Ecoplan (http://www.ecoplan.es) is a vertical portal focused on environmental legislation and jurisprudence, founded by Carlos Carrasco-Muñoz de Vera, who created the Environmental Code which is currently used in Spain.
For an annual fee, Ecoplan keeps companies updated on all the regulations with which they must comply. Companies not only reduce the costs involved in obtaining the latest legislation information, but also have access to the environmental and legal analyses performed by Ecoplan's staff -made up of lawyers and biologists- on each applicable regulation. The first version of Ecoplan, developed with GeneXus, was released in November 2001. The second version has been online since July 2002, and was completely developed with GeneXus 7.5, using -among other features- the improvements introduced for Web Services. "Ecoplan S.A. is currently considering the release of a third version of the portal for the end of the summer (in Spain). This version will use the new characteristics of GeneXus 8.0 that I have presented to them," said Marcos Odera Fürész, Director of Advanced Business Technologies, the company in charge of developing the Ecoplan portal.
What does Ecoplan offer and who are their clients: Philips Ibérica, Ernst & Young
Ecoplan's offer is based on the need of ecological companies -with ISO 14001 certification- to have a tool that keeps them updated with the environmental legislation that they must comply with. Being certified as an ecological company allows them to obtain subsidies and exemptions from certain national and local taxes .
This explains the creation of their main product, EcoWeb, which is a database of norms that are in place locally, nationally, in Europe, and all over the world. Philips Ibérica, for instance, uses this service.
The portal also offers a set of products deriving from EcoWeb, such as interrelated environmental norms that have been used in court, which are then linked to the different economic activity codes C.N.A.E. (National Economic Activity Code). This way, a company or institution can know the norms with which it has to comply, based on its C.N.A.E.
Consulting Service providers such as Ernst & Young, and State-run institutions such as the Madrid Assembly, the Legislative Body of the Madrid Community, are clients of this Ecoplan service.
The portal also has an Alerts module that notifies clients about the existence of newly published norms affecting their C.N.A.E.
Ecoplan also offers a free news service with environment and environmental sciences information. In order to do so, it has hired Imente (http://imente.com), a portal that sells specialized news by activity sector, and has developed a module for using web services automatically.