CA Technologies Inc. has bundled its sustainability monitoring software, ecoSoftware, with a managed service from Capgemini that hopes to provide customers with transparency of energy and carbon data while offloading them the burden of back office tasks.
“It enables organizations to let this service handle back-end data collection and reporting tasks and to focus on things that are more strategic,” said Peter Gilbert, vice-president of ecoSoftware with Islandia, New York-based CA Technologies. The partnership with the France-based consulting and business process outsourcing vendor, said Gilbert, means users can access the software via any remote browser while the IT department can deal with more strategic and less tactical responsibilities.
Darin Stahl, lead analyst with London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group Ltd., thinks the partnership provides CA’s ecoSoftware access to Capgemini’s mature client base as well as an advantage that is the sum of all parts.
“If they were trying to sell this on their own … and use their normal go to market strategy, it would be a harder road for them to get adoption,” said Stahl. CA’s ecoSoftware also probably took a bit of a hit during the economic downturn when businesses began prioritizing survival over green, said Stahl.
Info-Tech Research has shown sustainability strategies to have been put on the backburner since the economic downturn. In 2008, 42 per cent had the intention to measure, or already were measuring, carbon footprint and energy usage. But in 2010, that figure dropped significantly to 27 per cent.
“That alone, I think, probably caused some stagnation in their product,” said Stahl, referring to CA ecoSoftware.
While the global recession did impact businesses’ approach to being green, Gilbert said it really only served to alter strategies to respond to immediate challenges. For instance, he explained, the need to cut costs led some customers to use sustainability initiatives to closely monitor energy usage.
“Strategies are adapting and change depending on the business circumstances that apply,” said Gilbert.
But recession aside, Gilbert said the drivers for energy and carbon usage monitoring are based in jurisdictional regulatory requirements and the reputational concerns of consumer product manufacturers.
Stahl said CA’s ecoSoftware examines sustainability at the facility level where a return on investment can be reaped. Yet, he added, it’s the server level where IT admins have the real opportunity to make a contribution to the business’s green strategy.
Overall, sustainability initiatives are tricky to manage in the books. “It is also difficult to translate green into red or black, which is the bottom line,” said Stahl.
The bundled offering from CA and Capgemini is available globally and targeted at a wide range of sectors including telco, finance, mining, consumer goods, and oil and gas.
CA isn’t the only vendor in the sustainability software space. Armonk, New York-based IBM Corp. has green offerings. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. launched a Green IT Action Plan in 2009 to promote energy-efficient operations and end-of-life programs.
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