Executive
Summary
Sustainability Issue
Although there are few legislative standards
that mandate a certain level of sustainable performance for companies in the
U.S., there is still enormous value to be gained by those who proactively
pursue sustainability goals. Effective management of environmental and
social performance data is critical for organizations of all sizes and
industries to achieve these goals.
Because the task of collecting, analyzing, and communicating
sustainability data is so extensive and complex, advanced software systems are
needed to centralize and simplify this process.
Research Needed in the Industry
Literature that currently exists on this subject is largely focused on the vendors in the industry. Since 2008, excitement in this space has spurred the emergence of dozens of new sustainability software products, developed by larger and well-established business solutions providers such as Oracle and SAP as well as smaller, newer, and more specialized companies such as Hara and CRedit360. Accordingly, current research aims to demystify this rapidly growing market by providing potential users with resources to help them understand the different products and ultimately choose a solution.
This study addresses what is currently missing
in the industry – that is, an examination of the user-end of these products.
This allows vendors to better understand customer needs in the market and
improve their products and services to increase customer success, which
is, ultimately, an effective corporate sustainability program.
Research Questions Addressed in this Study
1. How do organizations collect,
analyze, and report their sustainability data?
2.
What systems are they using to facilitate this process?
3.
What challenges are they facing, and what do they need to meet those
challenges?
4.
How can enterprise sustainability software be improved in order to
support the implementation of effective, data-driven sustainability strategies?
Key Findings
The greatest opportunities for vendors to increase their value to customers are to improve 1) product implementation, and 2) reporting capabilities. These were rated as two of the top three most important features of a sustainability software solution. However, this study found that users are, on average, only marginally satisfied with their solution's ability to deliver on these critical features. The other feature rated in the top three was simplicity of user interface.
The greatest opportunities for vendors to increase their value to customers are to improve 1) product implementation, and 2) reporting capabilities. These were rated as two of the top three most important features of a sustainability software solution. However, this study found that users are, on average, only marginally satisfied with their solution's ability to deliver on these critical features. The other feature rated in the top three was simplicity of user interface.
Product Implementation:
Ease of product implementation was rated as
the number one most important software feature out of a list of fifteen. However, almost two-thirds of
research subjects who purchase sustainability software also use Excel
spreadsheets to support their data management efforts. This finding
indicates that the majority of software users have not been successful in fully
transitioning to the solution they pay for even though these products
should be designed to handle the entire data management process. This challenge can be resolved with
improved vendor service at the onset of launching a product with a
customer. The services needed include: locating data sources,
loading historical data into the system, and helping to establish
processes for pulling future data from internal and external sources.
Reporting Capabilities:
The ability to generate reports directly from
software was rated as the third most important product feature out of fifteen.
Sustainability managers currently struggle with the need to communicate
information to several different stakeholders and reporting organizations. Each one requires a different set of
reporting standards, thus further complicating the data management process.
There is a need for sustainability software that integrates not only the
most common reporting frameworks, but also the reporting requirements of
customers' unique stakeholders.
This can be part of a vendor's implementation service and includes
working with each customer to identify their specific reporting needs
and building a solution that allows them to easily provide the necessary
information to each stakeholder.
Moving Forward
Effective data management will continue to be
a key driver of sustainability progress in organizations, and vendors should
not be deterred by the temporary lag in sales growth that the industry has
experienced over the last year.
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