Summary: Safe operations depend on layered controls from risk assessments, approvals, permits, isolations, and shift handovers. Digital Control of Work helps connect these processes in a more streamlined manner, giving organizations greater visibility, consistency, and control to make operations more efficient.
Control of Work is a structured approach for planning, authorizing, executing, and closing work. It connects several critical processes, including risk assessments, permit to work, lockout/tagout (LOTO), and shift handovers.
The Challenge With Manual Control of Work Processes
Many organizations still manage portions of Control of Work through paper forms, spreadsheets, emails, and disconnected applications. While individual processes may function adequately on their own, transferring information between them often becomes a challenge.
Common issues include:
- Duplicate data entry across systems
- Risk assessments that are disconnected from permits
- Delays caused by manual approvals
- Difficulty verifying contractor qualifications
- Limited visibility into active work
- Inconsistent communication between teams
- Missing or outdated documentation
- Information gaps during shift handovers
These challenges become more significant as operations grow in complexity. Multiple contractors, simultaneous work activities, and geographically dispersed teams all increase the amount of information that must be tracked and communicated.
Key Benefits of Digital Control of Work
Digital Control of Work software helps organizations move beyond disconnected processes by improving visibility into the various aspects of work. Instead of treating processes like Lockout/Tagout, Job Hazard Analysis, and Shift Handover independently, digital systems help link safety information throughout the work lifecycle.
This provides a variety of benefits:
- Greater visibility into active work: Operations and safety teams can quickly understand what work is occurring, where it is taking place, and what risks are involved.
- Connected workflows: Information from risk assessments, permits, contractor records, and isolations can be linked together, reducing duplication and improving consistency.
- Faster approvals: Digital workflows help route approvals efficiently while maintaining proper oversight.
- Improved contractor management: Organizations can verify contractor onboarding, qualifications, and approvals before work begins.
- Better communication: Workers, supervisors, and contractors have access to the same information, reducing misunderstandings and information silos.
- More effective shift handovers: Critical details about permits, hazards, controls, and work status can be easily transferred between shifts.
- Stronger audit readiness: Digital records create a documented history of decisions, approvals, and work activities that can be retrieved when needed.
- Reduced administrative burden: Less time spent managing paperwork allows teams to focus more attention on managing risk.
Why Digital Is the Future of Control of Work
As workplaces become increasingly complex, safety leaders need a way to verify worker competency, manage simultaneous operations, monitor isolations, and maintain oversight of work across multiple locations. Doing so effectively requires timely access to accurate information.
Digital Control of Work solutions support this by helping organizations:
- Connect safety and operational data
- Eliminate information silos
- Improve decision-making
- Standardize processes across sites
- Increase visibility into work activities
- Adapt more easily to changing conditions
What Should You Look For In a Digital Control of Work Tool
As organizations continue investing in safer and more efficient operations, the Control of Work software market is expected to reach approximately $1.52 billion by 2030, according to Verdantix. If your organization is in the market for a better Control of Work solution, take time to evaluate the capabilities that will support your workforce, processes, and risk profile.
Key considerations for Control of Work software include:
- Industry fit: Look for a solution that supports the types of permits, hazards, and regulatory requirements common to your operations.
- Mobile and offline access: Field workers should be able to access permits, procedures, and approvals wherever work is being performed, whether in remote or central locations.
- Connected workflows: Data and workflows between job hazard analysis, permit-to-work, isolation management, and shift handover processes should seamlessly connect, rather than work in isolation.
- Real-time visibility: Teams need up-to-date information on work status, active permits, isolations, and site conditions to make informed decisions about safety.
- Configurability: The ideal solution balances flexibility with preconfigured workflows, templates, and hazard libraries to accelerate implementation.
- Responsible AI assistance: AI can reduce administrative effort by helping users complete forms, identify missing information, and access relevant content, while keeping people in control of safety decisions.
- Implementation support: Look for a provider that offers training, change management support, and expertise in Control of Work processes.
Evotix is a Smart Innovator in Control of Work
Evotix was named a Smart Innovator in the 2025 Verdantix Smart Innovators: Control Of Work Software report.
Organizations choose Evotix to support their Control of Work processes for:
- Mobile-ready lockout/tagout (LOTO)
- Pre-configured permit to work (PTW) systems
- Interactive procedural walkthroughs and shift handovers
- Connected permit, procedure, and handover processes
- AI-enabled workflow assistance
- Integration with broader risk and safety processes
Recognized by Verdantix as a Smart Innovator in Control of Work
This article was originally published by Evotix.
