Why Green IT can be a competitive advantage for your company?

    

Throughout the last years, there have been many initiatives regarding business environment.

What's in it for you? 

Green IT can help your company increase its reputation and brand image. It is a clear competitive advantage in today’s business environment. This would increase sales as consumers are becoming more and more green oriented. Apart from this marketing effect, there are several internal effects that can have a huge benefit. Examples include: more efficient resource allocation, saving production costs or increased product longevity.

New technology - Cost saving benefits

IBM reports states that there are several initiatives for companies to participate in Green IT. For instance, it will be possible for your company to decrease electricity use, consumable use and expenses on hardware.

An example of green IT would be server room upgrades. By updating your server your company will be able to decrease energy costs and enhance effectiveness of cooling systems. Moreover, from an environmental point of view your company will be more efficient in terms of its use of energy watts, which enters the server room.

Furthermore, according to IBM “most of our carbon footprint – 50 or 60 percent of it – is cause by employee travel". The rise of fuel cost has made companies realised that they need to find new tools of communication. Companies have access to video conferencing and teleconferencing facilities, which reduces travel costs and meets employee satisfaction.

Using the examples from above, such as more efficient resource allocation, allows you to save costs. If you know that by using exact prediction models you can predict demand and supply, you can buy at the right moment and use exactly those resources needed. The necessity of storage space would therefore disappear.

We will look at how these benefits affect your business, in the coming articles on Yashilife.

The challenges

Obviously, new technologies will be a challenge to implement. There will be organizational and process changes and there will be resistance to them. It is therefore more than essential to understand the benefits that green technologies can offer and how that can positively influence your business model.

We are looking forward to keeping you informed about this interesting topic and let us engage you in the world of green IT as well. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook as well.

· "IBM Says Green Spending Lets Companies Save Long Term | TechWeekEurope UK." TechWeekEurope UK | Enhancing business with technology - in association with eweek.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/news-it-infrastructure/ibm-says-green-spending-lets-companies-save-long-term-3021>.

· "Green IT in your company." . Ministry of science technology and innovation, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <www.digst.dk/Styring/~/media/Files/Styring/Groen%20it/Green%20IT%20in%20your%20company%20-%20ideas%20and%20inspiration%20for%2 >.