EcoOnline, a leading global provider of safety and sustainability software, announces the global expansion of ePermits, its comprehensive worker permits solution.
At the heart of Control of Work best practices, ePermits digitises and standardises the process to plan, authorise and safely manage personnel undertaking high-risk tasks, whether employees, contractors or new joiners. Trusted by leading multinational organisations across the UK and Ireland for more than 20 years, ePermits is now available to organisations worldwide.
Digitising permits for operational excellence
Manually managing paper-based permits and spreadsheets is slow, inconsistent and risky. The global construction sector represents nearly 7% of the world’s total economic output, valued at over £10 trillion annually, with many firms relying on external contractors for projects. In the UK alone, more than 600,000 self-employed contractors work in construction, with each contractor requiring robust permit controls to certify their readiness for complex work. A well-managed permits process is critical to both worker safety and operational excellence, driving better-trained teams, higher productivity and reduced costs from regulatory penalties and insurance claims.
ePermits replaces outdated permit processes with a real-time, mobile-ready solution, available in over 20 languages, that ensures only trained, inducted and approved workers carry out high-risk tasks. From certifying a new worker to maintaining visibility of all contractors, the software embeds regulatory controls at every step to help maintain compliance, aligning with frameworks such as guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and other international best practices.
Key features of ePermits
EcoOnline is a featured vendor in Verdantix’s 2025 Smart Innovators: Control of Work (CoW) Software report, gaining high marks for permit-to-work functionality, which includes:
- Readiness for high-risk environments: Purpose-built to manage complex, interdependent permit types (e.g. hot work, confined space, isolation), critical in sectors where safety-critical errors can have severe outcomes.
- End-to-end Control of Work: Integrates safety rules, RAMS (Risk Assessment Method Statements), competence checks, and SIMOPS (simultaneous operations) detection, ensuring risks are identified and controlled before work begins.
- Active enforcement rather than record-keeping: Actively enforces compliance by blocking permit progress until all conditions (training, PPE, insurance, safety measures) are satisfied.
- Configurability without complexity: Balances best-practice workflows with configurable rules, forms and safety precautions, so organisations can adapt the solution without losing standardisation.
- Always audit-ready: Mobile, paperless workflows with timestamped audit trails and alerts simplify inspections and demonstrate compliance with confidence.
Customers adopting ePermits experience measurable operational improvements for both managers and contractors. One global facilities management services customer reports that where managers previously spent two to three hours a day manually managing permits, it now takes less than ten minutes of their day. And for contractors, permit applications have reduced from 30 minutes to a matter of minutes. Teams also benefit from greater transparency and control over who is on site, thanks to enhanced contractor information and visibility in the solution.
“Digitising the permit-to-work process turns safety from a reactive, time-consuming checkpoint into a proactive advantage,” said Matt Matsui, COO at EcoOnline. “As ePermits expands globally, it builds on our mission to protect people and the planet—ensuring that every worker, wherever they are in the world, whether an employee or contractor, is approved and ready for the job they’ll undertake.”
Learn how EcoOnline’s mobile-enabled ePermits is making high-risk work safer, faster and easier to manage.
