Ahtna Strengthens Safety Across Alaska’s Toughest Job Sites with FORM OpX
The Challenge
Ahtna, an Alaska Native Regional Corporation, is one of 12 Alaska Native Regional Corporations established by Congress under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Since then, they have been doing critical work in some of the most demanding environments with operations spanning construction, environmental services, logistics, and government contracting. Ahtna’s teams operate across rough terrain, remote waterways, and extreme weather conditions.
Their Safety, Health, and Environmental Protection (SHEP) program is the backbone of how Ahtna keeps its people safe. But the processes behind SHEP were largely manual. To report a safety finding, flag a hazard, document a vehicle inspection, or recognize a team member for outstanding safety practices, crews relied on emails, handwritten forms, scanned documents, and disconnected reporting channels. These manual processes resulted in missed or delayed communication, incomplete and inconsistent reporting, misinterpreted handwritten information, and limited visibility into trends or follow-up actions.
Ahtna needed a centralized, mobile-first solution that could support both routine inspections and complex safety oversight across some of the most remote operating environments in Alaska. The answer was FORM OpX.
The Solution
Digital Safety Workflows Powered by FORM OpX
Ahtna deployed FORM OpX to digitize and streamline the entire SHEP program across multiple operational areas. Using mobile forms and task management workflows, the organization standardized its safety processes.
The scope is wide and it includes: safety audits, on-road and off-road pre-trip vehicle inspections, snow machine inspections, FLOAT plans for water vessel operations, workplace inspections, equipment and tool inspections (YETI), hazard analysis and recognition forms, employee recognition programs (STAR and Safety Coin), training and evaluation forms, and even supply ordering. Every one of these workflows now lives inside FORM OpX, giving field teams a single, consistent platform for every safety touchpoint.
Built for the Field and the Front Office
These workflows are especially critical for crews working across Alaska’s remote terrain, waterways, and seasonal travel routes. Field teams now complete inspections directly from mobile devices, ensuring accurate information capture right at the source. Every submission automatically triggers follow-up workflows and alerts, so supervisors can respond quickly to emerging risks instead of discovering them after the fact. But the value doesn’t stop at the job site. Back at headquarters, leadership and support teams use FORM OpX’s reporting dashboards to monitor trends, track follow-through, and turn field data into decisions. This provides the entire organization with a shared, real-time view of safety performance from the ground up.
The biggest benefit of FORM technology has been the time savings generated from automation. For context, since implementing FORM, my work week has dropped from 80 hours to around 55—giving me and teams a substantial amount of our time back each day.
– Drew Laughlin, Program Director at Ahtna
Visibility That Moves from Reactive to Proactive
Ahtna also uses FORM OpX dashboards to track both leading and lagging safety indicators, giving leadership real-time visibility into performance trends and opportunities for proactive improvement. Rather than waiting for an incident to reveal a gap, the SHEP team can now see patterns forming and act before they become problems. The organization is now even expanding additional risk management processes into the platform.
The Results
Safer Operations, Stronger Culture
The impact of FORM OpX is visible across Ahtna’s operations. Safety awareness and engagement have increased across field teams. Inspections and audits that once varied from site to site are now standardized, defensible, and tied to real follow-up actions and compliance tracking is more consistent and accountable.
More than just compliance, the shift has been cultural now that the company counts with a platform that makes it easy to report hazards, flag concerns, and recognize safe behavior. Ahtna’s teams are more engaged in safety as something they own instead of something that’s done to them. Real-time alerts now ensure safety concerns are addressed faster, while dashboards give leadership actionable insights into performance trends and operational risks across projects and regions.
For leadership, the value is just as tangible. SHEP leaders now have a real-time picture of what’s happening in the field and the data to back up faster, more confident operational decisions.
A Partnership That Keeps Getting Stronger
Ahtna partnered closely with FORM’s managed services team to refine workflows, align reporting structures with SHEP priorities, and support adoption across departments. There is now a shared commitment to making the platform work harder for the people who rely on it every day. Adoption across Ahtna has been driven in part by how well FORM OpX fits the way field teams work.
The implementation of FORM OpX has significantly improved the consistency, accuracy, and timeliness of field documentation. Its mobile capabilities and automated workflows have streamlined reporting processes, reduced administrative burden, and provided leadership with actionable data to support continuous improvement.
– Ahtna
Results at a Glance
Thousands of forms and safety checks completed
Spanning daily, weekly, and monthly inspections, WISP, Hazard Recognition, vehicle and snow machine pre-trips, FLOAT plans, equipment checks (YETI), training evaluations, and more.
20+ workflows digitized
From vehicle inspections and off-road trip plans (UTVs, ATVs, Snowmachines) to vessel float plans, hazard recognition (HazRec), and reporting.
Hundreds of work sites standardized nationwide
Including challenging remote Alaska operating environments.
Real-time dashboards
Tracking leading and lagging safety indicators across every site.
Centralized SHEP platform
Replacing manual, disconnected reporting channels with one system of record.
Expanded Risk Management
Incident reporting now returned to FORM OpX for a single, accountable workflow.
About FORM OpX
FORM OpX unleashes the power of field teams to drive operational execution with mobile solutions that combine dynamic task management, inspection workflows, real-time dashboards, alert notifications, and advanced reporting within one easy-to-use platform. Guide teams, improve safety, and drive compliance while creating a shared view of the field that helps leaders make better decisions, faster.