ddms Grows with Focus on Automation, Collaboration, Data Management & AI
Founded in 2006, ddms (de maximis Data Management Solutions) is a specialized environmental data management consultancy with a two-decade track record. ddms has built a team of industry-leading experts who provide environmental data management solutions to corporations, government agencies, and Superfund groups. ddms focuses on key sectors, including petroleum, mining, landfill, energy, manufacturing, and nuclear industries. Beyond data management, ddms offers environmental data validation, chemistry, and geospatial services. ddms leverages its proprietary SaaS platform, Project Portal®, to enhance service delivery and efficiency. ddms executes large-scale system implementations for its clients integrating partner technologies, such as EarthSoft’s EQuIS and Esri software, to support complex environmental data needs. Headquartered in St. Paul, MN, ddms has a nationwide presence with a team of nearly 70 full-time professionals. The company continues to experience strong growth, expanding its workforce by 25% in 2024.
Mark Packard, CEO. Mark has an educational background in hydrogeology and GIS and has been providing environmental data management services for over 25 years.
EBJ: Discuss ddms’ growth and what factors have contributed to this growth?
Packard: Since its beginning, ddms has operated as a small, yet focused specialized firm. As we crossed a new growth threshold, we have strategically invested in key operational resources to strengthen support for our client-facing professionals. These investments have contributed to ddms’ continued maturation in many important ways, enhancing our ability to deliver high-quality services efficiently.
We are also fortunate to maintain strong momentum in securing new business and high-impact projects. This growth has enabled us to expand our technical team, ensuring we have the expertise and capacity to meet increasing client demands. ddms is pioneering a Managed Services practice, a unique approach in the environmental consulting industry, where clients can outsource repeatable monitoring, maintenance, and reporting tasks rather than managing them in-house. This model enhances efficiency for both clients and ddms, providing a scalable solution that allows organizations to focus on their core priorities while ensuring reliable, ongoing environmental data management.
To support a scalable and cost-effective Managed Services offering, ddms is investing in automation to streamline environmental data management, reducing costs and delivering value beyond the traditional time-and-materials model. By integrating automation and expertise as coupled with our Project Portal SaaS services delivery platform, ddms ensures sustainable, profitable growth while providing enhanced support and operational flexibility to its clients.Finally, there is no doubt we are experiencing an increased demand for our services as a result of PFAS. This has been most notable in our environmental chemistry data validation services but also on the data management side as corporations increasingly come to view their data as an asset and work to take an increased ownership in the management of their own data.
EBJ: Describe how technology influences strategic operations at ddms?
Packard: Technology has been central to ddms since its inception. In the late 1990s, our team was at the forefront of delivering environmental data securely through GIS-enabled web applications which pushed the boundaries of how data could be accessed and utilized. In 2007, ddms launched Project Portal, its client-facing SaaS platform during a time when the industry was largely focused on desktop software. We were an early adopter of cloud technology and remain at the forefront today as an AWS Technology Partner.
Our Software Engineering department plays a critical role in our strategic operations and we continuously evaluate what to invest our development efforts in. Over the years, we have refined our build-vs-buy philosophy, increasingly integrating off-the-shelf solutions where they provide efficiency, while reserving our in-house development efforts for innovations that deliver high-value, differentiated capabilities to our clients.
Looking ahead, ddms is incorporating AI-driven features into our platforms and services. These advancements are designed to generate new insights, enhance efficiency and further distinguish our offerings in the environmental data management space. ddms’ ongoing commitment to technology ensures that we not only meet evolving industry demands but also help continue to shape the future of the environmental data management practice in the greater industry.
EBJ: Provide an in-depth overview of ddms’ Project Portal? What are its core capabilities and how does it integrate with your clients’ existing systems?
Packard: Launched in 2007, Project Portal was developed to provide enhanced value in how ddms delivers environmental data services while also empowering clients with more timely, intuitive and direct access to their data. At the time, it was a game-changer for our clients, transforming how they interact with and leverage their environmental data and it continues to deliver on the original core principles today.
While Project Portal serves as a powerful extension of our consulting services, it also attracts clients on its own merits. A prime example is Sanborn Head’s landfill gas management system, where Project Portal was selected specifically for its capabilities.
Our Project Portal development philosophy is centered on helping busy professionals streamline their work, ensuring that Project Portal’s tools add efficiency and give time back to our clients in their daily operations.
EBJ: Could you provide an overview of ddms’ PFAS management program?
Packard: ddms’ PFAS management program integrates our expertise across environmental data management, chemistry, and Project Portal services to ensure rigorous and reliable planning, sampling, testing, and reporting of PFAS data. Additionally, we are able to provide legally defensible third-party data validation services to support our clients’ compliance and decision-making needs.
ddms collaborates with stakeholders in the early planning stages, contributing to Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs) and Sampling and Analysis Plans (SAPs) to ensure samples are collected following best practices and analyses align with the most current regulatory requirements. We also work directly with laboratories to optimize analysis and reporting workflows, ensuring data is processed efficiently for validation.
As laboratories face cost pressures and increasing commoditization, maintaining data quality is more critical than ever. ddms provides third-party data validation, a requirement for Superfund and Department of Defense (DOD) sites among others, to independently review laboratory processes and verify the reliability of results. We perform full Stage 4 validation and leverage advanced automation solutions, including EQuIS’ data qualification module (DQM), to optimize and streamline data validation and verification up to Stage 2A. These digital workflow processes allow for improved efficiency while maintaining data integrity.
Alongside validation, ddms integrates laboratory result data into Project Portal or EQuIS, enabling stakeholders to access early sampling results, optimize data review, and streamline regulatory reporting.
PFAS data management presents unique challenges due to numerous individual compounds with varying structures and properties, evolving regulatory drivers, and complex data validation requirements. To assist environmental professionals, ddms offers a PFAS Readiness Checklist on our website which provides a structured guide for planning and managing PFAS sampling, analysis, and reporting.
EBJ: What are the current trends you’re observing in the environmental data management market, especially related to technological advancements?
Packard: We are observing a combination of ongoing industry trends and rapidly emerging initiatives shaping the future of environmental data management. Established trends, such as the digitalization of workflows, continue to gain traction with increased adoption of electronic chain of custody (e-COCs), sample receipt notifications, and e-contracting with laboratories for example. At the same time, corporate IT organizations continue to impose stricter cloud security requirements, including encryption at rest and in transit, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and SOC 2 Type II attestation to ensure compliance and risk mitigation.
Alongside these trends, we are seeing a fast-moving shift toward adoption of AI and deeper system integrations. Corporations are racing to leverage AI technologies, while also integrating environmental data management systems, like EQuIS, with platforms including Snowflake, Microsoft Power BI, ArcGIS Enterprise and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This reflects a growing recognition that environmental data is a strategic asset, one that should be centralized, leveraged, and optimized for broader business intelligence and decision-making.
We continue to see a strong shift toward hosted SaaS solutions over commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or homegrown systems, where COTS refers to software that organizations purchase, install, and maintain themselves.
These traditional models often come with long-term ownership and maintenance challenges. Instead, organizations are prioritizing SaaS models where scalable, secure, and continuously updated platforms offer greater adaptability, lower maintenance burdens, and long-term sustainability.
Finally, some corporations that were early adopters of environmental data management solutions are now reassessing and rebooting their approaches. ddms plays a key role in helping these organizations redefine their requirements, apply lessons learned, and re-architect their systems— delivering measurable success and strong return on investment in the process.
EBJ: How do needs and trends differ among your diverse client base?
Packard: At a high level, all industries we serve share common environmental challenges, whether addressing legacy contamination through remediation or ongoing environmental compliance for operations. However, the priorities, regulatory pressures, and data complexities vary significantly by industry. ddms employs professionals with industry background so we can help lead in these domains and continue to invest in domain knowledge from each to keep up with changing times.
Government – Often in large government Departments, we see dated custom-built legacy software which is problematic due to wanning expertise, unsupported operating systems and security compliance issues. ddms works with many that are now modernizing by implementing EQuIS, which significantly improves data integration, reporting, and long-term sustainability. However, these transitions require change management and extensive training, making stakeholder engagement crucial.
Industry & Manufacturing – PFAS contamination is a concern for our manufacturing clients, requiring specialized data management, validation, and regulatory compliance tracking. The complexity of PFAS data, due to myriad compounds, evolving methodologies, and changing regulations, makes expertise essential.
Mining – With fluctuating commodity prices and high net present value (NPV) of precious metals, mining companies focus on both new project compliance and legacy site remediation. Tailings impoundments pose a unique challenge to our mining clients and with that, the need for unique data management solutions.
Oil & Gas – Oil and gas companies can pivot quickly based on price per barrel. Additionally, upstream, midstream, and downstream operations have distinct environmental data needs. Some companies are investing in cloud-based data systems and AI-driven analytics to optimize compliance, efficiency, and decision-making.
Energy – ddms energy sector work spans from legacy manufactured gas plants (MGP) to nuclear plants among other generators. Nuclear is enjoying a resurgence in both legacy plants but also new Small Modular Reactors (SMBs) and even Fusion. We are primarily focused on gaseous and liquid effluents for these sites which are measured and stored differently than other data. Nuclear sites also require a conversation to dose and the related data storage and reporting requirements which is unique to the nuclear industry.
Waste Management – Landfill operations require precise environmental control, particularly for landfill gas and leachate management. As landfills become larger and more engineered, challenges like elevated-temperatures are emerging. Operators are also shifting focus toward renewable natural gas (RNG) projects, moving data management from environmental compliance to operational optimization. ddms supports this with Project Portal and EQuIS integrated custom Power BI dashboards and real-time monitoring tools.
Transportation – Airports have unique challenges, from fuel management (Jet A and specialized fuels) to regulatory compliance. PFAS contamination from aqueous firefighting foam (AFFF) is a growing concern, requiring advanced data tracking, validation, and regulatory adaptation.
EBJ: Discuss the evolution of GIS solutions in environmental services?
Packard: Environmental contamination assessment is inherently spatial, requiring GIS to address the critical questions of: where are the impacts and how are those impacts changing spatially? GIS has been a core capability at ddms for many years and is leveraged on nearly every project we support. GIS is a foundational feature within Project Portal allowing users to seamlessly access and analyze environmental data within a spatial context. Data points are integrated directly into the GIS, enabling users to visualize contamination patterns, groundwater elevation surfaces, historical and current aerial imagery and interpolated data distributions for deeper insights.
As a longtime Esri business partner, ddms has fully invested in the Esri technology stack. Several years ago, we migrated our web publishing GIS infrastructure to the AWS cloud, leveraging scalability and load balancing for improved performance and reliability. With this, ddms must manage the challenge of growing costs associated with hosting and licensing infrastructure.
Advancements in 3D visualization accessibility have also enhanced environmental data interpretation. Previously, 3D modeling was limited to Esri desktop applications, but with ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, users can now interact with 3D environmental data directly via the web, significantly improving accessibility and engagement.
ddms has been successful in leveraging new technologies and packages within the Esri stack for large corporations (Esri Experience Builder for example). ddms has also been at the forefront of integrating ArcGIS Online with EQuIS, utilizing the EQuIS API to streamline data interoperability, an integration gaining traction among corporations seeking more connected environmental data management solutions.
While a version of AI has arguably long been present in GIS to some degree (for example, in unsupervised hyperspectral image classification) its role continues to evolve. ddms is actively exploring ways to further integrate AI-driven GIS analytics to enhance efficiency and data-driven decision-making.
EBJ: How has your partnership with Sanborn Head enhanced service offerings?
Packard: One of ddms’ greatest strengths is the deep environmental remediation expertise within our team. Nearly all our staff have technical backgrounds in geology, chemistry, or related sciences, allowing us to deliver highly specialized solutions. However, we are at our best when we collaborate with leading domain experts who push the state of the art in their respective fields. Sanborn Head, with its deep expertise in landfill management, is one such partner.
Through this collaboration, Sanborn Head has helped enhance Project Portal by advising on landfill-specific functionality, including tools for landfill gas management, leachate tracking, and real-time data integration for the rapidly growing renewable natural gas (RNG) sector.
For example, with Sanborn Head’s input, ddms has:
• Developed specialized reports to streamline environmental reporting requirements for landfills, significantly reducing administrative overhead.
• Created a configurable Rules Engine within Project Portal, allowing users to set and manage real-time alarms based on incoming sensor data.
• Enhanced high-frequency data management, enabling efficient storage and retrieval of sensor-generated data commonly used in landfill operations.
This combination of technology and landfill management expertise has resulted in a fit-for-purpose system within Project Portal that can be leveraged across any landfill operation, helping operators optimize compliance, efficiency, and environmental performance.
NEW PRACTICE
de maximis Data Management Solutions (ddms) and Sanborn Head & Associates, Inc. launched a new partnership to bring enhanced landfill management capabilities to market through ddms’ Project Portal® system. This collaboration has resulted in a significant advancement in landfill data management, offering enhanced capabilities for collecting, analyzing, and utilizing essential landfill information. Project Portal is a sophisticated, cloud-based environmental data management system designed to integrate real-time data from various on-site devices in the landfill industry, including flow meters, flares, pump stations, and systems for wastewater, leachate treatment, and power plants. The platform provides seamless data access, powerful analytics, and mapping enabling comprehensive reporting and cumulative trending. These features empower landfill operators to make informed decisions, ensuring regulatory compliance and improving budget efficiency.