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GemTeck is highly regarded for its environmental information
management software and expertise with its customers and
industry partners.
Here's a sample of candid customer testimonials from some
of our industry partners involved in the development and
extensive beta testing of our new EQWin Data Manager software,
followed by some actual EQWin customer case studies.
Testimonials
Case Studies
Detail testimonials:
"I
have three things I look for in selecting software for
my company or me:
- Does
it meet the minimum functionality?
- Is
it easy to use?
- Is
the management user friendly?
In
the end, extra functionality can be had by clever users
and work-arounds, but if I can't convince my juniors
to use it and negotiate a few improvements or discounts
with the developers, then I am not going to spend much
time looking beyond this list!
Guess
what, you, EQWin and GemTeck score highly on all three.
Case solved!
I
must say, well done to the team. It took me precisely
10 minutes to get the new EXCEL stuff going, do a report,
do a graph and be very impressed with the integration.
EQWin
is very easy to use. Input of data and creation of reports
are all done in EXCEL, and I cannot imagine how it could
be easier. EQWin Version 5 was good, Version 6 is HEAPS
better.
We
are using it for small and large projects. In my opinion,
for a large project I wouldn't be without it. For small
projects, the data files are small and the template feature
means that even small projects are easily established.
For REALLY SMALL (1-2 boreholes) projects, I would use
it, but only for the data checking and validation feature
in the data import module.
I
have not found any major deficiencies for a while [in
the beta version]. Early on, there were some, but GemTeck
listened to us and fixed all of them, mostly very quickly.
Other comments I have passed have been discussed and
some are in the plan for later releases."
I
recommend it to you. The price will be saved in a few
weeks, even for a small company."
Shaun
Davidge
Principal Hydrogeologist
Golder Associates
"I have used two features for the new EQWin Data Manager, the import module
and the new Query by Formula features developed specifically for Excel. The import
module is similar in concept to EQWin version 5 but has the added advantage of
working directly in Excel, no more copying to the import sheet in EQWin. I find
that this speeds up the import process and allows me to use my automatic formatting
macros that I have developed in Excel to ensure all the numbers have the correct
number of significant figures before entering them in EQWin Data Manager.
The
innovative Query by Formulae feature is an entirely new
concept for the new EQWin Data Manager. It allows the user
to extract any information from an EQWin query and place
it in a single cell. I have even been able to produce a
highly customized report of the Placer Dome Safety achievements
that includes individual results, year to date for the
current year and year to date for last year. The report
is formatted to colour the cells based on our three 2002
Safety Objectives, so achievement against the objectives
for both individual mine sites and aggregated numbers can
be seen at a glance. The wonderful part of this is that
this report can be prepared for any timeframe needed, just
by changing the dates in the spreadsheet. Each time the
report is opened, EQWin Data Manager goes back to the database
and extracts the current data.
This
Query by Formulae feature allows us to replace the very
complicated multi-page spreadsheet report that was very
prone to errors, and time consuming to maintain. With this
feature, once new data is entered into EQWin Data Manager,
a new monthly safety report can be prepared in less than
a minute.
This
is a very exciting feature, that I have demonstrated works
reliably. I can easily imagine a number of other customized
reports that will allow us to report on our data in new
and innovative ways."
Calvin
Price
Supervisor Environmental Services
Placer Dome Inc.
"Working
with the new EQWin Data Manager (Ver 6) is going well -
I have entered 118 samples so far and the input, query
and output features are very easy to use. I did enjoy the
training last week. I was impressed at the number of useful
changes GemTeck has made."
Denise
Hertzog
Teck-Pogo Inc.
"I have installed the database and spent the afternoon going through the
tables to familiarize myself with new features.
I
really like the additional fields that have been added
to several of the tables. The ability to add user-defined
fields to more of the tables is also a great feature
it will greatly increase the flexibility and ease in
the data import and sample differentiation.
I
also really like the import through MS Excel; a nice
touch that gives you all the editing abilities of MS
Excel and eliminates the intermediate step. The enhancements
in this new version and its flexibility allows for
a more efficient way of storing a lot of our data."
Mike
Tanguay
Senior Environmental Technician
BHP Billiton - Ekati Diamond Mine
Detail case studies:
City of Vancouver Engineering Services
Paul Henderson, P.Eng
Manager of Landfill Operations
The City of Vancouver owns and operates
a 635-hectare municipal solid waste landfill in Delta,
B.C. Water quality monitoring, analysis and reporting is
a critical part of ensuring compliance with Provincial
Regulations.
In 1996, the City of Vancouver decided
to move water quality monitoring data from a mainframe
system to a P.C. based system. The data consisted of 20
years of water quality data from more than 30 water quality-monitoring
locations.
Our plan was to move to a system that
could store converted historical data as well as future
data. Initially, we wrote a request for proposals to hire
a company to develop a custom-built software system to
meet our needs.
We received two proposals, both in
excess of $30,000. On review of the proposals, we decided
that further investigation was necessary.
Subsequently, we discovered EQWin.
We reviewed the system and determined that it met all of
our needs and more, and at a tenth of the cost than the
custom built systems. The other benefit of an "off-the-shelf
system" was that we would receive future upgrades
at a reasonable annual cost.
We converted to EQWin in January 1997.
Configuring the system for our data was completed by our
staff, and with the help of GemTeck, historical data was
converted seamlessly. New data could be entered into the
system with no transition problems. We have been using
EQWin for data management and reporting from the time we
began data storage in the system.
I would recommend EQWin for any similar
application.
Newmont Gold Company
Todd White
Manager Environmental Affairs
Newmont Gold Company is currently
using EQWin at a number of their operations worldwide as
a database/report generator for water quality and waste
rock analytical data. Regulatory permit required monitoring
data for all of these sites are also managed with EQWin.
The use of EQWin has decreased the
time required to produce the required regulatory and management
reports. Also, the easy-to-use querying and graphing capabilities
have substantially reduced the time required to produce
historical (5-year) water quality trends. Its ability to
check for data quality and validate data against historical
data for the same sample station allows for a much more
efficient review of laboratory data prior to inclusion
to the database.
As far as reducing costs, the increased
efficiency has made it possible for fewer people to generate
reports in considerably less time. The software has allowed
our senior technical people to spend more time in the field
as opposed to spending time in the office preparing reports.
Placer Dome Inc.
Calvin Price
Supervisor Environmental Services
Placer Dome has installed EQWin successfully
at over 20 locations around the world. Although a number
of the tasks performed by EQWin can be done in a spreadsheet,
it would be exceedingly time consuming, laborious and prone
to errors. The advantages of a standardized and consistent
relational database system, designed for environmental
data, have been amply demonstrated at the Placer Dome operations.
It has been proven to be simple enough
for the casual user, but has enough depth for the advanced
user with many customizable features, such as user defined
data validation, export reports, and links to GIS software.
Steffen Robertson and Kirsten (SRK) Consulting
John Poyser
Engineer - Geo-Environmental Division
I have found both EQWin and GemTeck
very easy to work with.
The software is powerful, flexible
and feature-rich. Importing data from spreadsheets is very
straight forward, and the built-in error-checking and data
validation systems are very helpful for data quality control.
This package enables you to get more
usable information from your database. GemTeck have been
very responsive to feedback and are constantly incorporating
customer suggestions to provide an improved product.
Triton Environmental
Chris Allan, E.I.T.
Environmental Engineer
Triton Environmental currently uses
EQWin to archive and analyze water quality data. Data is
obtained from weekly and monthly sampling for up to 24
locations in the area of a proposed mine development.
The main advantage of EQWin in my
situation is that it provides a custom water quality database
without the time and expense of having to program my own
and to continually maintain it.
The database allows easy importing
of data straight from the laboratory thus eliminating any
data entry errors. Data analysis is made easy with the
query-builder, various report types/layouts and built-in
analysis functions.
Although EQWin deals with a number
of statistical functions, detailed statistical analysis
can also be accomplished quite easily by exporting the
data to an external statistics package.
Boliden-Westmin (Canada) Ltd. Myra Falls Operations
Gavin C. Dirom, M.Sc., P.Ag.
Environmental Supervisor
Boliden-Westmin's mining operation
at Myra Falls in central Vancouver Island, British Columbia,
puts a strong emphasis on collecting and maintaining environmental
data. We have found that it is very important when monitoring
for environmental compliance to have systematically complied
information that is reliable and permits subsequent data
interpretation.
Since 1997, we have found EQWin to
be an excellent tool for this sort of environmental data
management. It has benefited our operation tremendously
by streamlining our data system and made it simpler to
import and retrieve data. Instead of numerous spreadsheets
(that were fairly onerous to maintain) we now can quickly
download data from email, import the information into the
single database and then output the required graphs and
reports. Our contract laboratory, ALS Environmental Ltd.,
has modified their data reports they send to us so that
the information transfer into EQWin is now electronically
seamless.
Our environmental sample data is collected
from diverse locations. We currently have creek, lake,
seep, overflow, groundwater, and air quality locations.
In all we now have 183 sample stations inputted into EQWin.
We monitor 203 different parameters, many of which are
calculated from raw inputs. We have set-up our EQWin format
with regulatory standards to evaluate our compliance. For
us, government-issued effluent permit standards are the
most important standard to compare, followed by the Canadian
Drinking Water (CDW) Standards. Much of our collected information
is reported to the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection
and also to Environment Canada, as per their new Metal
Mine Effluent Regulations (MMER) requirements.
Once the data is arranged in EQWin
we often export selected information into a spreadsheet
for further analysis. Essentially, utilization of EQWin
has made it simpler for us to submit environmental analyses
to government agencies, and in considerably less time.
We regularly upgrade to the newest
version of EQWin software and have found that Gemteck provides
good technical support to their clients.
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