Choosing sustainability management software for your business

SSC White Paper

CHOOSING SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR BUSINESS

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?

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

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

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

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?

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 training2. Time spent training3. The Approach

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

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

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