SAP BusinessObjects has announced a new Sustainability Performance Management application so that businesses can more easily set sustainability goals and objectives, measure and communicate performance, and reduce data collection costs and errors.
Building on the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio, the new application, says SAP, helps organizations focus on improving economic, social and environmental performance rather than spending time on data collection and report compilation. The software provides a holistic view of an organization's sustainability indicators and features what the company says is an easy-to-use interface that streamlines internal and external reporting. The application features a library of key sustainability performance indicators and, says SAP, is the first solution to be certified by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Certified Software and Tools Program. The software is designed to integrate with a range of SAP and non-SAP solutions. It can also be used as a stand-alone solution.
“Sustainability is increasingly mission-critical across the corporate world,” said Dr. Stephen Stokes, vice president of Sustainability and Green Technologies, AMR Research. “It is becoming a key element of business strategy, with the potential to deliver new levels of efficiency and operational performance, innovation and organizational transformation.”
As stakeholders increasingly expect businesses to move from basic reporting of sustainability metrics to being accountable for their improvement, organizations are finding that meeting these demands can be complex, slow and costly. But accountability does not necessarily drive performance improvement and profitability; it must be aligned to corporate objectives and strategy, and ultimately, execution of those objectives. The new SAP BusinessObjects Sustainability Performance Management application helps make voluntary reporting easier while also applying a performance management framework to sustainability information to help drive improvement and profitability across the enterprise.
A key feature of SAP BusinessObjects Sustainability Performance Management is its ability to automatically collect key performance indicator (KPI) data from a variety of sources, allowing customers to move beyond tedious and error-prone manual data collection and spreadsheet-based recording. The application leverages SAP’s existing roster of sustainability products, including the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application SAPERP; the SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management application; and the SAP Carbon Impact on-demand solution .
“The Global Reporting Initiative aims to promote the transparent and reliable exchange of sustainability information,” said Ernst Ligteringen, CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). “SAP BusinessObjects Sustainability Performance Management is the first application to be certified by the GRI Certified Software and Tools Program, which assures the correct use of GRI copyright-protected content. SAP's new solution will support sustainability reporting based on GRI standards, benefitting internal management of key sustainability issues and providing stakeholders the information they demand.”
