Smarter, Faster, Safer—Improving Safety Compliance with Mobile Technology

Introduction

The Problem with Compliance Today 

Compliance: there are many ways we talk about it. A necessary evil, a chore, a struggle, or a critically important part of the business. We all know how crucial it is, to help save lives and keep projects on track.

Whether you are in construction or waste management, there are a variety of things that must be checked, some multiple times a day. Equipment, proper safety gear, and clear fire exits could all be things you check and recheck. A simple oversight such as using the wrong pair of gloves can lead to disastrous consequences.

You may think you have your compliance bases covered. But did you know that manual processes can undermine your safety? They are an inherently bad way of collecting and sharing information. It can take hours or days to get information back to your office. Even then, it can be difficult to understand and be missing crucial information.

Even worse, it takes additional time to enter all this information into your system. A broken piece of equipment, thus, could take hours or days to fix, just because of slow reporting. This lag drains time and money; employees spend time on data entry and filing instead of other tasks. Instead of making decisions, you spend hours collecting and formatting the data just to get an understanding of what’s happening in your business. 

You deserve the bigger picture, especially on compliance. You deserve to get that quickly, with accurate information. You deserve to get it in a way that allows you to make the best decisions for your business. But getting the bigger picture with paper or Excel spreadsheets is costly and inefficient. 

In this guide, we’ll show you how the strategic use of mobile technology can help you save hundreds of hours and get actionable intelligence in real time. With more accessible and affordable options for smartphones and tablets, there are new ways to ensure your work is safe and more productive than ever. 

More than faster work, you’ll get greater insights and stronger record keeping

Chapter 1: How to Think Strategically About Compliance and Technology Today

15 years ago, the iPhone didn’t even exist. How has mobile technology changed the safety industry? Mobile technology has had a huge impact on the safety industry within the past few years.

Today with a smartphone or tablet, an employee out in the field has the ability to conduct and record safety inspections and share their findings faster than ever before. Thus safety coordinators have access to the most current information.

Even if employees are working in an area without an internet connection, they can still use mobile technology to collect and share data. For example, our clients can use GoCanvas in the field and users can sync their data once they regain internet access.

Has technology made compliance easier? Has anything become more difficult in the past 15 years?

Technology has certainly made it easier for organizations to achieve regulatory compliance. Many safety management software systems allow users to quickly and easily generate accurate regulatory reports, such as OSHA 300, 300A, and 301 logs. 

Managers can also use safety management technology to reinforce their employees’ compliance with safety processes. This can be done simply by using the system to schedule email notifications to alert employees to complete a training course or to perform an inspection or corrective action. 

As regulations change, technology makes it easier to update inspections and collect data quickly. Instead of printing off new forms that take hours or days to reach the field, edits can be made quickly to a mobile form, and be ready for immediate use. 

Since 2007, regulations and safety training requirements have increased in complexity, which has made using safety technology even more crucial.

Does technology give companies a strategic advantage? Why or why not?

Technology absolutely gives companies a strategic advantage because it saves their employees time and energy by allowing them to automatically generate required reports and collect data more efficiently than a manual process. A safety inspection done on paper, for instance, could take hours or days to make it to the office. 

In addition, safety management software allows safety professionals to easily track and identify trends in their companies’ reporting, giving them increased visibility into their business operations.

For large work sites, corporate sites, or mobile workforces, safety management technology helps promote consistency in record keeping and reporting.

Still, many companies resist adopting time-saving technology. Why is that?

Change, in itself, is often difficult and professionals may be reluctant to modify their established business practices. In addition, a company must feel not only that a piece of technology will help save time, but also that it will be easy for employees to use.

Moving forward, technology is changing faster than ever before. What strategic questions must companies keep in mind? 

Because technology is advancing at such a quick pace, keeping an eye out for emerging trends has become extremely important. 

Companies should be mindful of how these trends and changes will impact their users’ needs and how they could be used to better serve them. Collecting feedback is a great way to determine the next steps that users would like to see.

How do you overcome barriers to adopting technology?

One specific client ensures their software’s navigation is clear and its design elements are simple and straightforward. They believe that it’s important to work with customers throughout the implementation process to ensure that their specific business needs are correctly assessed, that the software is configured to best suit their organization, and finally, that they are familiar with all available tools and features. 

It’s wonderful if an organization decides to use safety management software, but if they aren’t leveraging all that the technology has to offer, they won’t get the maximum return on their investment.

Chapter 2: Four Ways Mobile Inspections Ensure Better Compliance

The whole point of inspections is to ensure compliance. They help you ensure your work is up to code and your employees are safe.

Here are four ways mobile data collection ensures better compliance:

1. Receive each and every report

Perhaps it got lost on the way to your office. Maybe you go to look up a form later on and just can’t find it. Either way, you’re missing a report. It happens to many businesses. In fact, up to 11% of documents are misfiled or lost. That’s 11% of your time wasted. Worse, lost inspections create a massive liability risk. 

Going mobile ensures you receive every inspection. Every finished safety inspection is stored securely in the cloud. There, you can access each and every data point. 

GoCanvas also makes it easy in case OSHA audits you. With all safety inspections stored in your GoCanvas account, you can quickly retrieve your safety inspections to prove your continued dedication to a culture of safety. 

A mobile data collection ensures your business has all the safety inspection records you need to stay in compliance and give you an accurate bigger picture.

2. Wait, what does this say?

Reading handwriting can be an art. You can have amazing inspectors, but if you can’t read their writing, they might as well have written the information in Latin! 

Mobile data collection allows you to gather that information in a clear and easy-to-understand way. Every inspection has typed text. Easily read it at your computer, or even on the go on a smartphone or tablet. You’ll spend less time trying to translate and more time getting work done.

3. Right time, right place

A safety inspection done on paper can be hard to verify. How can you be sure that it occurred at the appropriate time and place? Some companies have tried to game the system: New York is taking up a case against a business that hired unqualified people to pose as licensed site safety managers. These bad eggs, however, can put additional pressure on other businesses to prove that their work sites are safe.

Going mobile can provide additional information to protect and validate your inspections. Automatic date and time stamps prove when an inspection took place. With one click, you can have GPS capture your location, proving that the inspection occurred at the right location. You can also take photos, providing visual information to back up your inspection. Need a signature? Just sign with a finger or a stylus. 

All of these features provide additional proof that manual processes can’t provide. They create external validation, protecting your business even further. Digital processes keep your business safe and help you gather more information than ever before.

4. No more holes in knowledge

It doesn’t matter how many asterisks or underlines you use; sometimes forms come back incomplete. With forms taking hours or days to come to your office, it’s often too late to go back and get good information. 

A mobile inspection removes this headache. With one click, you can make the fields required. Even if an employee skips a section, they won’t be able to submit their inspection until they fill out the required fields. No more chasing down employees days later, just easy-to-read and complete inspections at your fingertips. Creating accurate reports relies on having the best data possible. Mobile technology reduces human error and allows you to gather more information in real-time. Say goodbye to illegible handwriting, missing paperwork, and other holes in your information. Say goodbye to incomplete information and say hello to accurate, real-time data each and every time.

Chapter 3: How TE3CO Leverages Data Analytics to Unlock Business Potential 

Now that TE3CO has implemented GoCanvas to help with field operations and management, they’re able to save time and money by eliminating manual processes and having data that’s accessible for decision-making.

About TE3CO

TE3CO provides mission-critical pressure relief technology and services to customers across the oil and gas industry. They employ a highly trained and capable workforce of field technicians and engineers.

The Challenge

Before working with GoCanvas, TE3CO relied on spreadsheets and emails to manage their ticketing process but found the system time-consuming and difficult to track. The business had grown from 3 units to over 140 units across the U.S. and Canada in a short period of time, and the ticketing process had become an “absolute nightmare” in the words of John Kovac, Technology Integration Manager at TE3CO. 

• Highly complex 
• Multiple clicks 
• Manual data entry 
• Time-consuming 
• Traceability was difficult

The Solution

TE3CO partnered with GoCanvas to simplify its ticketing process and increase efficiency: 

• Minimize rework and ensure accuracy by automating data entry 
• Streamline data collection through one database 
• Identify bottlenecks and improve process efficiency with data analytics 
• Spend less time on reactive admin tasks, allowing more time to focus on a proactive growth strategy

“The ability to fill out field tickets real-time, have the customer sign real-time, and be able to track it from its fruition through the final process was absolutely game-changing for our company,” said Kovac. “It used to take until the 15th or 16th of the following month to close out every ticket for the month, averaging approximately 85 to 90 tickets a month. Now, we’re able to have the month closed by the first or second using such things as workflow and being able to follow it from beginning to end.”

The Impact

Now that TE3CO has implemented GoCanvas to help with field operations and management, they’re able to save time and money by eliminating manual processes and having data that’s accessible for decision-making. 

“Once our technician fills out the ticket, there’s no more transferring of data. GoCanvas handles all that,” Kovac said. “Using reference data and integration data, you can have everything in a dropdown, so every person is filling out all the generic information the same way.” 

Software for the field service industry has the potential to make a significant impact on overall efficiency and productivity. Ensuring data is consistent, standard, and accessible can enable organizations to make more informed decisions. 

“I have five apps that are being brought into analytics. From there, I can break that down by district, by camp, by company – once it’s in, you can drill into it as far as you want to,” Kovac said. “The world is at your fingers, and the more information you can get for one of your customers, the better it is.”

Leveraging software built for the field, TE3CO has found they’re able to:

• Free up 20-30 man-hours/month 
• Save ~$60,000/year in resource efficiency 
• Identify leading indicators in 10 minutes vs. three days 
• Track tickets in real-time ticket 
• Reduce billing time 

“There’s so much that you can do when you have the proper information to know that you’re running your company properly and that you’re charging properly and taking care of your customers properly,” Kovac said. 

How GoCanvas Analytics Works

GoCanvas Analytics provides a seamless solution to report on submission data, visualize what’s happening, and distribute your findings throughout your organization. Drill down into one facet of your business or keep track of everything in a high-level view. Uncover trends and make data-driven decisions that result in improved productivity, cost savings, and increased revenue.

Chapter 4: 9 Common Misconceptions About Safety and Environmental Mobile Inspections

Working with thousands of companies, we know there can be a lot of confusion and misinformation about mobile data collection, especially for safety and environmental inspections. Below are ten of the most common misconceptions we hear and how mobile inspections actually work.

Misconception #1:

Our employees are not technically savvy. They rarely use or even send an email. We like the idea, but it will be too hard to implement here.

Over the past couple of years, GoCanvas has worked with thousands of organizations both large and small. Many of our customers are in safety positions. The beauty of mobile data collection with custom digital forms with GoCanvas is that it can be as easy as you’d like. You can create mobile forms as simple as our vehicle inspection form or our environmental controls inspection checklist. Your employees can have a digital experience that is simple, fast, and painless. 

Admittedly, some of our customers have had hesitation in this transition but were able to get through this. Their advice to other companies includes:

A. Start with a test group

Companies often use our free trial period to test out their digital data collection for any potential issues. Often, they will start with technologically savvy users and their complete opposites. Even during the trial, employees start seeing that GoCanvas makes their work faster and easier. Employees begin approaching management and ask to go mobile!

B. Integrate with your back-end system

People love easy-to-use technology. With GoCanvas, it’s easy to integrate your data with backend safety software and remove the job people hate most: data entry. One New England client says it best: 

“When employees get used to finding the data easily, they will ask, ‘Hey, what about this other safety checklist?’”

Not only will this mean your employees are free to do other tasks, but they also become advocates on your behalf.

Misconception #2:

We use a lot of different devices: Android tablets, iPhones, and even Blackberries! It’s just too complicated to deploy for our business.

This is a common concern, especially if you have been looking at custom mobile app development. Often, this will lock you into one platform, and can be difficult not only with a range of devices but also limits your future mobile strategy! 

With GoCanvas, we want to help you do business your way. So our platform works on iOS, Android, Blackberry, and some Windows devices. If you need a rugged device or a large tablet, you can still enjoy an intuitive and easy inspection experience with GoCanvas.

Misconception #3:

My team writes faster than they type. This will slow down our processes further.

Our data collection process can bypass the need for typing in several ways to make your inspections or surveys even faster. They include:

• Drop-down lists: providing a range of pre-written answers to fill in
• Checkboxes: click once, and all done. 
• Reference data: add your own information such as equipment information or location- or client-specific data, into forms to make your inspections faster and more accurate. 

On top of these powerful features at GoCanvas, many smartphones and tablets have the talk-to-text ability. So even if your users have to fill in descriptions, they can talk into their device, and it will transcribe for them.

In all, most of our customers find that mobile data collection takes less time, has fewer errors, and also allows them to capture more information than ever before.

Misconception #4:

I have team members in places where they can’t get the internet or Wi-Fi, so going mobile won’t work for our business.

This is a common issue for companies. GoCanvas understands that lots of companies have workers in remote places. Internet isn’t always available, especially in the safety industry. 

With GoCanvas, you don’t need to be connected to the internet to fill out forms. Once you have access to the internet, all your forms will be automatically submitted to the cloud.

Misconception #5:

We use many different carriers. I don’t have the time to figure out how it would work with each one.

Our emphasis on flexibility and ease of use has meant that we work with various carriers. We can work with any carrier in any country. We have customers in California, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and even Singapore! Our customers live and work in over 60 different countries and use over 100 different carrier networks. 

Wherever you are, whatever network you use, GoCanvas can work with you.

Misconception #6:

I like capturing data on mobile devices, but I don’t need information in the cloud. I need to integrate it into our other systems.

Being able to collect and store data quickly and efficiently is great, but we go far beyond easy information collection at GoCanvas. We have an open API, which allows customers to integrate their GoCanvas data with almost any software or database.

You can integrate with:

Google Drive	Google Calendar
Google Sheets	Dropbox
SMS Text Notification	PDF
Quickbooks Desktop	QuickBooks Online
SignNow	HubSpot
SQL	Asana
Slack	Salesforce
Sharepoint	Microsoft Teams

Misconception #7:

I’m too busy; I don’t have time to implement another program.

Transitioning to GoCanvas isn’t like other programs. Change an app and use it within the same hour to a prebuilt template and test drive it right away. No matter what industry you’re in, we have something to help you get started today. 

With years of helping thousands of companies transition, we’ve seen many companies fully implement GoCanvas well within the first 30 days. 

Misconception #8:

Building a mobile safety inspection app? I don’t have time to learn how to do that.

Our solution builder is simple to use. You don’t need to learn any coding or any HTML. Simply drag and drop the features you want. You can have a simple custom option in five minutes, or a more powerful data collection process in under an hour.

Still don’t have the time? No worries, we can convert your form for you. We’ll convert your first form into a custom option for free. Through the whole process you’ll have a point of contact keeping in touch, and ensuring that our solution fits your needs. Our product specialists are available via phone and email. We are always happy to answer any of your questions. 

Misconception #9:

Digital data collection will mean a strain on our data costs, making it

What kind of information will you be gathering? If you will be using simple text or checklists, our forms are as light as an average email. That’s light for data, and probably won’t affect your data costs. 

Want to use images or GPS? That can cause some additional use of data. However, GoCanvas is flexible and you can use it on Wi-Fi or offline. That can help reduce your use of data in the long run.

Conclusion

Compliance will always be a crucial part of your job. The rules and regulations aren’t going away. If anything, they’re becoming more complicated than ever. Today, you can make it easier for your company to gather, collect, and visualize this data. Digital transformation allows you to collect and use this information in real-time.

Unchain yourself from manual processes and start saving time and money today with GoCanvas. Send us your first form, and we’ll convert it into a mobile version for free.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.