Introduction to Green IT and its Impact on the Environment
Question:
Discuss the use and application of Green IT for XYZ Corporations that provides web solutions and services through Business Intelligence and its components.
Green IT or Green Technology is the concept that defines the practices to make use of Computer Systems and associated resources in such a way that they are environment-friendly in nature and do not harm the surroundings in any possible way (Smallbusinesscomputing.com, 2016). With the increase in the use of IT in every single application, there are adverse impacts of the same on environment owing to the natural resources that are used in the manufacturing of such systems, the necessary power that is consumed for efficient running of the same and the e-waste that results at the time of the disposal. The basic aim of Green IT is to get rid of all such problems and come up with a solution to minimize such occurrences.
The report discusses the use and application of Green IT for XYZ Corporations which provides web services and solutions to the customers with the help of business intelligence using the Big Data tools. The company is expanded to three major locations and is a start-up with 50 employees deployed in several departments. The information that XYZ Corporations deal with is analyzed and categorized with the help of Business Intelligence and its components.
Business Intelligence is one of the growing trends in the IT world. The application of IT to the same is of vital importance and would surely result in a win-win situation for environment and for the business as well. Business Intelligence (BI) refers to the combination of processes and techniques which are used to analyze the raw data and come up with meaningful statistics and information from the same (CGI, 2016).
- Equipment and Components
BI is made up of a number of components which are described as below:
- Data Mining
It refers to the process of analyzing and studying the data from a number of different aspects and forming a co-relation out of the same. It finds application in a number of different sectors and industries.
- Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
OLAP refers to the process in which BI experts perform the activity of strategic monitoring in order to sort and aggregate the huge amount of data that is associated with a particular organization.
- Data Warehousing
It refers to the process of storing, managing and analyzing the data to find out the relationship between various bits of data from a number of different sources. It proves to be of a great aid in determining the business strategy (Villanovau.com, 2016).
- Business Performance Management
It is necessary to keep a track of performance of a business to improve on the areas that are lagging and also to understand the areas where the performance is outshining. BI helps in achieving the same.
- Data Analytics
This is also a component of BI that helps in studying a set of data and drawing meaningful information from it. The scope and purpose of data analytics is something that differentiates it from data mining and warehousing.
- Cost Analysis
Costing is one of the prime or the most important area of concern for XYZ Corporations since it is still a new name in the business. The use Green IT in Business Intelligence can lead to reduction of costs by considerable margins due to the following factors:
- Business Intelligence is done on a large and huge amount of data. The data is often stored in the form of paper storage which is not beneficial to the environment and also includes the cost associated with the paper. Green IT promotes the use of e-paper that is electronic documents and thus rules out this cost for the organization.
- Storage of printed documents and reports also involves good share of cost by the organization in terms of place and management that is required for the same. This cost is also ruled out with the use and application of Green IT.
- Cost of hardware that is used to print such documents such as high quality printers and cartridges are also not necessary with the involvement of Green IT.
- Operational and resource cost is also reduced as lesser resources are engaged with the use of Green IT as compared to the ones that performed the task of storage and management with the traditional practices.
- Waste Management is also associated with the use of traditional practices and involves good amount of cost. The same cost is minimized with the use of Green IT practices.
- Strategy Guidelines
Application of Green IT and Business Intelligence in XYZ Corporations
XYZ Corporations makes use of IBM Cognos which is a business intelligence platform that is robust in nature and suggests the ways on successful amalgamation of Business Intelligence with Green IT. Consumption of paper is something that is widely done in the company which leads to harm to the environment. The same can be minimized with the aid of Green IT.
- Green IT with Business Intelligence
Following are the ways through which such consumption can be minimized to have Green IT in practice.
Steps in Business Intelligence with Green IT
- Electronic Delivery
IBM Cognos offers Email conveyance at about each turn. Reports can be planned to email, run intelligently to email, run intuitively and after that in this manner messaged or even changed to email conveyance. It is required to make sure that the clients are astute to the greater part of the ways that reports can be electronically conveyed from IBM Cognos, and be proactive about changing the way of life from printed and hand conveyed answering to utilizing these worked as a part of elements.
- Altering and Monitoring
Utilizing this would work as a part of highlight of IBM Cognos. It is conceivable to arrange reports to be conveyed to clients just when the consequences of said report meet certain criteria. It makes it one stride further and makes utilization of the included yet lesser known Event Studio to arrange more intricate alarming situations and occasion chains. Another conspicuous advantage to this practice, well beyond paper investment funds, is that Analysts and chiefs are uniquely more effective by no more searching for special cases in their day by day reports.
- Self Service Reporting
The thought of accomplishing genuine self administration reporting is frequently a central driver and basic measure of progress for any undertaking business knowledge activity. Obviously, it’s likewise a noteworthy patron to decrease of paper waste in office settings. Investigators regularly spend incalculable hours poring over several pages of printed legacy reports looking for a solitary response to that day, hour or moment’s given business question. IBM Cognos utilizes Query or Analysis Studio that permits that same investigator to rapidly and productively develop an inquiry on the fly, exclusively custom-made to answer their own particular inquiry existing apart from everything else, without including an outsider to give the information. Past the greater part of the undeniable operational efficiencies to be acknowledged, there is no more a need to print off reams of paper just to pull the quality off of a solitary line of a report. Clients can answer their inquiries without the utilization of a printer and in the uncommon occasion that printing is fundamental, their report is shorter, more succinct and utilizations far less paper to recreate. Self administration doesn’t stop at the apparent Ad Hoc studios either. Shrewd report creators can utilize IBM Cognos’ rich provoking offices inside Report Studio to change unbending canned reports into dynamic and adaptable perspectives that offer the greater part of the same advantages of productivity.
- Efficient Content Management
Now and again reports are printed and put away only for authentic or consistence purposes. If so, consider that IBM Cognos offers essential report adaptation maintenance usefulness that can be designed in view of number of report events or the period of said report renditions. In the event that chronicled needs are more broad, IBM Cognos can be arranged to yield reports specifically to a record framework for reconciliation with any current endeavor substance or archive administration framework that is as of now set up at the association.
- Change in the meeting culture
Introduction to Business Intelligence and Its Components
In spite of the technological advancements, there is still a preference given to the printed reports to be presented in a meeting or a discussion and the employees leave aside their systems and laptops. It is necessary to take the business tools wherever the employee goes.
- Measure and Communication of Results
As execution administration experts this last stride ought to work out easily, particularly if there is a crusade on the corporate vital activity. Distinguish key execution markers, for example, costs identified with paper and printing supplies. On the off chance that the report must be on delicate data and use a record destroying administration, it is important to want to screen this cost too. IT division may even have the capacity to give month to month complete page tallies and other valuable printer insights. Pattern these numbers (numerous will be staggeringly high), accumulate everything into a simple to peruse dashboard and impart the outcomes to the masses to demonstrate the change all the time. Try to utilize the paper adding machine to speak to the measurements in dollars, as well as all units of measure, so that everybody has a reasonable comprehension of the sweeping effect of their aggregate exertion (Bonnette and Bonnette, 2010).
- The first and the foremost advantage that results out of the practices defined in the Green IT for XYZ Corporations is the improvement in the sustainable development of the environment. There is lesser risk to the environment owing to the increased use of IT.
- Public image is something that largely improves through the introduction Green IT in business and customers appreciate the approaches that the organization adapt with a view to improve the environmental conditions.
- Tax incentives and rebates come easy to the organizations who are engaged in the Green IT practices in their structure and architecture.
- Business opportunities also increase with the use and involvement of Green IT as there are companies that keep the use of the same as the baseline for engaging with other organizations (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016).
- Additional costs such as those of unnecessary hardware, operational costs and waste management costs are also avoided with the aid of Green IT.
- Change Management is something that is introduced in the methodology of the organization with the introduction of Green IT. It brings along a number of changes in the practices that are followed which can be difficult to manage.
- Green IT does help in ruling out the additional costs but it also involves a considerable amount of expenditure which may not be welcoming by certain organization especially start-ups and the ones at small scale.
- It is a new concept which is not understood by the organizations at the primary introduction. It may take time for the resources to adapt to the practices defined in Green IT which may have an impact on the productivity and efficiency of the employees.
- There may also be reluctance in the employees to accept the new technology which may have an adverse impact on the performance of a particular resource and also the organization as a whole.
Conclusion
Green IT is a term or technology that encourages the use of green practices that is environment friendly practices in the business involving the use of computer systems and technology-aided resources. Business Intelligence is an amalgamation of techniques that is used for the understanding and analysis of data. Green IT can be used for the business intelligence processes used in XYZ Corporations. IBM Cognos is a robust business intelligence platform that encourages the use of green practices. The plan to introduce Green IT with the same is to replace paper reporting with electronic reporting. Also, altering and monitoring tasks can also be done on web and machines with the help of advanced tools rather than through paper-based documents. Self service reporting comes next in the list which encourages the lesser use of paper in the organizational practices. Organizations and especially the ones dealing in BI have to manage huge amount of data and content. The BI tools help in handling the data efficiently without the need of managing and storing them in a paper-based format. It is also necessary to bring about a change in the meeting culture that the organizations follow and make a shift towards the devices and electronic reports. Measurements and communication of the results in terms of cost-savings and lesser use of paper would encourage the employees to adapt to these practices. There are a number of advantages to Green IT such as it helps in lowering the costs that are associated with the organization in terms of storage and management, waste management and operational costs. The environment largely benefits with the help of Green IT and the practices which increased the image and reputation of the organization adhering to the same in the market. This also opens the path for increased and improved business opportunities leading to better employee productivity and satisfaction. There is a good amount of change that is associated with the introduction of Green IT in the organization structure. It can prove to be a barrier in the successful involvement of the underlying practices. Also, this change can be difficult to manage as the employees may not be easily able to cope up with the same leading to an impact on their efficiencies and the productivity of the organization.
References
BIME BLOG. (2011). Green Business Intelligence – What, How & Why?.
Bonnette, G. and Bonnette, G. (2010). 7 Steps to Going Green with Enterprise Business Intelligence – Ironside – Business Analytics.
Dashboardinsight.com. (2016). Tracking Green Initiatives via Business Intelligence.
Green-technology.org. (2016). What Is Green Technology?.
Rjtcompuquest.com. (2016). Three Ways to Go Green with Business Intelligence
Sisense. (2016). Business Intelligence Software for Green BI.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
