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| 12/16/12 - New Dealer in Mexico | Geotech has been working for some time with folks in Argentina on a Spanish friendly version of Enviro Data. Since their implementation is going so well, we thought we might be able to provide some benefit to other Spanish speaking areas as well. Geotech has been strategically working with a partner in Mexico who has become a reseller of the Enviro System there. With this addition to our team, we can now help even more people with their data management and display needs. Geotech hopes to expand further into Mexico in hopes of bringing more efficient data management and display to companies there. Our contact there is Miquel Marquina with Ecosphere, +52 55 5272 1633, mmarquina@attglobal.net, who also happens to be a Geotech Environmental Equipment dealer as well. Miguel is your one stop shop for all your environmental hardware and software needs in Mexico. |
| 12/13/12 - Enviro Spase 2012 also coming soon - .net conversion |
Enviro Spase was written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Over
time ESRI is discontinuing support for VBA. In ArcGIS 10.0, VBA was
removed from the core program and became an extension. In 10.1, the
current version, the VBA runtime is supported, but not the VBA editor,
and seems likely that the next version will not support VBA at all. In order to keep Enviro Spase running despite these changes, we are in the process of rewriting the software in Visual Studio VB.net. The conversion is going well. Several wizards have been converted, and the rest should be done in a couple of months. The following figure shows ArcMap with the original Enviro Spase toolbar with all the wizards, and the new .net toolbar below it with the three wizards that had been completed and tested as of Dec. 1.  |
| 11/28/12 - Geotech Lands Gold Mining Client | Geotech is pleased to announce the sale of its Enviro Data software and services to one of West Africa’s most aggressive gold exploration companies in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. This is Geotech’s first sale to an international gold mining company. Our client focuses on developing under-explored gold belts and acquisition of potential new projects, while at the same time respecting the value of the cultural heritage and working with the local community to provide employment and build long-term relationships. As with many of our international clients, Geotech is providing Enviro software training to this client via Skype and WebEx, which is an excellent and cost-effective way to train overseas. We are pleased to welcome this new client to our growing list of satisfied Enviro software users. |
| 11/11/12 - Good news about the Enviro Software, Windows 8, and Office 2013 |
We’re all in a vicious circle. This circle is powered by big software
vendors, with Microsoft at the top of the pile, followed by others like
ESRI, and we’re all running to keep up. While most folks struggle to
keep current with the most recent version, Geotech and other sofware
authors are tasked with an even more dificult task: not only keep
current with the most recent version, but develop and produce code that
works will all the recent changes. It can be especially hard when the
platforms we run on keep changing under our feet. Part of Geotech’s quality assurance program is to test our software with new versions as they are delivered. Within the last two weeks Microsoft has released new versions of both its operating system, Windows 8, and its productivity suite, Office 2013. So we set out to test our software on both. We started by upgrading one of our test computers from Windows 7 to Windows 8, both 64-bit. The upgrade went surprisingly well, and we were able to keep our data, software settings, and applications. If we were starting with Windows XP, we would have needed to reformat. We were then faced with the much-discussed Start Screen, which appears when you start your computer. If you don’t like it, you can click on the Desktop tile, and you will be taken to another screen, almost the same as the Windows 7 desktop, except without a Start button. Here’s a tip for the Start Screen - just start typing. It will provide a list of applications that match what you have typed, which you can click on to start. Always being interested in trying something new, we decided to go with the flow and put some Enviro Data icons on the Start Screen. It turned out to be pretty easy. Windows 8 took the existing icons that were on our desktop in Windows 7, and automatically put them on the new desktop in Windows 8. All we had to do from there was go to the icons on the Desktop and pin them to the Start Screen. When we tried to add icons for new applications it took a bit more effort, but once we figured out that all the icons on the Start Screen are contained in a Start folder, we could paste new icons there and then pin them as well. The result was what we wanted, as is shown in the following figure:  When we clicked on them we got what we expected. Windows switched to the Desktop, Access opened, and Enviro Data opened. So far so good, as shown in the following figure:  But when we started testing we ran into a few problems. It turned out that we still had the problematic 64-bit version of Office 2010 on this computer. But not to worry, we wanted to switch to Office 2013 anyway. So we uninstalled Office 2010 64-bit, installed Office 2013 32-bit, and Enviro Data worked like a charm. The testing of Enviro Spase went even better. Once we got the icon set up, we clicked on it, and ArcGIS started right up, and the Enviro Spase wizards ran just fine. So we can say with confidence that we have overcome the gerbil wheel. At least for now. |
| 10/23/12 - Walden Associates becomes Enviro Data consultant and reseller |
 Walden Associates, based in New
York, performs environmental engineering and GIS consulting services for
governments and the commercial sector. Over time Walden, like most
consulting companies, began to seek out a tool for managing the large
volumes of data produced by the projects it worked on. Drawing upon the
computer and technical strengths of the firm, Walden began to utilize
Environmental Database Management Systems (EDMS) in its own work, and
then converted that expertise into a valuable service for new clients by
assisting them with implementing EDMS’s of their own. In doing so,
Walden has become familiar with a number of data management products,
most recently by becoming an Enviro Data and Enviro Spase consultant and
reseller.  Christian
Mostert, Walden’s Chief Operating Officer, had this to say, “Our mission
at Walden is to provide our clients with the best solution that fits
their needs, capabilities, and budget. In our experience Enviro Data
and Enviro Spase provide a whole new level of functionality and ease of
use for our clients. Often when new data management tools are
implemented, it is extremely important to get early successes in order
to gain momentum and user buy-in. With Enviro Data and Enviro Spase,
those successes occur at the very beginning with the ease of
implementing the software and setting up the databases, and they
continue when clients begin to load and interact with their data. Now
companies without a large budget or IT staff can have a comprehensive
data management system. We feel this fits in well with Walden’s goal
to provide high quality solutions that best fit our clients’ unique
needs.” |
| 10/6/12 - Enviro Data 2012 Coming soon |
We’re often told by our clients that Enviro Data is easier to use,
especially after they have used competing products. But there’s always
room for improvement, and the new Enviro Data 2012 release, due out
soon, will have a number of changes to make it even easier to use. For example, people who are new to the software may be put off by the many options and features that the software provides. Experienced users like all these capabilities, but the new version will make it easier to get started, and then grow into the software. Many of the menu forms in the software will give you the ability to show more or less features, depending on your needs. For example, here is the Main Menu form as it opens for a new user:  Then as they become more familiar with the software, they may turn on more capabilities:  Note: These screens are based on a prototype, and things may change before the final release. One new time saver that we added, is a way to manage all your databases from one screen. Information such as a list of all your databases by site name, date last modified, amount of data, your back-end storage for that database and others, make it easy to get from one database to another. This can be extremely helpful for folks such as our consulting company clients that have to manage many, sometimes hundreds of databases at any given time. This “database of databases” will help them manage and keep track of all their projects. This can be seen to the right of the above screen. From there, they can pick a database from the list and open it, in the Editor, Viewer, or both. |
| 9/30/12 - Geotech Attends tribal conference in Region 10 | Geotech’s sales director Mike Rich recently visited Coos Bay Oregon, where the ITEP 2012 show was held by the Coquille Indian Tribe. Geotech has been working with tribes around the country helping them more efficiently manage their data as well as submit their results to USEPA. Geotech works with tribes in Regions 2, 6, and 8, and hope to continue expanding into other regions to help the tribes in the North and Southwest know more about Geotech and the benefits of our data management software and services. For more information on tribal data management or WQX, contact Mike Rich at: mrich@geotech.com. |
| 9/14/12 – Enviro Data’s Remote Field Tool Enhanced |
 Probably
the biggest feature in 2010E is the Remote Field Tool. As clients
started to use the Field Tool sample planning feature, they expressed a
need to be able to modify the field event in the field, and then prepare
and print the field documents, including container labels and chains of
custody, in the field. And then they needed to be able to reconcile
changes in the field with the main database once they returned to the
office. Now they can do that. They can do as much work as they want
setting up the sample event prior to going into the field, and then
export the event to a file that they can bring out on their laptop. Then a remote version of the field tool lets them work with the event in the field, including adding new stations, changing stations and QC for the event, and changing methods and parameters. Then they print the field documents, and then sync their changes when the return to the office. |
| 8/23/12 - Successful WQX upload | Geotech has been working with a tribe in New Mexico helping them with their data uploads through the WQX portal. WQX is the data submittal tool for the EPA STORET data repository used by tribes, states, and others. While there have been many hurdles in this process - mapping of data fields with the EPA and the tribe, satisfying all the EPA requirements, especially characteristic (parameter definitions), and so on, we were able to successfully get locations, samples and results to upload to WQX. While this may not seem like much now, it is paving the road for other tribes to more easily manage and submit their data to the EPA to satisfy their grant requirements. |
| 8/7/12 - Biological Data Update | Starting with the new Enviro Data 2010E, you can now store various kinds of biological data in Enviro Data. New data fields for taxonomy, life stage, gender, and tissue type make it easy to import and store data for individual specimens and population census data. And a new table for related samples makes it easy to manage complex relationships between samples, such as multiple steps of dissection, compositing, and so on. And all of this works with the existing system for storing chemical results and related data. If you need to manage biological data, ask Geotech to show you this new functionality. |
| 8/5/13 – Geotech participates in Envirofest | Again this year, Geotech will be attending the Rocky Mountain Association of Environmental Professionals (RMAEP) Envirofest, at the History Colorado museum, on October 3, 2013. This show is an opportunity for environmental professionals to learn and network with other environmental and engineering organizations, consulting firms, government agencies, and universities. There will be numerous speakers on such topics as: regulatory and compliance issues, environmental and natural resources, and incorporating the environment into your business planning. Mike Rich will be representing Geotech at this event. We look forward to seeing you there. |
| 8/1/13 - Enviro Data in the Cloud |
 The
current Enviro Data architecture has been serving Geotech’s clients for
almost 20 years. The Access front-end allows us to efficiently build
great functionality, while providing a product that users can modify as
necessary for their specific needs. The flexibility of storing the data
in Access, SQL Server, and Oracle lets the software scale from small to
large projects. We anticipate that this architecture will continue to
provide good service for the foreseeable future; however some of our
clients have expressed a need for: 1) a different architecture that does
not require Enviro Data and Access to run on their desktop, and 2) for
the software and data to be made available on the web. This type of a
model is often called Software As A Service or SAAS. Geotech is
responding to this by developing a version of Enviro Data that runs in
the “cloud.” As we develop this functionality, we are soliciting
feedback from potential Enviro Data cloud users about how they might use
a system like this, and what value it would provide. We would love to
hear from you about how cloud-based functionality might benefit your
organization. We would be happy to provide you with a demonstration of
Enviro Data running in the Cloud. Contact Mike Rich,
mrich@geotech.com or call
877-740-1999 Toll-Free for additional details. |
| 9/30/12 - Corps of Engineers Selects Enviro Software | After a competitive procurement, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, selected the Enviro software for their data management and mapping needs. Omaha joins the New Jersey and Boston offices of the Corps as Enviro Data clients. The Omaha District purchased several licenses of the full Concurrent Use software, several Concurrent Use Viewers, and Enviro Spase. Factors that led to the selection included Enviro Data’s ease of learning and use, its scalability from small projects in Access to larger projects in SQL Server or Oracle, and its open-source delivery model. Other capabilities important to the Corps included handling of ADR and SEDD file formats, and interfaces with other programs, including GINT, Surfer, and ArcGIS. Geotech is looking forward to getting their folks up and running with the software. |
| 7/31/12 - Prospective Clients |
Once again this month, Geotech presented several
software demos for interested clients: the first was a small,
woman-owned environmental consulting firm, established in 2004, with
expertise in marine and freshwater water quality concerns, in Rhode
Island. This company felt
that the Enviro software could greatly help them manage and display
their data in the areas of watershed nutrient loading studies,
limnological investigations, nutrient flux studies, construction site
oversight and monitoring as well as QAPP and field plan preparation.
The second company was an environmental, planning and engineering
consulting firm, founded in 1981.
This company has a 26-member management team, and offices in NY,
Maryland, Washington DC, and New Jersey.
The third demo of the month was presented to a geoscience
consulting firm, founded in 2000, specializing in cost-effective
characterization and remediation of environmentally impaired sites.
The last demo of the month was for a company specializing in
environmental remediation and compliance, radiological waste management,
renewable energy services and engineering design and construction
management services to government agencies and select commercial
industries. We look forward
to welcoming all of these companies into the satisfied family of Enviro
software users soon. |
| 7/23/12 - July Maintenance Renewals |
Founded in 1979, and based in Montana, our first maintenance renewal this month is another longtime Geotech client, doing business with Geotech since 1999. This company designs, builds, owns and operates waste water treatment systems, among many other geotechnical and hydrogeologic projects. Our second renewal of the month comes from a New Hampshire client that has been using Enviro Data since 2009. This company recently joined forces with a much larger environmental consulting firm, that is pleased to also now be using the Enviro Data software for their database management needs. Also renewing this month is a client with ten offices in the US, who provides integrated environmental consulting, engineering and program management services for remediation and redevelopment projects. With an office in Denver, this client has been using the Enviro Data software since 2004. |
| 7/15/12 - Enviro Data News: 64-bit warning |
Users upgrading their computers or software should pay attention to this warning about Microsoft 64 Office. Most new computers now come with the 64-bit version of Windows 7. Microsoft provides Office 2010 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Unfortunately, the 64-bit version looks like it will be Microsoft's next Vista debacle. Many features that work fine in Office 32-bit don't work in 64-bit, and this impacts some features in Enviro Data, as well as applications that run within Office from many other vendors, including many add-ins for Access, Excel, Word, etc. The worst problem that we encountered in our testing Enviro Data in 64-bit Access was that all the dialog boxes failed to open and saving files stopped working. We have been able to code around these, with some effort. However, as of now the ComCtrl32.ocx library, which we use for the TreeView, is not provided by Microsoft in a 64-bit compatible version, although there may be a way to overcome that. As of now the internal map in Enviro Data, which uses GeoObjects from Blue Marble to display the map, also will not work in Office 64. The bottom line is that, while overall Enviro Data will work in Office 2010 64-bit, the TreeView and Map Display features currently will not work. Also for the vast majority of users, Office 64 provides no benefit over Office 32. For the most part, the two versions offer the same features, other than capacity. If you have a database over 2 GB in size, you probably have already gone to SQL Server or Oracle anyway. For these reasons, we are strongly recommending that you NOT use Office 64, even if you are using Windows 64. And Microsoft seems to be saying the same thing. You might want to look at: The key point is right at the top of this page: "The 32-bit version of Office 2010 is the recommended option for most people, because it prevents potential compatibility issues with other 32-bit applications, specifically third-party add-ins that are available only for 32-bit operating systems." |
| 7/12/12 - Enviro Data News: Related File import and export |
Many database systems have electronic deliverable formats that consist of
multiple files, and these are difficult to work with because you can't
see all the data at once, and the files must be imported in the right
order and with the right relationships between them. In the past,
Geotech has had to resort to programming to accommodate this type of
format for import or export. Our user-defined columnar import allows you
to define the format of each file type, but there was no easy way to
relate them together and import a set at one time without programming.
Now you can. The new Related File feature does this. First, define each
format and give it a name. Then select the Related File import format
option. You will see a new form that lets you select the layout for each
file, and the fields that relate them together. Then all the files can
be imported at once. |
| 7/8/12 - Special Reports and Training |
Two current Enviro Software clients requested
Geotech’s help in providing two very project-specific reports this
month. The first client is a
New Jersey company with multiple offices in North America, Europe, Asia
and Australia, and one of their areas of expertise is hazardous
materials remediation. They
asked Geotech to create a NJ HazSite EDD export specifically to fit
their project needs, and within a short period of time, this export was
completed and delivered. An agricultural GIS client of Geotech’s since 1999,
asked us to create a specialized report for his client on data analysis
on Asian phosphate mine samples.
Dr. Dave, Geotech’s President, used his PhD in Geology and his
vast knowledge of environmental issues to create this report for our
client, who came to the conclusion that the phosphate mine did pose a
risk to a nearby proposed vineyard. Both clients were well-pleased with
their final reports. USEPA Region 3, who purchased the Enviro Data
software last month, was now ready for Geotech to train their employees
this month. An eight hour
training was provided, via WebEx, to several people.
Their initial focus was on Enviro Data’s new Bulk Data tool for
their continuous monitoring data using multi-parameter probes. Geotech
added some features to help them deal with both uncalibrated and
calibrated data. Another new New Jersey client that
recently purchased our Enviro Software received their training via WebEx
this month. This client
provides a broad range of
environmental
consulting services in New Jersey and throughout the Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic. They will have
several users, and will be using the NJ HazSite and other exports. |
| 7/5//12 - New Clients in July |
Geotech was pleased to add another major client to its list of Enviro Data users this month. This company is headquarted in New Jersey, and is a full service environmental consulting, program management, engineering and remediation firm. They purchased both Enviro Data and Enviro Spase, and plan to have multiple users entering data in the software soon. Another Geotech client, in Colorado, who originally purchased our Enviro Software in 2008, is expanding their client base, and this month purchased Enviro Spase, to help them graphically display the data that they have been entering, storing and manipulating for over five years now. Geotech is happy to see our clients grow, and also happy to know that our software can help them in this growth phase of their business. |
| 6/29/12 - Chris Watson joins Geotech |
Geotech first met Chris Watson in 2008, while he was employed at New England Enviro Strategies in New Hampshire. This company was looking for a data management and GIS solution for their environmental projects and rented, and then purchased, Geotech’s Enviro software. Chris was very instrumental in getting Enviro Data and Enviro Spase set up, and very involved in the daily use of the software. He even helped Geotech improve parts of the software. We could tell early on that Chris was very astute in the environmental database management and GIS field. In the summer of 2010, Geotech was contacted by an emergency response contractor client to help them with onsite consulting for the environmental data management piece of the Michigan Oil Spill. Geotech selected the best database managers and GIS experts we knew, and sent them to Michigan for several months, and one of these folks was Chris Watson. This summer, we called on Chris again, this time to help us with technical support, data loading, and many other aspects of helping our growing Enviro software client base. We are very happy to have Chris join the Geotech team! |
| 6/18/12 - Mike Rich presents Enviro Data |
Geotech Environmental Equipment, whom many of you know from their quality
water sampling equipment, held their 4th annual Field Days in June.
Geotech Computer Systems attended and had a booth just as in years past.
What was a bit different however was that Mike Rich presented his first
short course entitled “Managing Environmental Data from the Field to the
Map.” The course covered the benefits of using a centralized data
management system, what to look for when deciding on which system is
right for your projects, and how you can improve your data quality
through better data management. Attendance was good as Mike helped
many folks understand the process of selecting the right EDMS for them.
Mike is set to give another talk in August at a Tribal Forum in Oregon
and hopes to spread the word about how the Enviro system helps save time
and money. For additional information contact
mrich@geotech.com. |
| 6/10/12 - Storing Data in the Cloud |
Many of you have probably heard the latest buzz in the computing industry about the “cloud,” which involves storing data or doing computing using somebody else’s computers on the Internet. We have started using this at Geotech, and have had good results using cloud-based services for file transfer and data storage. One tool we are using is SkyDrive from Microsoft (skydrive.live.com). Other similar tools include Google Drive (drive.google.com), Dropbox (dropbox.com), SugarSync (sugarsync.com) or Apple’s iCloud (icloud.com). To use SkyDrive you will need a Windows Live ID, which is free. You then set up your SkyDrive account, which is also free. New users get 7 gigabytes of free storage (although individual files are limited to 300 megabytes), and you can get 100 GB for $50 per year. You can then create folders, upload files, and share them with others. When you do that, you can decide whether they can view and edit the files, or only view them. There is also an app for your mobile device. The site also has limited versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that you can use to create documents, which can then be shared. Once you have put data in a SkyDrive folder, you can then share that folder, either by sending a link directly from SkyDrive by email, or by having SkyDrive provide you with a link that you can then distribute to others. Competitors have other features. For example, DropBox and SugarSync let you set up folders on multiple computers, and any files placed there (“dropped”) are automatically synchronized with the other computers. Storing data in the cloud, using SkyDrive or something else, can be a good solution for a variety of data sharing, storage, and backup needs. And, if your needs aren’t too great, it’s free. |
| 6/7/12 - EPA Region 3 Adopts Enviro Data |
Contrary to popular belief, the EPA has not standardized on any one database management software package. In fact each region chooses the best tools for their own needs. Recently EPA Region 3 (Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, DC) selected Enviro Data for their chemistry and biology needs. Geotech is now in the process of training Region 3 on how to use the software, and the many benefits it will provide to their organization. Region 3 now joins Region 8 (Colorado - Geotech's home state, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, and South Dakota) as happy Enviro Data users, and several other regions are evaluating Geotech's software. |
| 6/1/12 - Service Work, Training, and Demos Abound in June |
A number of years ago, Geotech sold its Enviro Software to one of the
largest engineering design services firms in the world.
With an extensive network of offices across the US and in nearly
50 countries, Geotech has been working most closely with their North
Carolina and Chicago offices.
This month, Russ Wendell, Geotech’s senior software developer,
spent several days helping the Chicago office train new staff on the
process of data loading and other features of the software, via WebEx.
This corporation is now successfully managing their daily data in
Enviro Data. Oak Ridge Laboratories, a
multi-program science and technology national laboratory in Tennessee,
managed for the United States Department of Energy, has been an Enviro
Software user for many years now, and this month they added an Enviro
Data SQL license to their array of Enviro Data software.
Dave Rich, Geotech’s President, spent time consulting with them
on integrating their biological data into the software, and discussing
enhancements that could be added to the software, customizing it to
their specific needs. Geotech trained two new clients on
the Enviro Data software this month.
The first client is a multi-disciplinary engineering, scientific
and technical services firm, with projects in the engineering and
environmental arenas.
Founded in 1992, they have staff in over five US states, including
Colorado. Geotech has been
doing business with, and for, this company for well over two decades,
and are pleased to see them productively now doing this work in our
Enviro Software. The second
new client trained this month is a multidisciplinary,
environmental
investigation and remediation firm headquartered in
Indianapolis, Ind.
Their staff utilizes innovative strategies to help clients
overcome their property’s environmental challenges in a cost efficient
and timely manner. Geotech
is very happy to add this client to our ever-growing list of successful
Enviro Data users.
|
| 5/31/12 – Many Long-Time Clients Renew Software Maintenance |
A testament to the success and usability of the
Enviro Software is the growing number of maintenance renewals we receive
every month. This month saw five renewals, including
companies such as: the most complete energy infrastructure focused
company in the world and a major provider of government services; a
water resource and environmental consulting services company, with
offices in Tucson, Phoenix, Denver, Santiago, and Lima; a New Mexico
crude oil refinery; the St. of California Dept. of Public Health; and
Oak Ridge National Lab. Maintenance includes
technical support, with response time usually being within an hour, and
new software versions, with minor versions released monthly and major
versions annually. |
|
5/23/12 – Enviro Data Client Receives
Statistics Enhancement to Software |
This month, an Enviro Data software user requested
that we add more statistical features to our software.
Believing that this client, a near-term uranium producer, was
asking for a software enhancement that would not only benefit them, but
many Enviro software users, Geotech decided to develop this new
software. In just a few weeks Russ Wendell, Geotech’s
Senior Software Developer, had added a set of features that now allows
all users to add statistical calculations such as counts, mean, median,
mode, and standard deviation to their Crosstab Wizard Reports. Geotech
believes that listening to, and fulfilling, its clients’ software needs
is paramount to operating and running a successful software business.
Please let us know if you have a software enhancement request
that would improve the Enviro Software. |
| 5/15 – 5/18/12 – Refinery Client Receives Enviro Data Training |
In 2010, Geotech added a crude oil refinery in New
Mexico to its client list. This refinery is the only
active one in the Four Corners area, and has a throughput of
approximately 23,000 barrels per day. The product slate for this
refinery includes gasoline, diesel, propane, butane and heavy fuel oils.
They have been very busy getting the refinery operating in the
last few years, and just this month were ready to introduce Enviro Data
into their production process. Dave Rich spent two
days helping them load their data, add some new features to meet their
specific needs, and then train their staff. They were
very pleased with how well the software fits their needs, and how easy
it was to learn. They plan to continue to use it for
many years to come. |
| 5/14/12 – Geotech Demonstrates Enviro Data for the Corps of Engineers – Omaha |
After numerous discussions with several individuals
at the Omaha Corps of Engineers, Geotech’s President, Dave Rich, met
face to face with two employees in the environmental division of this
group, and showed them how the Enviro Software could improve their data
management process. The Corps has a need to move away
from their EDMS software from LDC (Laboratory Data Consultants), which
is not suiting their needs. Their focus in on providing greater
usability of the data gathered for Corps projects. The Corps is very
excited about moving their projects into Enviro Data, and Geotech is
looking forward to welcoming them into the ever-growing family of
satisfied Enviro Data users. |
| 5/11/12 - Biological Data | Geotech is always striving to improve the Enviro Data software in every aspect. One point of interest that has continually come up is biological data; whether it be tissue data, species data, or even gender data. While some clients have used Enviro Data for managing this type of data, based on client feedback we believe that there are a number of areas where the software could better handle this sort of information. Working with various clients, we are adding tables and fields to better handle taxonomy, population census data, and the complex relationships between splits and composite for tissue data. As with all features in the system, once it is completed, this set of features will be included in the latest release. Give us a call if you have questions, or if you would like to discuss issues that would benefit your project work. |
| 5/3/12 - Enviro Software Success Story - Long Time Weston User Retires |
Charlie Bouffard, a long-time Enviro Data user in the
Walnut Creek office of the international consulting company Weston
Solutions, has retired. He was an early user of the software in Weston,
in what evolved over time into a worldwide corporate implementation.
Shortly before his retirement, Charlie had this to say: "We have been using Geotech Computer Systems, Inc.
Enviro Data software for over ten years now. It has
proven invaluable to us for managing the copious amounts of
environmental data collected from multiple projects at multiple
locations. During the course of these 10+ years the
folks at Geotech have never stopped updating, improving, and adding new
features and functionality to the program. In fact
the best feature of the Enviro Data software is the people at Geotech.
They have always been there to help us solve problems and have
provided custom changes and modifications to the program to meet our
ever changing needs. If your company is looking for
an environmental data management system, I would highly recommend you
give the Enviro Data software and the Geotech Computer Systems team a
try." |
| 4/30/12 - Many Clients Renew Maintenance | Among the many clients that renewed their annual maintenance this spring, were an engineering company that specializes in transportation engineering, municipal services, civil/site engineering, and water resources engineering, with offices in Wyoming and Montana; a full service sampling and analytical lab with 14 laboratories nationwide; a national engineering, consulting and construction management firm providing integrated services to the energy, environmental, and other industries, with offices in 33 US states and the UK; and a leading global provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, and social consulting services, with offices in 39 countries and employing over 5,000 employees. Geotech greatly appreciates their continued business. |
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4/26/12 |
Geotech provided a WebEx training this month to one of our many new clients, a Canadian environmental company that is largely owned and operated by its native Aboriginal ancestry. This company is a multi-disciplinary environmental consulting firm, providing services to the mining, forestry, agriculture, and many other fields. Their client base includes gold, diamond, copper, graphite and uranium mines, and many government municipalities. This client is proud to involve aboriginal people in environmental monitoring programs, and facilitate effective communication of environmental issues between government, industry, and aboriginal people. They are excited to start using Enviro Data in their many and varied environmental projects. |
| 4/17 – 4/18/12 - GCS expands its Services through Industry Training Courses | Dr. Dave Rich, President of Geotech Computer Systems, Inc. taught a two-day course entitled "Managing Environmental Data From the Field to the Final Report", April 17 – 18, 2012, at Geotech's office in Centennial, Colorado. The Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) sponsored the course. This course followed a project through the data management process from planning sampling events, field management, managing lab and field data, selecting data for output, and final data use. Dr. Dave paid particular attention to the specific problems of managing laboratory data, as well as to issues related to managing various types of water, soil, air, and related data. A few of the skills that attendees learned were: How to plan a sample event to maximize quality and efficiency; How to work with your laboratories to get quality data in a format that can easily be managed, while minimizing cost; Handling environmental data problems like non-detects, other flagged data, multiple dilutions, results by multiple methods, leached results, and many others; and How improved output can contribute to overall project success. This course was intended for people who need to manage environmental quality data for various types of environmental projects. It is also for managers who oversee this type of work, or people who need to make financial and staffing decisions about data management projects. It is appropriate for people working on public and private sector projects such as site investigation, remediation, and monitoring; water supply, wastewater and municipal solid waste projects; and other project types involving laboratory and field data. The course was well attended, and all students walked away with a greater understanding of, and better methods to handle, the data management tasks they deal with in their respective companies every day. |
| 4/10/12 – Geotech Attends “Hydraulic Fracturing: Updates and Developments” Workshop | Mike Rich, Geotech’s Sales Director, attended a workshop this month hosted by the Colorado Hazardous Waste Management Society, titled “Hydraulic Fracturing: Updates and Developments”. The workshop focused on hydrofracture engineering, baseline sampling programs, regulatory and litigation updates, and current governmental studies related to the impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Organizations giving talks included: state oil and gas associations, law firms, large environmental corporations, and others. A few of the topics discussed were: Baseline Groundwater Sampling, Hydraulic Fracturing Litigation Update, Common Misconceptions, etc. Geotech has numerous clients that are currently involved in Hydraulic Fracturing, and have been using the Enviro Data software to manage their data from Hydraulic Fracturing for many years. |
| 3/31/12 - Clients Request Additional Project Help | Several months ago, Geotech successfully finished a data loading project for one of its large environmental consulting company clients. The client was pleased that Geotech had helped them “catch up” with importing much of their historical data, and they could handle it from there. Due to employee turnover and a backlog of other work, this client has again contacted Geotech and asked them to continue to help them with their data loading, which Geotech is happy to do. A second project we’ve been working on this month is helping one of our tribal clients meet their EPA data submittal requirements. Geotech is helping the Tribe with the difficult process of preparing and uploading their data into WQX for insertion into STORET. In both cases, Geotech responded quickly, and helped these clients accurately complete their work in a very timely fashion. |
| 3/25/12 - Maintenance Renewals Cover the Gamut this Month | Many of Geotech’s ongoing clients renewed their Enviro Software Maintenance this month, and they are a good example of the wide spectrum of the environmental industry that Geotech clients encompass. A few of this month’s renewal clients included a New Mexico Indian Tribe, a Florida County government agency, an east coast analytical laboratory, a small environmental consulting company, and a very large environmental consulting company. Geotech is pleased to know that our Enviro software and services can satisfy such a broad range of environmental clients, and will always strive to continue this flexibility in our product line. |
| 3/19/12 - Trade Show Opportunities Continue in March |
Dave Rich, Geotech’s President, attended the second of two North
American Environmental Field Conferences this year, held this month at
the Embassy Suites in Tampa, Florida. This was a four-day conference
featuring both presentations and vendor booths. Some of the topics
covered were “High-Resolution, Low-Cost 3-D Site Characterization –
Methods and Case Histories” by John Sohl of Columbia Technologies,
“Consistent Field Sampling of Shallow Wells with Minimum
Decontamination”, an outdoor display & presentation by Geotech
Environmental Equipment, Denver, CO, and “Managing Environmental Data
From the Field to the Map” presented by Geotech Computer System’s Dave
Rich. Some of the vendors in attendance at this show were Oak
Environmental, Inc., YSI, Inc., and The American Institute of
Hydrology. This conference was well-attended, and enjoyed by all, and
it was nice to be in a warm climate in March! Mike, our Sales Director, also spent some time in a warm clime this month, while attending the 15th Annual Tribal Environmental Conference in Tulsa, OK. Again this year, the conference was held at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Tulsa. All Indian Tribes from EPA Region VI are invited to this show, and many representatives attended, including many Enviro Data clients. The goal of this show is to provide information about environmental products and services to the Tribal representatives and their environmental professionals, that might enhance their Tribal environmental programs. As you may know, Geotech is pleased to be working with, and helping, many Tribal environmental professionals, through the use of our Enviro software and services. It is our great pleasure to be involved in helping them manage and display their environmental data, and hope to continue both our business and personal relationship with them for many more years. |
| 3/13/12 - Geotech Talks with Complementary Software Vendors Ongoing | Fostering an atmosphere of cooperation, both within and outside of our company, is vitally important to Geotech. For this reason, our staff met with two complementary software vendors this month. The first vendor, with an office here in Denver, provides Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) software to its clients. Their clients use the system to manage permit compliance and other similar activities, and some have a need for project data management that Enviro Data can solve. We are now working with an oil and gas company to implement the combined system. The second company is a well-known vendor of well log software. We are working with them, and with a client in common, to facilitate a better link between our programs. We believe that cooperating with these, and other vendors, allows us all to potentially offer a broader and more complete solution to all of our clients. Geotech looks forward to future cooperation with these vendors. |
| 3/9/12 - Customized Enviro Software Trainings to Meet Client Needs | One of the ways Geotech surpasses its competition is in the way we provide services to our clients. We do not tell our clients how, when and where we’re going to give them technical support and training, we ask them to give us the parameters that will work best for them: do they want training in their office or WebEx training; how many days of training do they need, and do they want it all at once or broken out over several days/ weeks/months; would they like straight verbal answers to their technical questions, or would they like to have a free WebEx to actually see how the answers to their questions work in our software. Two of our clients opted for WebEx trainings this month: one was a Canadian client that had three trainings spread throughout this month, and the other client, from the northwestern US, had two trainings split over two weeks. At the end of these trainings, both clients were very pleased with how their technical needs were met. |
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3/4/12 -
Continued Enhancements to Enviro Software - Biological Data |
Geotech is always striving to improve the Enviro Data software in every aspect. One point of interest that has continually come up is biological data; whether it be tissue data, species data, or even gender data. While some clients have used Enviro Data for managing this type of data, based on client feedback we believe that there are a number of areas where the software could better handle this sort of information. Working with various clients, including Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee and a Canadian consulting company, we are adding tables and fields to better handle taxonomy, population census data, and the complex relationships between splits and composite for tissue data. As with all features in the system, once it is completed, this set of features will be included in the latest release. Give us a call if you have questions, or if you would like to discuss issues that would benefit your project work. |
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2/29/12 - Maintenance Renewals Abound |
February saw quite a few of our large environmental engineering clients eagerly renew their Enviro Software maintenance. One of the most exciting renewals this month was a company that purchased a number of licenses from us several years ago, and recently landed a large new project in Alaska, requiring them to open a branch office there, and purchase additional software licenses and refresher training from Geotech. We wish them great success with their new project! |
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2/25/12 - Enviro Software Success Story - Success at a Uranium Mining Company |
Powertech Uranium Corp. is a near-term uranium producer, well positioned for rapid growth in the burgeoning U.S. nuclear power industry. The company's assets include two near-term production projects, indicated resources exceeding 16 million pounds, and a technical team of industry leaders. After a thorough analysis of database options, assisted by some of their consultants, they selected Enviro Data for organizing, managing and reporting their environmental data. After training and some assistance with data loading, their primary user reported: "The 2010 C version, and especially the Crosstab Wizard, is working well for me. I generated tables for every station in our database in 19 minutes 41 seconds. This is a big improvement over the months of time it used to take using Excel. Give me a few months to finish this phase of data organization and then we will need to discuss additional viewer licenses and additional training." Geotech is also adding statistics capabilities to the Crosstab Wizard at Powertech’s request. |
|
2/19/12 - Enviro Software Prospects Keep Geotech Staff Busy |
Some very interesting businesses expressed interest in the Enviro Software in February, and Geotech presented the software to all of them, either in person or through an online WebEx. One company, which is the database spin-off of a very large environmental engineering company with a presence here in the Denver area, is looking to use the Enviro Software to possibly replace or supplement their in-house and other commercial database management software that is currently not providing all the functionality they need. Our sales team showed our software to an international environmental consulting company in Vermont, looking for database management help with their water profiling needs. A third company we spoke with this month, an engineering supply company, is looking to incorporate the Enviro Software with their data collection equipment. We wrapped up the month by adding a branch of the Canadian government, solid waste regulators, to our prospect list. They are working with Geotech to help them with both their software and consulting needs. |
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2/13/12 - New Client Trainings Continue |
Again this month, Geotech trained several of its new clients on our Enviro Software. The first training was on-site in the Colorado office of our client, but some of their Tennessee employees also attended. Geotech provided a pizza lunch for all the attendees at this training. The second and third new client trainings were held online, one for our new client in China, and the other for one of our New Jersey environmental clients. All trainings were very successful, and Geotech’s flexibility with location, number of days, number of attendees, client scheduling, and use of client data, are all greatly appreciated by Geotech’s clients. |
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2/6/12 – Geotech debuts at NAEFC |
Dave Rich, Geotech’s President, attended the west coast North American Environmental Field Conference in San Diego, CA this month. This is the first year that Geotech has participated in this conference, which featured advances and innovations in environmental site characterization, sampling, monitoring and remediation technology. The conference ran from February 7 - 10 at the Marriott Courtyard at Liberty Station. Geotech had an exhibitor’s booth at this show, and Dave Rich also presented a workshop titled, “Managing Environmental Data from the Field to the Map”. Some of the other exhibitor’s at this year’s west coast conference were Oak Environmental, Geotech Environmental Equipment, and Columbia Technologies. |
|
1/29/12 - Custom Maintenance Program Offered to Geotech Client |
One of Geotech’s large Enviro Software users requested a customized plan, when they renewed their annual maintenance. Maintenance consists of technical support and new software versions. Our client uses the Enviro Software internally on their projects, but one of their clients, a government agency, had also purchased the software several years ago. The government client was not going to renew their maintenance, but our client is still managing data for their government client and therefore needed the government client to continue to receive the new software versions, but did not need technical support from Geotech; our client is going to provide that for their client. Since our client was purchasing the Enviro maintenance for their client, we offered to sell our client this maintenance renewal for half the usual cost. This was a great solution for all parties involved: our client, their client and Geotech. We are always willing to work with our clients to satisfy their specific needs. |
|
1/21/12 - GCS expands its Services through Industry Training Courses |
Dr. Dave Rich, President of Geotech Computer
Systems, Inc. will be teaching a two-day course entitled “Managing
Environmental Data From the Field to the Final Report”.
The Northwest Environmental Training Center (NWETC) is sponsoring
the course. This course follows a project through the
data management process from planning sampling events, field management,
managing lab and field data, selecting data for output, and final data
use. Dr. Dave will pay particular attention to the
specific problems of managing laboratory data, as well as to issues
related to managing various types of water, soil, air, and related data.
A few of the skills that attendees will learn are: How to plan a
sample event to maximize quality and efficiency; How to work with the
laboratories to get quality data in a format that can easily be managed,
while minimizing cost; Handling environmental data problems like
non-detects, other flagged data, multiple dilutions, results by multiple
methods, extracted results, and many others; and how improved output can
contribute to overall project success. This course is
intended for people who need to manage environmental quality data for
various types of environmental projects. It is also
for managers who oversee this type of work, or people who need to make
financial and staffing decisions about data management projects.
It is appropriate for people working on public and private sector
projects such as site investigation, remediation, and monitoring; water
supply, wastewater and municipal solid waste projects; and other project
types involving laboratory and field data. |
|
1/13/12 - Weston Employee Praises Enviro Data and Geotech |
Charlie Bouffard, a long-time Enviro Data
user in Weston Solutions' Walnut Creek office, has retired. He was an
early user of the software in Weston, in what evolved over time into a
worldwide corporate implementation. Shortly before his retirement,
Charlie had this to say: |
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1/7/12 - Geotech Welcomes Two New Clients |
Our New Year began by adding two more unique clients to our Enviro Software family of users. The first client is a Canadian environmental services company that is 100% aboriginal-owned. They specialize in environmental monitoring and impact assessments, baseline data acquisition, erosion control, aquatic studies, wildlife, habitat, and vegetation assessments. This company strives to involve and train aboriginal people, including them in their company field staff, and facilitating the communication of environmental issues between government, industry, and aboriginal people. Our second client this month is a multi-disciplinary engineering firm that provides scientific and technical services on projects related to energy, engineering, environmental, risk analysis, and sustainability. They have offices in Colorado, Montana, and Tennessee. One of their specialties is analyzing environmental risks through forensics and data analysis and finding cost-effective solutions for their clients. |