How FSI Orgs Can Exceed ESG Goals with Unified Observability

Sustainability is one of the biggest buzzwords in the world right now, including in the financial services and insurance (FSI) sector. There’s good reason, too. With increasing social awareness, financial enterprises recognize their pivotal role in contributing to a cleaner, greener world. Stakeholders are looking for meaningful eco-friendly initiatives aligned with organizational core values.

So, what does sustainability mean for your FSI business, and how can you navigate the stringent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals you’ve set? Riverbed Solutions Engineer, Jaspreet Sandhu, sheds light on this in our video on the topic: “Sustainability is all about balancing the needs of our people, planet, and profit to succeed both environmentally and financially.”

Sustainability is a top priority for businesses worldwide. A recent report by Forrester reveals that 51% of the Fortune Global 200 have set carbon-neutral or net-zero aims. Despite this commitment, many are struggling to get there, as data accuracy creates the biggest obstacle in ESG reporting.

To help overcome these hurdles, the suite from Riverbed empowers FSI organizations to:

• Satisfy stakeholders with exceptional digital experiences.
• Protect the planet with energy-saving functionality.
• Save money while aligning with stakeholder expectations.

Scaling hardware and software to cut e-waste (and cost)

With siloed systems and disparate data, it can be hard to get a full picture of what hardware and software are being used the most, least, and not at all within your FSI business. Industry-leading unified observability tools like the suite from Riverbed gather and correlate large amounts of granular data on machine and license usage from internal and external sources–everything from employee PCs to ATMs.

They then transform this into actionable insights and workflow automation to drive effective decision-making, allowing you to end licenses that aren’t needed and recycle or remove hardware nobody would miss. This can add up to an enormous saving in both physical and carbon footprint. After all, data centers alone account for almost 4% of the entire world’s energy usage (and no doubt cost you a fair amount to manage).

One success story comes from Tate & Lyle, realizing substantial savings by using Riverbed Aternity. By freeing up expensive, unused software licenses, the company can now allocate the correct number to its user community, delivering excellent return on investment.

Replacing machines based on performance, not time

If you have a policy of replacing hardware every two, three, four, or five years, the chances are you’re getting rid of machines that don’t need updating or upgrading yet–and dealing with lag and blue-screening from some that may be ready to retire earlier, leading to productivity losses and employee dissatisfaction. By deploying Riverbed , you can access up-to-the-minute insights and predictions on the performance of every single device in your fleet, displayed in easy-to-read dashboards–enabling you to replace hardware based on how much life it has left in it, rather than how long its life has been.

Riverbed Aternity allowed Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust’s IT team to make better-informed decisions about their investments in this way. “We have revised our asset refresh plan based on device performance,” says Darren Spinks, Head of IT Operations at the trust. “Aternity showed us we wouldn’t need to replace 42% of our 1784 devices aged five years or older. This has meant that we have already returned our investment in Riverbed Aternity.”

The UK team at Energy firm EDF uses Aternity in a similar way. Donna Lloyd, the company’s Senior Enterprise Manager of Platforms & Enablement, elaborates: “When we upgraded to Windows 10, we looked across our estate to see where our slowest machines were, so we could target those replacements first. When we replaced them, we used performance statistics to assess and demonstrate the positive impact.”

Resolving problems before they even begin

Another multifaceted benefit of using a platform like Riverbed is being able to proactively resolve issues, saving time, money, and a whole lot of stress.

Coming back to the Kent Community Health NHS Foundations Trust, the Aternity solution provides the organization with auto-remediation actions. These reduce service desk calls and automatically resolve IT-related problems–before users even become aware there’s an issue. What’s more, the IT team can monitor the power consumption of its endpoints and adjust energy usage accordingly to help reduce its carbon footprint. This supports the NHS’s sustainability agenda of becoming the world’s first net-zero carbon health service.

Reminding staff to power down from afar

One sneaky way energy peaks (and bills) can creep up on you is when staff spend time away from their PCs or laptops without shutting down. And one small-but-mighty way Riverbed can help is by monitoring device usage, then sending those employees alerts when it’s time to power off–for example, when they’re heading for lunch or winding down for the day. If they ignore these notifications, Riverbed can even allow you to shut their machines down remotely, so you can be a sustainability hero from afar.

Keeping a general eye on your carbon footprint

In conclusion, Riverbed has many features and functions that can help you improve sustainability by simply being more aware of what’s going on in your business, knowing what you can do about it, and having the power to take those steps.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust implemented Aternity with the aim of cutting costs and its carbon footprint. Not only is the organization projected to save £2.5 to £3 million over a five-year period–it’s also able to interrogate data more intelligently and see where general improvements can be made, leading to sustainability wins across the board.

Jeffrey Wood, Deputy Director of ICT at the trust, says, “We now have a single source of truth for clinician experience, improved application performance, reduced ICT spend and at the same time we have reduced our carbon footprint. Riverbed Aternity has exceeded my expectations on all fronts.”

We’ve specially collated a dedicated sustainability resource page for companies like yours, which you can visit here. Once you’ve explored it, get in touch with our team, and let’s talk about your FSI organization’s specific, unique ESG goals–as well as how we can empower you to meet and even exceed them.