As ElecTrain has grown, so have the services that we provide. Electrical safety field inspections are one of those services that
have become a more prevalent service we offer.
Our inspection journey with this started with a camera and a notepad, which would then be retyped into a Word document and married with the associated pictures that were downloaded from the camera. This worked for smaller inspections but was tedious and the results were not the best quality. When our inspections became larger scope and the observations documented went from tens of observations to thousands of observations, our system was quickly outgrown.
We tested a couple safety observation software platforms and picked one to go with as they were comparable in their abilities and interface. At first, this software made things so much easier to acquire the data live in the field. We could use our tablet to take the picture and to record the observation all at the same time! The only downfall was that the process took a while for the person entering the data as there were lots of options that needed to be selected for each observation. Additionally, the reports generated were extremely limited! Ultimately, the software did not do everything we wanted, and we felt it represented our name poorly as a product that we are providing, so we decided we could do it better!
ElecTrain has worked hand in hand with software designers to build our own software system and database to be able to quickly acquire the data in the field in a user-friendly manner, still allowing for us to use a tablet, phone, or computer to document this information and take pictures directly from our devices. By storing all the information in our own database, we are able to customize the reports we want generated and can custom search by a number of variables we choose and export that data directly as a pdf report for our customers!
As we continue to use this software, we will surely find more ways to make the information easier to analyze and present to our customers so that it delivers the best value for the work that is done. In the meantime, our next endeavor is to convert this software into a mobile application, so that when we find ourselves at a substation in the middle of the desert, or in the damp depths of a dam without Wi-Fi or internet signal, we will still be able to run this software and allow it to sync with our database when we get back into reception. This will also allow for even faster data acquisition and remove any limitations from the current platform.
This software is scalable as well, allowing for use in applications such as:
- Electrical Safety Inspections
- Other Industrial Safety Audits/Inspections (LOTO, Asbestos, Fall Protection, Hearing Conservation, etc.)
- Training Needs Analysis and Custom Training Development
- Incident Investigation
- Annual Electrical or LOTO Program Audits
- Arc Flash Surveys
Did we need to invest in the development of this software? No. We could have continued doing business in the same fashion as the rest of the industry and keep pushing our square peg into a round hole, but we expect higher of ourselves and demand better for our customers. We will continue to push ourselves to think out-of-the-box and innovate to ensure we provide the absolute best service every time!
