibility and sustainability across the entire global supply and demand spectrum.

The BPM Forum, a comprehensive online survey of supply chain, operations, finance and executive professionals representing multiple industries was conducted in Q2 of 2009. It was designed to gauge how companies are presently dealing with the challenges associated with current supply chain demands, costs and environmental concerns. One hundred and twenty five professionals from around the globe participated in the survey resulting in insights as to what are the common priorities, pitfalls and progresses that supply chain professionals are facing today. The results of this survey were paired in a report with the detailed insights from 20 corporate and faculty leadership committee members outlining best practices and viable solutions aimed at helping companies begin to implement efficient and environmental practices within their supply chains.

The survey revealed that “nearly 90 percent of the respondents said their management subscribes to the principles of Eco-Operation, and nearly half said their executives believe in this mantra to a large extent.” This is a promising indication of the level of acceptance and understanding by the participants as to the fundamentals of the Eco-Operation initiative. The corporate leadership committee members were also in agreement as to the cost, compliance and carbon reduction advantages associated with Eco-Operation implementation. Although a good understanding and belief in the principles of Eco-Operations was noted, the report indicated that most companies are substantially lacking the means, metrics and visibility into their entire supply chain to successfully execute any of them. Almost two thirds reported inadequate visibility across all the tiers and levels of their supply chains. This lack of transparency can have a substantially negative impact on performance. As stated in the report, “The lack of transparency into the operations of dynamic, multi-tiered supply chains may be severely hampering business performance. Survey respondents identified the top business benefits of greater visibility as cost savings, better customer support, and environmental compliance – three key elements in today’s business landscape.” Also, better standards and key performance indicators (KPI’s) was identified as a nearly universal need among supply chain professionals as a means of measuring the sustainability levels of supply chain partners.

The report notes one of the driving forces behind Eco-Operational strategies and practices as the advent of web-based management platforms as a means of “increasing collaboration, real-time insight and rapid adaptability across today’s high performance, multi-enterprise value networks.” Such platforms, like Intelex’s web-based Environmental and Quality Management Systems work to foster a greater level of transparency and sustainability across the entire supply chain. Being web-based allows for a highly collaborative approach to monitoring your entire value chain as each supplier can easily access and use the system across multiple sites allowing for real-time reports and dashboards to be generated at anytime, ultimately giving you a 360 degree view of your entire operations.  With the BMP Forum survey indicating only 20 percent of participants as using a single hosted platform to improve such visibility; organizations who have implemented them have substantially realized measurable improvements in business and sustainability performance.  By investing in a web-based management system like those offered by Intelex, your organization is taking a step forward towards fulfilling corporate responsibility duties while at the same time streamlining operations, reducing costs, increasing sustainability and ultimately lowering your bottom line.

Read the full report here: Acceleration of ECO-Operation: Achieving Success & Sustainability in the Supply Chain

The purpose of a quality management system is to enable continual improvement regardless of market conditions; therefore, organizations that had the foresight and business smarts to have implemented effective quality management systems prior to the current recession have been proactively refining their business processes, minimizing the potential for nonconformance expenses, and enabling complete performance visibility as opposed to implementing last minute reactionary decisions intended to cut costs quickly. Invariably the "quick fix" approach to reducing the bottom line will directly impact product and service quality, which will ultimately have a negative impact on revenue generation.

The article "Prepared for Battle: Defend yourself in any economy with sound quality management" by Peter Grossi in this month's Quality Progress magazine delves much more deeply into the concept that businesses with existing quality management programs are better positioned to adapt during difficult economic conditions. "What organizations need to keep in mind, however, is that while the impact of a recession may be significant from a psychological perspective, in reality the application of sound quality management principles has a much more significant effect on an organizations success than the state of the economy."

So where does that leave businesses that don't have a quality management program in place? It leaves these organizations with a significant opportunity to improve their performance and strengthen their business operations so that they too can prosper regardless of the economic climate.

To read Peter Gross's complete article please visit the Quality Progress website. For information on the Intelex Quality Management System you can register for a live demonstration or free trial access online.

It is no secret that we are presently experiencing an economic downturn. Running a successful and profitable organization is no easy feat to begin with, let alone in these current market conditions. The corporate leaders of today are battling a plethora of obstacles ranging from fluctuating capital markets, pressures from investors, proposed new regulations and not to mention good old fashioned competition from their competitors. Penny pinching and resourceful budgeting have become standard practice across the board for most industries. As sales are down and earnings diminishing, many may believe that cutting back on spending is the logical approach, but as a recent article "Captain Jack and the BPM Market: Performance Management in Turbulent Times" by John Colbert in Business Performance Magazine outlines, there is one key factor that is well worth the investment.

As Mr. Colbert states, "Business Performance Management (BPM) is one of the few IT investments receiving heighted focus during this economic downturn. You might think that companies would be well advised to cut back their spending on software. Yet when it comes to managing performance and profits, it actually might make sense to invest in systems that can help you to improve the bottom line, better analyze and forecast your business, and improve decision making." This is becoming even more evident as companies who have BPM systems already implemented are currently projecting and planning towards the future based on the critical data they've collected organization-wide, while companies who have not adopted a BPM system are left reviewing dated Excel spreadsheets and dormant reports that as Mr. Colbert puts it, "may help them to understand where they’ve come from but don't do much to show where they should be going."

From October 2008 to February 2009 BPM Partners conducted the 2009 BPM Pulse survey, interviewing over 850 senior executives to gauge the current professional perspective on the topic of Business Performance Management. They found that over half (52%) of the executives surveyed said they will be increasing their focus on performance management investments. As improving performance management surfaced as a priority for many of the firms surveyed, other data further illustrates the repercussions for companies who have not yet adopted a BPM system to identify performance improvements. As Mr. Colbert explains, "According to research conducted by the Corporate Executive Board entitled 'Executive Guidance for 2009', companies that make it into the top quartile during a downturn sustain their market premium for an average of three years. With stakes this high, any failure to assertively identify performance improvement opportunities during the slowdown can spell trouble for less well-positioned companies. The principle of survival of the fittest is already being applied to the financial services, automotive manufacturing, and print media markets. Firms that wish to sustain a healthy future need to act now or risk becoming a casualty of market evolution." As many organizations are now trying to do more with less, having a forward-thinking plan for the future is critical. An effective BPM system that identifies where costs come from, where opportunities lie and where improvements can be made allows organizations to trim their less profitable and less strategic operations ultimately positioning them best to sustain and progress successfully into the future.

Business Performance Magazine is available online at www.bpmmag.net

Submit a request online to learn how to implement a business performance management system at your organization.

The May 2009 issue of Information Week Canada features an article by Richard Bray called "Pushing paper, right out the door: How an Ottawa company wound up in a paperless place."  The article focuses on the pains and successes that OCM Manufacturing experienced during the transition to a paperless office. After their first paper-based attempt at ISO 9000 certification failed and hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper had to be destroyed Michael Julian, CEO at OCM, decided that the second attempt at ISO 9000 compliance was going to be a lot different, it was going to be completely paperless! Post-transition Julian says "Ask anybody around here, they wouldn't ever want to go to a paper system, in both ISO documentation and in manufacturing documentation."

"The bottom line benefits of eliminating paper have meant money in the bank. Since the paperless push began, OCM Manufacturing has eliminated at least three administrative positions, while doubling in size and doing twice as many transactions. Communication is improved, because with electronic document everyone is literally on the same page and information is always available to authorized personnel, no matter where they are." – Richard Bray

Some of the motivators for converting to paperless workflow include:

• Increased efficiency - controlling document versions and workflow can give an organization a competitive edge,
• ISO certification - document management is a key piece to ISO certification,
• Controlled internal & external document standards - ensure employees across your organization are using the most recent versions of documents,
• Audit preparedness - the Intelex Document Management System automatically archives old file versions for year-round audit preparedness, and
• Corporate Social Responsibility- environmentally friendlier business practices translate in to social responsibility, consumer loyalty, and cost savings.
  

If you're interested in learning more about converting from time-consuming and wasteful paper-based system to a streamlined web-based document control, please submit a request online or call 1.877.932.3747.

Free subscriptions to Information Week Canada magazine are available through their website.

Workplace accidents and fatalities are a common occurrence, but many safety incidents could have been avoided through improved training management, accurate data reporting, internal audits, and generating a culture of safety within an organization.

The American Society of Safety Engineers has published a great, unbiased article titled "Technically Safe: Gaining 360◦ Visibility with Technology" by Peter Thiveos. The article addresses the key components of a successful safety management program, business rules and practical solutions, the value of designating a safety champion, and the benefits of using technology to improve an organization's safety performance.

Mr. Thiveos speaks to the need for a comprehensive system that addresses multiple facets including; training and certification management, incident and observation management, records and document management, risk assessment, monitoring and audit management, and corrective action management. "While all these systems have inherent benefits independently, collectively they provide unparalleled functionality and improvements in managing, compiling and reporting on an organization's overall safety status and SH&E governance," Peter Thiveos.

Intelex clients' Metso Minerals and Ferro Corporation are excellent examples of corporations that have actively generated a culture of safety consciousness across their organizations. One of the contributing factors to Metso Minerals' success was their safety champion Chris Adkins. Mr. Adkins spear headed the implementation of the Intelex Safety Management System and communicated Metso Minerals' safety program across the company. "With the Safety Management System now operational Metso Supervisors and managers can manage safety documents, report employee incidents and draw upon continuously updated best practice guidelines from Metso operations worldwide ... Part of my role is to create standard practices that are equal in every region. With verifiable results I can help protect and maximize the potential of Metso’s greatest resource, our employees." Chris Adkins – Global Health & Safety Specialist.

Ferro Corporation's Systems and Development Manager Art Plow is also their safety champion. In a recent case study, Art described Intelex as "an integral part of Ferro's world-wide Safe From Within Program and as a critical piece of our [Ferro's] larger effort to send all of our 6,500 employees home safely to their families at the end of the day, in some 17 time zones around the world." By using Intelex Safety Management Software to track all safety-related data and documentation in real-time, Ferro has been able to accurately measure their success in terms of improving their safety performance organization-wide.

Although safety management systems require an initial investment, the return-on-invest is quickly recovered through improved operating efficiency and a reduction in environment, health, and safety incidents. This sentiment is echoed by Peter Thiveos in the aforementioned article, "In light of today's nation and global economic condition, organizations need to understand that technology innovation and automation is one of the best ways to identify additional cost savings in their operations. Companies should always spend on effective technology-and, in the author's opinion, they should spend more in a downturned economy."

Learn more about how the Intelex's Safety Management Software can help your organization improve its safety performance.

Intelex Technologies has released its latest software innovation, the Intelex OpenPass API, a revolutionary application programming interface that will enable its users to sync and report data between multiple business management systems.

The Intelex OpenPass API functions as a conduit for seamlessly feeding data between multiple software programs. This means that Intelex’s environment, quality, and health & safety, and business management Software can now share data with pre-existing business software applications; thereby, saving time and resources while maintaining a degree of accuracy that’s difficult to achieve when data is transmitted manually.

The City of Calgary and St. Gobain are the first Intelex clients to take advantage of the OpenPass API.  The City of Calgary used our OpenPass API to import employee and location data from their pre-existing HR system into their Intelex System. They also used the OpenPass API to export employee injury data (i.e., incident number with date and time stamp) from Intelex’s Master Incidents Module into their HR program.

St. Gobain used the OpenPass API to import training courses, employee lists, and employee workgroup data from Lotus Notes into the Intelex System and Training Management Module. By using the OpenPass API St. Gobain was able to quickly populate their new Intelex System with historical data that will be a key factor in reporting accuracy and trending.

If you think that your organization could use the Intelex OpenPass API to import, export, and sync data between a pre-existing management program and your Intelex System, send an email to client.relations@intelex.com or call 416.599.6009 for more details.

Congratulations to Energizer on becoming 21 CFR Par 11 compliant!

In the digital age, electronic records and signatures have made paper documents and hand-written signatures an increasingly rare occurrence. To address this shift in standard business procedures, the US Code of Regulations instituted Title 21 CFR Part 11, which legitimizes electronic records and signatures by clearly defining the criteria under which an electronic record or signature can be accepted as valid. 

Industries most commonly affected by Title 21 CFR Part 11 typically fall under the regulatory standards established by the USA Food and Drug Administration. To help our clients achieve Title 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, Intelex has added dual-signature functionality to our system. This means that like Energizer, other Intelex Users can assign dual-signature authorization requirements to their critical business records.