Energy use is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words “Sustainable Procurement”. If you’re replacing IT equipment, however, it probably should be. Until now, the IT procurement process has often meant purchasing the least expensive device that delivered all of the features and functions required for the business’ needs.
Now that you can measure energy consumption using our agentless approach, all of the guesswork can be taken out of the IT procurement process. Measuring the energy consumption allows you to apply the utilization of the IT asset (how busy has that asset been), and the actual energy draw of the device under your normal applications and workflow, to your decision making process for procurement.
Using that data, we can compare current usage to what a new device would use. You can usually see the deltas in energy cost almost immediately, and from those deltas calculate what a lifespan cost of ownership would be for that device. With this information, you can easily see if it makes business sense to upgrade a particular device using energy costs as one of the measurable factors.
Quick Example:
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New or Current Device
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Annual Cost to Operate
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Total Cost – Year 1
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Total Cost – 3 Yr Lifespan
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$100
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$100
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$200
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$400
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|
$125
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$50
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$175
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$275
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$0 (current)
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$150
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$150
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$450
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Obviously the example above is very simplistic, but you can see that gathering this information before making purchasing decisions provides you with valuable information you wouldn’t otherwise have. In a sustainable procurement model, that more expensive asset ends up being the better option over the life of the device.
We’ve actually seen this play out in businesses we work with. We installed JEM at one of our financial services customers, and immediately located several devices pulling in extraordinary amounts of energy, more than twice the normal rate per device. These were high end multi-monitor, multi-graphics head, dual core processor desktop PCs, but they were also quite old. They were running Pentium 4 processors. Equally powerful machines with today’s processors are much more energy efficient.
Being a financial services company in a down market, the IT department had not been allowed to upgrade those machines, even though they were well past the life span of typical IT assets. By measuring the energy use, we were able to almost immediately show that these computers were pulling over 200 watts per hour. An equivalent new machine would pull less than 80 watts. In operating expense savings alone, the new device would pay for itself in less than 2 years.
Our client was able to take this data and make a financial case to upgrade those old machines, which were costing the company even more money in service and support because they failed so frequently, based on the case of energy savings alone because it was measurable and could be shown.
This same measurement principle can be used for any IT device your enterprise employs. You can now compare old devices and new devices and make a valid business decision on when it makes the most sense to upgrade that device.
Over time, our clients are finding more and more practical business applications for this new ability to measure, monitor, and control their enterprise’s energy use. The procurement process is just one more place in your enterprise where having granular visibility into your IT energy use can save your company money in the short and long term.
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