November 8, 2006

Microsoft Positions Business Management Software as Green Planning Tool

Microsoft is positioning its business management software, Microsoft Dynamics, as a tool for companies to use for managing environmental initiatives.

In a post on a Microsoft Dynamics’ Forum (via Green Wobat), James Utzschneider, General Manager, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, said that “companies will need systems to track and mitigate the impact they have on the environment, in terms of energy consumption, clean water consumption, waste management, environmentally responsible sourcing, etc. Much of this data is either already stored or can be easily captured in their existing ERP systems; It can be unlocked by the types of business intelligence tools available in Microsoft Dynamics, and then made actionable by presenting it to everyone in the company within the context of their jobs.”

Microsoft turned to AMR to provide research into the need for such software. The research found that:

• Over 20 percent of existing IT budgets are already allocated to environmental sustainability projects.
• The top IT technologies for this include Supply Chain Management (SCM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Compliance Management, Financials, and Operations (in other words, the sweet spot for Microsoft Dynamics).
• Most environmental spend happens at a local office or factory level, at which there are few standardized systems or processes in place to achieve cost savings and efficiencies for environmental management systems across companies.
• An immediate next step for most firms is to deploy an environmental impact dashboard to help them identify, but more importantly, begin to systematically manage processes around environmental initiatives in a systematic and holistic way.  

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