At SiNube our mission is to implement meaningful change together with our customers. For these customers, often Finance Departments, sustainability is a growing factor in investment decisions and in adopting Cloud solutions. In this blogpost we will take a closer look at some drivers that are relevant to the way we work internally, implement or support our customers in 2022 and beyond.
Work environment shift
Although management engagement is absolute key to facilitate change, recent years showed that it can also be strengthened from bottom up. Since employees and customers have experienced the new way of working and collaborating as something positive, attitudes are changing and the digital transformation is accelerating.
SiNube consulting teams successfully adapted to the new reality of hybrid working when it comes to implementation and supporting projects. Collaboration platforms are more intensively used and it is not uncommon that thanks to these opportunities, work processes become more optimized. Implicitly, teams become more efficient by avoiding business travel and being more conscious of commuting. For SiNube flexibility in mobility stays extremely important to provide the service levels customers can expect from a consultancy partner.
Under the impulse of the Cronos Group commitment to electric driving, SiNube is also engaging in reducing fuel combustion and direct greenhouse gas emissions from company vehicles. In addition to that, people are encouraged to work remote whenever possible, be it from a satellite- hybrid- or home office in combination with other modes of transportation like train, bus or bike. The same goes for the client who is adopting the cloud solution. Their staff also experiences more freedom to work remote instead of being tied to on-premise ERP systems. Thus, cloud-based ERP stimulates sustainability in multiple ways. We believe that similar initiatives coupled with the remote working environment and green mobility will be the injection that is needed to drive digital ways of working forward.
From implementation to operations
Today, a greater numbers of enterprises are migrating their IT infrastructure and applications to the cloud. Hybrid systems have started coming more into effect where enterprises mix in-house computing with the movement of larger systems to the cloud.
When moving from on-premise software to cloud-based computing the total carbon footprint decreases. Running ERP in the cloud is a more sustainable alternative, is energy and CO2 efficient and reduces the environmental impact. Whether through software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Other examples of operational benefits are reducing IT costs, simplified administration, more compliance and better security, delivered scalability that is needed to meet growth plans for years to come.
Finance and Strategy
Implementing meaningful change can be hard, especially if it touches your company culture or strategy. At SiNube we are privileged to work with finance institutions and departments. They have a plenty of power to drive change and to fund green investments, CFO’s are influential actors and finance is always part of the conversation. But where can the value be found?
ROI (Return On Investment) is too financial and too unilateral to start with. Sustainability is more than that. Sustainable finance is extracting value from regenerative and inclusive systems. Value can be found by thinking long term, giving higher priority to funding sustainable investments in order to develop a NET-ZERO strategy. Do your research: “Start measuring: What are we doing, what are we selling, what are we delivering? And foremost : what are the consequences and risks of this?”
Today, sustainability is measured in terms of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues—essentially, a company’s green footprint. Tools like EPM can definitely help with this. Analysis and reporting can already be done on top of ERP data. Besides, you can use finance modules including Fixed Assets. This way SiNube helps measuring, managing and reporting on sustainability initiatives. Through the ERP Cloud reporting process opportunities and risks can be disclosed on the organization’s business, financial planning and strategy.
Yves Welvaert, ERP Solution Architect at SiNube