Results from Fujitsu’s Green IT: The Financial Services Industry Benchmark Research
Announcement posted by Fujitsu Australia Limited 06 Apr 2011
The consumption of energy by IT within the financial services sector is greater than in any other industry as information systems - with large scale infrastructure, data storage and transaction requirements - are central to its operations. This makes energy sourcing, usage and pricing important management issues.
Funded by Fujitsu, The Financial Services Green IT Benchmark report quantifies current practices to better understand the role IT can play in maximising energy efficiencies and enabling organisation-wide transformation to return significant cost savings to the industry.
Alison Rowe, Global Sustainability Executive Director, Fujitsu Group, said: “The results of our benchmarking survey provide an invaluable international perspective on global best practice trends and enable comparisons within countries against similar organisations. The data reveals the potential for Green IT to provide the next set of tools which IT management can leverage for critical energy and cost savings, as well as the flow-on effect of environmental improvement.”
The research compared the Green IT maturity of financial services institutions in the four countries under five categories:
Lifecycle (procurement and disposal)
End user IT efficiencies
Enterprise and data centre IT efficiencies
Use of IT as a low-carbon enabler
Measurement and monitoring
The four countries’ financial services sectors were ranked UK first with a score of 63.8, USA at 60.3, Australia at 53.9 and India at 51.1.
And the sector’s performance was also ranked against other industries using the Green IT benchmark. Overall, the financial services sector performed just above the average, scoring 57.3 against the top rated ICT sector at 62.6.
Fujitsu sees this as providing broad and positive opportunities for improvement, with enormous potential for Green IT to supply critical energy efficiencies and cost savings to the sector.
Analysis of the data identifies that Metrics is the area which can provide the greatest improvement. Measurement is a precondition to effective energy and emissions management. The sector will also benefit from greater strategic migration to the efficiencies of scale and superior energy saving practices of data centres and cloud.
Rowe said: “At Fujitsu we take our responsibilities for promoting global environmental action very seriously. We also understand that our customers must underpin this action with clear economic benefits. Information of this breadth and calibre provides baseline data to assist managers develop strategies to drive change for large scale, significant impact.”
Fujitsu has a long term commitment to the annual production of the Green IT Global Benchmark Research. By reporting the measurement of practices and attitudes over time, these Green IT surveys will track the progress of change. The research will also document the evolving maturity of Green IT and assist in defining best practice. “A score of 75-80 should be the target across every component of the survey,” Rowe said.
The global benchmark is based on detailed research, conducted by Connection Research and RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia), of more than 630 CIOs and senior IT managers across industry sectors in the four countries.
Australian Results
With a score of 53.9 Australia’s financial services sector fell well short of those achieved in the UK and USA, though slightly higher than India.
In Australia, the only country of the four where data has been collated in the previous two years, the financial services industry has improved from one of the lowest performing sectors to now being at the cross-industry average, on par with government, ICT and manufacturing.
The results show the Australian financial sector is only in the early stages of reaping the benefits of quick wins at the End User level but using IT for sustainable business at the broader Enterprise and Enablement levels will result in considerable improvement.
The area of most concern within the Australian context is its very low Metrics score. Without the ability to measure baseline performance, savings and progress cannot be identified.
Rowe said, “Australian financial institutions can take from this study the quantifiable value in implementing Green IT techniques and technologies.”
About Fujitsu - www.fujitsu.com
Fujitsu is a leading global service provider of business, information technology and communications solutions. In more than 50 countries around the world Fujitsu partners with customers to consult, design, build, operate and support business solutions. From strategic consulting to application and infrastructure solutions and services, Fujitsu has earned a reputation as the single supplier of choice for leading corporate and government organisations. Fujitsu is a global leader is sustainability, listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index since inception and holds worldwide ISO 14001 certification.
About Connection Research - www.connectionresearch.com.au
Connection Research is a market research and consultancy company specialising in the analysis of sustainability issues. Services are provided in Consumer and Community Sustainability, Green IT, Building Industry and Trades, and Carbon and Compliance. Connection Research undertakes primary research (surveys of users, trades people, suppliers, practitioners), conducts market modelling analysis (combining our primary data with other sources) and consultancy in these fields.
About the methodology
The research uses the methodology developed by Connection Research and RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. The results allow the development of an overall Green IT Readiness index for IT-using organisations in any industry or country. The methodology allows separate indices to be calculated for each of five key areas of Green IT:
Green IT Lifecycle (Procurement and Disposal)
End User IT Efficiencies
Enterprise and Data Centre IT Efficiencies
Usage of IT as a Low-Carbon Enabler
Green IT Measurement and Monitoring
The data was gathered through an online survey of organisations in most industry sectors across four countries, which asked respondents at CIO and IT Manager level over 80 questions about their Green IT policies, behaviour and technologies in each area.
About Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand
Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand is a leading service provider of business, information technology and communications solutions. As the third largest ICT Company in the Australian and New Zealand marketplace, we partner with our customers to consult, design, build, operate and support business solutions. From strategic consulting to application and infrastructure solutions and services, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand have earned a reputation as the single supplier of choice for leading corporate and government organisations. Fujitsu Australia Limited and Fujitsu New Zealand Limited are wholly o