Welcome to Plenum Field Notes – my weekly look behind the curtain at building health and safety software the right way.

Each week I’m sitting down to tell you what’s really happening (the good, the bad, and the ugly) as we continue to build this HSE eco system, PLENUM. No corporate speak, no BS – just the truth from someone who’s actually done the HSE job.

Here’s this week:

Over a Dozen Spreadsheets in Body Bags and Counting…

Just helped a client kill their competency tracking nightmare. Safety manager needs to verify three crane operators are current. The old way: open training spreadsheet, cross-reference medical tracker, check equipment endorsements, make two phone calls.

Time for a yes/no answer: 18 minutes. With REFINED by PLENUM: 8 seconds.

I built it this way because I’ve stood in work boots at 6 AM needing answers NOW, not after a SharePoint treasure hunt.

The Machine Doesn’t Forget

REFINED by PLENUM doesn’t forget. Doesn’t check wrong columns. Doesn’t need phone calls. It just knows instantly if someone can do the work safely.

That’s what happens when actual HSE professionals build the software instead of coders guessing what my world looks like.

The Authenticity Test

Funny thing – more software companies are claiming to be “built by HSE professionals” now. Quick research, preplexity.ai is my favorite to use, usually reveals product developers and IT folks.  They might have since hired a safety professional, but he/she didn’t start it, they damn sure didn’t build it, and they probably have little say into the function of the product.  

I don’t need to call them out by name. 

What I’m Building Next

This week’s competency win got me thinking about incident investigations. You know the drill: incident happens, scramble begins. Training records here, competency data there, work history somewhere else.

I’m working with our team to make that scramble obsolete too.

Reality Check

Real HSE work happens in the field with bad WiFi and urgent deadlines. I build for that reality, not conference rooms.

One obsolete spreadsheet at a time.

Thanks for reading. Next week: why our incident module works the way it does.

Got HSE software war stories? Hit reply.