Choosing sustainability management software for your business

SSC White Paper
CHOOSING SUSTAINABILITY
MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
FOR YOUR BUSINESS

www.sustainabilityconsulting.com
Copyright © 2012, Strategic Sustainability Consulting. All rights reserved.
Choosing Sustainability Management
Software for Your Business
To combat these spreadsheet disasters, software crafted for the sole
purpose of tracking sustainability has sprung up in the past few years.
Many systems are aimed at helping large companies, but we will take
a look at systems that work for small and mid-sized companies too.
Are you tracking sustainability through
an excel spreadsheet or planning to? A
spreadsheet is often cumbersome and
prone to errors. Make one small
computing error in a spreadsheet and
your entire sustainability plan could be
affected and misrepresented.

This presentation provides a summary of the white paper Choosing
Sustainability Management Software for Your Business, which has been
designed to help you answer questions you may have about
sustainability software.

The white paper provides information on:
 Deciding whether you need software
 Creating a short-list of vendors
 Determining a cost analysis
 Identifying the capabilities you need in a
software platform
 Understanding your user base
 Establishing technical support
 Preparing for third-party audits
Download this complimentary white paper to learn more!

Before We Begin…
Think of the white paper Choosing
Sustainability Management
Software as a roadmap to help
you navigate through the world of
sustainability software.
Remember to do your homework,
make your own inquiries, and
request demos and trials along
the way. In other words, this
should NOT be your only source
of information.

Do You Need Sustainability Software?

Do You Need Sustainability Software?
It is essential when considering a software
purchase to also consider what you will be
using your software for, your „software
goals‟ rather. Knowing the reason for
making your purchase is crucial to finding
the right buy, as every package provides
varying functions. When thinking of your
software goals, also evaluate the flexibility
of your company.
Unless you are developing your own software, chances are your company will
need to change its day-to-day processes. Turn to clients, suppliers, and
competitors in your network to find out what direction they took with their
software. What goals did they set out?

Finding the Right Software
A Few Simple Steps:
1. Create a Vendor List
2. Create Selection Criteria
3. Settle on a Price Cap
4. Winnow the List
5. Test the Project
6. Negotiate on the Price
7. Sign a Contract
8. Make the Payment
9. Use Your Product
Download the full white paper to learn
more about each step and how to
specialize your software
This is a “Goldilocks” moment for your
company, where only you can decide which
software system is just right.

Choosing a Vendor
Start with the usual suspects by using
a search engine such as Google or
Bing. Be sure to see what your current
software provider has to offer in the
arena of Sustainability Software as
well.
Know what you want out of a vendor.
Do you want someone with size,
breadth, and history? Or a small local
vendor? Also know what kind of
relationship you want to have with
your vendor.
Find out more about vendor relationships here!

Settling on a Price
 When you are evaluating software options,
it is important to look beyond the base
sticker price. Rather you must consider the
price of ownership.
 While many of the best-known
sustainability software platforms can cost
$50,000 and up, there are often packages
designed specifically for smaller
organizations. The average small- and
mid-size company should be able to work
with a $5,000 - $15,000 budget.
 Inquire as to how much it will cost to set up the software. In most cases a
vendor will install software for free, however some will ask for a fee.

Settling on a Price
You will need to be able to
justify your investment in
Sustainability Software. Once
you understand the cost, it‟s
time to start nailing down the
benefit side of the equation.
Here are some basic steps to
measure your return:
Measure Your
Success
Create a Write Up
Craft a Method of
Tracking Progress
Establish a Baseline
Decide on Benefits
to Measure
Know Your Strategy

What Do You Need? Mapping Out the Future

What Do You Need? Mapping Out the
Future
Be sure to clarify your needs to your chosen vendor. Most of the time if you are
willing to pay for software development, a vendor will create the sustainability
system of your dreams. But beware, this can be a financial trap. For now,
understanding and utilizing a basic package will suffice.
Make the following inquiries to discover your needs:
 What kinds of data does the software track?
 What standard reports are automatically
generated?
 What standards are these reports aligned with?
 What emissions data sets are included in the
basic package?
 Learn more inquiries by downloading Choosing
Sustainability Management Software for Your
Business

What Do You Need? Mapping Out the
Future
Consider where your Sustainability
Software roadmap leads by thinking
forward to your business‟ state in 100
days, or perhaps in a whole year. Planning
for the future will aid in calculating your
Total Cost of Ownership, or TCO.
Do so by inquiring as to how your vendor
plans on handling updates and software
changes in the future. What does their
roadmap look like?
Remember: This is your software, so
use an active voice.

Using the Software and Training Your Team

Using the Software and Training Your
Team
It is crucial to determine who will be
using the Sustainability Software.
Chances are a variety of individuals
will be using it, and not everyone will
be a sustainability or software expert.
What will the software be used for?
 Reading reports
 Publishing information
 Communicating with stakeholders
 Generating ad-hoc queries
 Generating an energy efficiency
report Also consider that this software will not be
used by employees who are sitting side-by-
side. How will you connect your users?

Using the Software and Training Your
Team
Most vendors will offer a basic training
program, invest in this! Such a program
will cover how to use the various
modules, how to navigate from section
to section, how to enter and extract
data, and how to get help. Your vendor
will have a recommended training
approach. By aligning this with your
knowledge of your team, you will have
the best learning results.
Training Considerations:
1. Cost of training
2. Time spent training
3. The Approach

What Happens When Something Goes Wrong

What Happens When Something Goes
Wrong
A multifaceted approach to support
will be essential to a successful
software deployment with your users.
When negotiating a package price,
remember that support is part of
these negotiations.
When something does break, you need
to know what sort of Service Level
Agreements you have with your
vendor to correct the issue. This
agreement should define various
levels of severity and corresponding
response methods.

Facing an Audit
An audit is not always something to
fear, as scary as it may at first seem.
One benefit that you can look for in
your new software is that it will
minimalize the stress of an audit.
A key component of your auditor‟s
report will be to validate that you
have the appropriate processes in
place to enter, maintain, and report
on data accurately, as well as the
appropriate controls in place to
ensure that the right people have
the right access to your data at the
right time.
Find out about audit trails here!

Making the Big Decision
Making the choice to switch to updated sustainability
software can seem like quite the monster. But by
doing your homework, and seeking a consultant,
your green software can be utilized easily in no time.

Download the white paper Choosing Sustainability Management
Software to get started with your roadmap to help you navigate
through the world of sustainability software.

Download the complimentary white paper in its
entirety by visiting the SSC website today:
Choosing Sustainability Management Software for
Your Business
What are your thoughts? Join the
conversation on twitter @jenniferwoofter!

Choosing sustainability management software for your business

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Empfohlen

Empfohlen (20)

Choosing sustainability management software for your business