Web–Based Management Systems: Continuing Our Search

A few of us have been exploring various policy, program, decision, implementation, document, records management systems. So far we think we need to investigate further:

• EMS WebWare
• Enviance System
• ESP's OPSEnvironmental
• GreenWare Environmental Systems
• Intelex Web Based Management Systems

We haven't yet framed our needs/wants very well but we are looking into anything that can help us better manage our lives and work by integrating work planning, accomplishment reporting, monitoring and evaluation, learning, (all the adaptive management stuff) and doing so with web-based relational databases, document management software and more that also interface directly with individual and group calendars and email prompts.

If the US Forest Service and/or US Dept. of Agriculture buy into an off-the-shelf front end "dashboard" platform, e.g. ESP's "OPSEnvironmental" we will gain the advantage of having a network of users from various organizations feeding into the learning/betterment loop. If they go it alone, they will have only intra-government learning plus what they can glean from independent sources and what they see by looking at what others are doing. It will prove interesting to see how costs and performance of various systems are compared (and by whom) as the US government ventures further into e-government.

We few "intrapreneurs" here will try to watch what the USFS and the US Department of Agriculture are up to with inhouse efforts and what they are looking into from private contractors as they deal with shared problems amenable to web-based information/management system aids.

So maybe when I get back from a week-long EMS Auditor's Training next week, we can once again pick this inquiry project up and see where it takes us.