Thursday, May 29, 2025
When Grounded Engineering Inc. (Grounded) first started exploring digital tools to support their environmental services team, they weren’t looking for a revolution—just efficiencies, in line with one of their key pillars, #AlwaysEvolving. Like many environmental consultants, they were juggling large volumes of data, increasing regulatory demands, tight deadlines, and a legacy of manual systems built on spreadsheets, static PDFs, and email chains.
In late 2023, after reflecting on a recent conference, Jeremy Bobro, Associate and Sean Morris, Senior Engineering Technologist with Grounded asked the age-old question “Can we do this better?” The current data approach was very cumbersome and could be prone to human error. “How can we improve our efficiency, but still remain competitive?” asked Jeremy.
Grounded then began evaluating alternatives—and that’s when they discovered Datanest.
Automating the Time-Drains
At the core of their solution was Evalu8, Datanest’s environmental data comparison engine. The module automatically imports lab data and compares results against selected guideline values—handling everything from provincial site condition standards, to excess soil quality criteria, to custom thresholds.
“In the past, transcribing data and setting up comparison tables would chew up half a day,” says Sean. “You’d download a PDF from the lab, transpose it into a spreadsheet, look up guidelines in a separate document, then copy everything into a combined output file. It was finicky, and even one misaligned cell could throw things off.”
With the support of the Datanest team, Grounded connected directly with lab representatives to configure the compatible file formatting. Now, lab results can be uploaded immediately and results are organized automatically within the Evalu8 dashboard, ready for review.
“The time and cost savings were immediate,” says Jeremy. “What used to take three or four hours now takes 15 minutes. And more importantly, it’s consistent, traceable, and accurate.”
Reducing Errors, Increasing Confidence
That consistency mattered. Errors weren’t just inconvenient—they were reputational risks. A missed exceedance or duplicated record could derail a project and undermine client confidence. In the current competitive market, this cannot happen.
“With Datanest we have confidence that the data that we are presenting in our reports is accurate and reliable; we wanted to eliminate human error in transcription,” says Emily Terpstra, Project Coordinator at Grounded. “In past projects we have found transcription errors late in the game and have needed to sink hours into fixing them retroactively. Datanest solves this issue.”
Health and Safety, Reimagined with Gather
While Evalu8 transformed how Grounded handled lab data, their field teams still struggled with the paperwork-heavy world of health and safety (H&S). Daily risk assessments, toolbox talks, and incident logs were handled with a mix of printed templates, handwritten notes, and follow-up emails.
Enter Gather—Datanest’s flexible field data collection tool.
“We realised Gather wasn’t just for environmental sampling,” says Sean, who is working with the Health and Safety Committee to adapt the Gather App for their field safety workflows. They know it will cut down on time to build H&S forms which will be more efficient and easily accessible, eliminating the need for hard copies that get lost and damaged on site. This form will leverage the conditional logic feature in Gather, to streamline field workflows. For example, if a high-risk activity is selected, the form automatically expands to include additional controls. No more forgetting steps or skipping checks.
Grounded is looking forward to looking into further efficiencies using Gather; eventually every site inspection, risk assessment, and hazard report could be captured digitally, GPS-tagged, and instantly available to Project Coordinators and Managers.
“This will be a big win for efficiency,” Sean says. “We will no longer be chasing down paperwork after the fact. The data comes in live, so if a team flags a new hazard, we see it right away.”
One Platform, All Projects
For Grounded, the value of Datanest isn’t just in the speed or convenience—it’s in the integration. Evalu8 and Gather aren’t siloed tools—they speak the same language, sharing site metadata, users, and project files in real time.
“The seamless handover between fieldwork and reporting is what sets Datanest apart,” explains Sean.
That unified workflow has changed how Grounded approaches project management. Teams collaborate across roles—field techs, scientists, project managers—without duplicated effort or data loss.
“It’s collaborative by design,” adds Jeremy. “Instead of emailing around versions, we’re all working in the same project space. You get alignment without the admin.”
Future-Proofing the Business
For Grounded’s leadership, the shift to Datanest isn’t just about tools—it’s about positioning the company for what’s next.
“We’re growing, and with growth comes complexity,” says Deeana Reynolds, Project Coordinator with Grounded. “It lets our Project Managers focus on the value-add tasks—interpretation, strategy, client relationships. The QA/QC process through Evalu8 after importing lab data is an invaluable tool for training new and incoming Project Coordinators.”
And the feedback from clients? Overwhelmingly positive.
“They can see the difference,” Sean says. “Faster reports, fewer errors. We’re delivering better outcomes, and they trust the process more.”
A Smart Partnership
Grounded hasn’t just adopted Datanest—they’ve helped shape it. As an early partner, they’ve provided feedback on interface design, reporting features, and workflow improvements.
“The team at Datanest really listens,” emphasizes Emily.
“Despite the time difference between Canada and New Zealand,” Deeana adds, “the large requests and tweaks to Evalu8 templates, the Datanest team (Olliver Yee and Sophie Bonnington) always take our requests in stride and are more than happy to assist. It’s more of a partnership than a software subscription.”
That collaboration continues as Datanest rolls out new features—automated report writers, integrated AI agents, and dynamic site models. Grounded is already exploring how those tools might further enhance their services.
“Data’s only powerful if it’s usable,” Sean concludes. “With Datanest, we’re not just collecting information—we’re turning it into action, insight, and impact.”
