iPhone App Helps Companies Manage Water Use
<p>In what it is calling an industry first, environmental software and services firm Locus Technologies debuted the eWell iPhone application to help organizations collect water-related field data.</p>
Image courtesy of Locus
In what it is calling an industry first, environmental software and consulting firm Locus Technologies unveiled a new iPhone application Monday designed to help companies collect water-related data in the field and instantly transmit it to the company's cloud-based management program.
The eWell iPhone application speeds up the process and can also reduce errors, according to Locus Technologies CEO Neno Duplan.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of its type that is tailored to corporate use of highly technical information that can be collected, validated, QA/QC'd and instantly be available into the cloud," Duplan said.
Although many organizations prefer to use automated sensors to collect environmental data at the source, there are some situations where information must be collected manually. Water is a perfect example, Duplan said, because of its movement and interaction with potential chemicals, which can complicate water quality management.
The offering has two linked components: the iPhone application that can be downloaded from the Apple store for $19.99 and Locus' Environmental Information Management (EIM) application, which processes the entered data and allows users to map routes for field collection of water quality, levels, pH, or other types of information. The iPhone's built-in geo-referencing feature can track exactly where samples were taken. The application can also be used on the iPod Touch and iPad.
Locus first introduced eWell on the Palm 7 platform in 2001, which was used by oil and gas companies and government contractors that include Chevron and Honeywell. "Launching this on iPhone was much easier for us because we had 10 years experience using a similar application," Duplan said.
Although eWell is aimed at water-related information, Locus Technologies plans to roll out the application for other parts of its business, in addition to introducing eWell on the Android platform.
"Our plans are much bigger than that, as we have applications that operate in other segments of environment information management, such as carbon management, air emissions, sustainability, compliance and energy management," Duplan said. "In each and every one of these, we plan to extend the application to allow for field data collection."
Image courtesy of Locus Technologies.
