Companies put commercial gain ahead of sustainability, says Software AG research

Companies are deprioritising sustainability programmes within the face of the current financial disaster, in line with research from amongst 2,088 IT professionals within the UK, US, Canada, Germany and France, carried out by Regina Corso Consulting on behalf of Software AG in October 2022 – 411 of which had been from the UK.

The research indicated that firms are overwhelmingly placing commercial targets ahead of sustainability. This is regardless of the overwhelming majority paying lip-service to sustainability by in accordance it a excessive precedence. Some 84% of the respondents mentioned they may prioritise commercial targets over sustainability ones in 2023 within the face of current financial turbulence.

But 95% agreed sustainability was a excessive precedence, and 97% mentioned different firms’ sustainability credentials had been both important or vital in their very own shopping for selections.

At the identical time, 82% of responding firms mentioned they’d settle for regulatory penalties to keep away from taking over sustainability initiatives.

Almost half (47%) of these organisations surveyed mentioned the know-how they must assist sustainability programmes is badly applied and/or under-used. Almost one-third of the respondents reported such know-how to be lacking fully, whereas 36% mentioned they’re unable to successfully observe the progress of sustainability actions to find out whether or not they’re or aren’t efficient.

The survey additionally found that the large majority (87%) of organisations deal with sustainability and digital transformation as fully separate disciplines, though one-third have built-in sustainability plans into their know-how roadmap.

Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of Software AG, mentioned: “In the current climate, it’s no surprise that commercial objectives are a top priority – they have to be, otherwise organisations cannot continue to operate. We are keen to help organisations find solutions. The right application of mission-critical technologies can make enterprises more connected. When this happens, and data is free to move around it and be accessible to everyone who needs it, we will start to see progress in multiple areas at once.”

The report recognized cloud (45%), information integration (28%), and edge computing (27%) as probably the most promising applied sciences for selling sustainability actions.

It contends that: “API-enabled, hybrid cloud environments allow extra efficiencies and progressive new companies. Data integration helps organisations to mix a number of information streams to tell superior analytics and decision-making.

“Edge computing delivers visibility across expansive operations via internet of things [IoT] sensors and devices capable of making decisions about the data they capture,” it added.

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