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Technology assists businesses in improving environmental awareness

29th March 2013

By: Anine Kilian

Contributing Editor Online

  

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Information technology (IT) consulting company Dataflo is using German multinational software corporation SAP’s technology to assist and advise businesses in making their business divisions, such as production, procurement and logistics, more environmentally aware.

One such solution is SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand, which was introduced by Dataflo in 2003. The assessment and planning tool uses best practices and self-reported industry data by employing many sustainability programmes.

Dataflo SAP applications architect Jaco Prins states that SAP’s enterprise application software can help companies run more effi-ciently by reducing their energy and carbon footprint across entire operations and product supply chains.

This entails deploying solutions that assist organisations to plan their resource requirements more effectively, ranging from staff requirements to procure-ment, production and logistics.

“SAP technology assists people and organ-isations in working together efficiently and in using business insight effectively to stay ahead of competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 194 000 customers in more than 120 countries to operate profitably, adapt continuously and grow sustainably,” he says.
Prins explains that SAP’s strategy for growth is to increase its market leadership in their existing applications as well as through solutions in analytics, cloud, mobile and database technologies.
“SAP solutions cover all areas of a business, from supply chain to finance, and there are also specific industry solutions, for example, in the areas of oil and gas, and retail. These applications can run on specific database and technology solutions from SAP and provide information and tools for analytics,” explains Prins, adding

that there has also been an increasing focus on mobility solutions to mobilise a company’s workforce.

“SAP has more than 20 solutions that are offered as cloud solutions, which facilitate a reduction in large-scale invest-ments in hardware needed by customers.
“Dataflo has been involved in SAP imple-mentations in more than 17 countries and the effect that Dataflo and businesses have on reducing the impact on the environment has been noticeable.”

“Another area where SAP technology assists companies is in the production and quality control environment. It enables organisations to increase their production efficiencies and scheduling, and facilitates quality checks and controls that could assist in reducing waste and suspect stock,” says Prins.
He notes that companies’ distribution plans and centres can have a direct impact on the environment, owing to the emissions of delivery vehicles.

As a result, Dataflo has developed and implemented solutions to improve the effi- ciency of delivery and transportation routes and vehicle loading through space-optimisa-tion software. “We have also assisted with warehouse design and developed picking strategies for the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) environment which resulted in improved forklift use and a reduction in time and effort.
“The visibility and measurement of these factors are delivered through analytics in the transactional and business intelligence layer. Our solutions assist organisations in running more efficiently, increasing their visibility; which, in turn, has assisted them in becoming more environment friendly and in reducing their carbon footprint,” says Prins.

He adds that the benefits of SAP and Data- flo’s experience in implementing these solu-tions are improved and streamlined business processes, increased profits and better visib-ility regarding inefficiencies.

Dataflo’s client base includes sectors in the FMCG, automotive, agricultural and pharma- ceutical industries.

“The company’s biggest area of growth focuses on improving business processes, which will lead to increased efficiencies. Another important aspect is improving visib-ility using analytics, which, in turn, enables businesses to make informed decisions on their requirements to improve, manage or adjust their processes and resources,” Prins concludes.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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