Technology Service Providers can achieve sustainability by starting with modern Configure Price Quote (CPQ) solutions. These solutions can help configure the most optimal product options for customers, and also help customers make environmentally sustainable decisions; ESG tuned solutions can be profitable and beneficial. CPQ solutions have been great at combining configuration and pricing information. These solutions can also pull in data specific to power consumption and carbon footprint so customers and sellers now understand the true cost and benefit of the products sold.
When we think of the “cost” of a product, we immediately think in financial terms. That’s because “cost” has primarily been associated with money for as long as any of us can remember.
While there has always been a financial cost, we’ve always in the past ignored the fact that there are environmental impacts to the solutions we choose.
A measure of cost that is now becoming increasingly important for buyers and regulators is our carbon footprint cost.
Is your business Eco-friendly and are your products becoming Eco-aware?
This is a question all buyers are asking sellers today.
Climate change is impacting all things present on planet Earth. Manufacturers and Technology Service Providers are now looking desperately for ways to operate sustainably without compromising on quality. As a result, large multi-billion corporations are taking sustainability extremely seriously today in order to stay competitive.
Sustainable business practices are no longer a “good to have”; they have become a key corporate imperative. Giants like Schneider Electric and Ørsted from the energy sector, Banco de Brasil in the financial sector, and Cisco Systems and Taiwan Semiconductor in the technology sector were listed as the top most sustainable corporations just a few years back. As of 2021, 70% of the Schneider Electric’s revenues are green – from products or solutions that bring energy, carbon or resource efficiency to its customers, while not generating significant harmful impact to the environment. Schneider aims to raise this to 80 per cent by 2025.
According to a paper published by Schneider titled “Why Data Centers Must Prioritize Environmental Sustainability: Four Key Drivers”, the data center industry has been proactive in their efforts toward sustainability by introducing the power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric, which focuses on improving electrical efficiency of the facility. This focus has garnered significant improvements over the years, reducing the average annual PUE of large data centers from 2.5 to 1.592. Furthermore, PUE values from some of the internet giant data centers (Google, Facebook, etc.) have been reported to be as low as 1.1. However, sustainability is more than just electricity use. In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as: “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability includes three main categories: environmental, social, and governance (ESG).
They say technology is the answer to all your problems today, does that apply to this particular problem too?
Technology continues to play a crucial role in reducing the environmental impact of our decisions. Automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning, while labeled “disruptive”, can help Technology Service Providers reduce the impact they will have on the environment; all the while of course also prioritizing fulfilling their customers’ needs by helping to optimize the production process, identify inefficiencies, and streamlining workflows.
A great example of the role technology plays in “going green” is how Configure Price Quote solutions can add great value to manufacturers’ and buyers’ affairs by enabling users to configure solutions using the most “green” product options. With servicePath CPQ+’s advanced configuration wizard and Recommendation Engines, manufacturers can configure optimal solutions for customers that take sustainability requirements into account. The result is minimal waste and maximum energy efficiency.
The most obvious advantage of CPQ solutions like servicePath CPQ+ is that they automate and optimize the quoting process. Automation means pulling in data sets specific to ESG or power consumption, that allows up to date information specific to how green or ESG friendly these solutions are. The manual work and therefore errors are reduced significantly; add to the mix super efficient recommendation engines, and you have a system that enables you to select only from options that are suitable for you, and the sales cycle is visibly shortened.
Configure Price Quote systems enhance both the buyer’s and the seller’s experience. Sellers are able to make more environmentally sound offerings, and buyers are saved from having to search through catalogs of products and calculating their environmental impact. By using data analytics, for example, CPQ systems can make recommendations that are energy efficient, and environmentally friendly.
With strong configuration capabilities and the ability to harvest organizational best practice and knowledge, CPQ solutions can help manufacturers recommend and use sustainable products, and reduce wasteful components and oversizing.
IBM, together with the National Retail Federation, released a report entitled “Meet the 2020 consumers driving change,” which outlined significant changes in consumer buying behavior [1]. According to the report:
As consumers increasingly embrace social causes, they seek products and brands that align with their values. Nearly six in 10 consumers surveyed are willing to change their shopping habits to reduce environmental impact. Nearly eight in 10 respondents indicate sustainability is important for them. And for those who say it is very/extremely important, over 70 percent would pay a premium of 35 percent, on average, for brands that are sustainable and environmentally responsible.
Clouds are great – green clouds even better.
Every company is now a technology company. As companies are becoming more environmentally conscious, they are on the lookout for tools and techniques to help them create sustainable offerings. Companies that make the switch to CPQ solutions can benefit in several ways, including:
- Competitive Advantage: In this day and age, customers may almost always choose a “green” seller over a company that is oblivious to the environmental impact of their business. CPQ solutions can help manufacturers highlight environmentally friendly products to customers, giving them good competitive advantage.
- Improved product quality: When configuring products through CPQ solutions, Technology Service Providers and manufacturers can create the most optimal product options suitable for their customers, taking into account sustainability requirements. This enables them to enhance their customers’ experiences.
- Faster sales cycle: CPQ solutions enables sales teams to sell faster, and better. Automated CPQ solutions like servicePath CPQ+ guarantee the sales processes to be error-free, risk-free, and quick. and optimize the quoting process, helping to speed up the sales cycle.
- Green data gives valuable insights: Strong CPQ solutions can ingest green data power and consumption data to help sellers and buyers understand the impact of their solutions and help them choose ones that have a positive impact on the environment.
- Reduced material waste: CPQ solutions can help identify and recommend sustainable materials that meet customer needs. In addition, CPQ solutions can automate the selection of these materials, helping to reduce the chances of human error.
- Reduced CO2 emissions: By recommending products that are energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, CPQ solutions can help reduce the amount of CO2 produced.
According to research from CapGemini, manufacturers will achieve a return on investment from these efforts. More than 80% of businesses saw an increase in brand reputation, improved environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, and enhanced efficiency and productivity from sustainability efforts. They also agreed that technologies – especially automation, AI/machine learning, and data analytics are critical to accelerating sustainability agenda.
Customers want to do business with responsible companies, and CPQ solutions can help TSPs become more sustainable while improving the customer experience.
Data and technology solutions have the ability to accelerate sustainability efforts
In addition to finding new ways to conduct business that fulfill changing buyer demands, manufacturers are now also being pushed to be mindful of the environment. Sustainability now has to be a part of the product and services that are being bought and sold.
Companies all over the globe are investing heavily in reducing their environmental impact; case in point – Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
According to simplilearn, Amazon Web Service (AWS), recently announced the Customer Carbon Footprint Tool for its cloud customers. The launch supports AWS’ Climate Pledge and is designed to help corporate customers track, measure, review, and even forecast the carbon emissions generated from their use of AWS cloud services. Customers will be able to view geographic emissions data and access monthly reports to measure changes in their carbon footprint over time.
Amazon goes on to say it is dedicated to increasing sustainability for its platform and is committed to reaching net-zero carbon emission by 2040. Like its competitors, their goal is to provide a greater degree of transparency so customers can understand their carbon footprint and take action. In addition, AWS is now on track to power all of its operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. It has become the largest buyer of renewable energy in Europe and has invested heavily in on-site solar, solar farms and wind farms to charge their massive data centers.
Additionally, tracking and monitoring emissions is something Microsoft has also productized with its Emissions Impact Dashboard. The company recently strengthened features that help companies calculate the material impact of their cloud usage across the value chain, including extraction of materials, manufacturing, and transport, usage and disposal of hardware. Microsoft offers a set of rules to control cloud environmental initiatives and provide automated insights to help customers with their journey to going green. The company is empowering companies to take control of their carbon footprint, set sustainability and green cloud computing objectives, and help record, report on, lower, and replace emissions as needed. Google has also created an innovative new tool that uses icons to represent on a map which of their customer’s resources have the lowest carbon impact. It says when icons are available, customers are 50 percent more likely to choose the cleaner choice (picture green icons on a Google Map to help make the choices more apparent). Google provides granular metering across all cloud infrastructure (data centers, servers, and networking) to provide detailed emissions information at the product, project, and location level.
Google also introduced a sustainability-minded upgrade to an existing tool call the Unattended Project Recommender, which uses machine learning to identify code running on a Google server that might be unused or abandoned. Unused code and applications account for significant extra carbon emissions that can be eliminated if customers just knew they existed. Google estimates the monthly savings recently reached 600,000 kilograms of Co2 equivalent (or the same as driving 1.5 million miles).
All these mega tech companies innovating and taking initiatives like those mentioned above says a lot about how absolutely critical it has become to take the environment seriously.
We have seen unprecedented shift in weather patterns – most recently, the flooding the Pakistan. One-third of the country is underwater and over one thousand people have died. Not to mention the billions of dollars in damages to crops, houses, and other buildings are putting pressure on faltering economy. While according to BBC, Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the global greenhouse gases that warm our planet, it’s geography makes it extremely vulnerable to climate change. But Pakistan is not the only country being affected by climate change – countries all over the world are in one way or the other being affected. According to UNEP, the North American region has over the past years seen an increase in the rate and magnitude of extreme weather conditions, from rising temperatures to devastating droughts and wildfires.
Climate change therefore is a very serious threat, and its consequences impact many different aspects of our lives.
